Patriot In Lay Terms

Widow Pension Law Checker

New here? What DAR, SAR, NSCDA, "lineage society", "patriot", "bounty land" and "Stat." mean
  • Patriot: someone who supported the cause of American independence, for example by fighting in the battles of the Revolution, serving in the Continental Congress or signing the Declaration of Independence.[1]
  • DAR: the Daughters of the American Revolution, open to any woman 18 or older who can prove she descends from an ancestor who aided in achieving American independence.[2][3]
  • SAR: the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, open to any man 18 or older who can prove he descends from a patriot of the American Revolution.[1]
  • NSCDA: The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, whose members descend from men and women who served the American colonies before July 5, 1776.[4]
  • Lineage society: a group whose membership is based on lineage, meaning you join by proving you descend from an ancestor the society accepts, as with DAR, SAR and NSCDA.[5][3][1] On this site, "society" on its own means a lineage society.
  • Registrar: the person in a local chapter who helps you apply. At SAR, your local contact is often the chapter registrar, who guides you through the application, can review what you've gathered, and receives the finished application to begin processing.[6]
  • Bounty land: free public land. A bounty-land warrant was a right to free land in the public domain, granted to veterans and their heirs for their service.[7]
  • Stat.: short for the Statutes at Large, the published federal laws. A citation such as "5 Stat. 128" gives the volume number, then the page in that volume.[8]

The same definitions on the home page

What it tells you: law by law, which of the federal pension and bounty-land laws for Revolutionary War widows a widow's marriage date and her husband's service fit, from the 1836 law to the 1878 law.[7]

Why it matters for finding pension files: widows could apply for pensions beginning in 1836.[9] A widow's application may give her age, residence, maiden name, the date and place of the marriage, and the date and place of her husband's death.[7] So her file can prove a marriage in your line. Widows' files are marked "W" followed by a file number.[7] Her papers can sit in the same file as her husband's: in Zebulon Applegate's file, his widow Rebecca's 1853 pension begins on page 14.[10] Knowing which laws her dates fit helps you judge whether she could have applied, and under which law.

It does not look anything up, and it never makes a decision about membership or a pension; your society does that. Everything you type stays in this browser.

Use the checker

How this works. This checker does not search any records or databases. You type the marriage date and what you know about his service. It tests them against the date rules in each federal widow pension and bounty-land law, as the National Archives describes them, and shows the result law by law. Nothing you type leaves your device; it is saved only in this browser.

"Load an example" fills in a made-up couple so you can see a result right away. "Start over" empties the form and deletes this checker's saved data.

1 Type what you know about the widow and her husband

Fill in what you know and leave the rest blank. Numbers only, e.g. 1776 or 1776-07 (a full date like 1776-07-04 also works).

2 What to do next

3 Print or save your results

Open my printable report

Saved only in this browser (keys starting "pi.toolA"). Nothing is sent anywhere.

The laws the checker uses

Plain terms. "Stat." is short for the Statutes at Large, the published federal laws; a citation such as "5 Stat. 128" gives the volume number, then the page in that volume.[8] Bounty land was free public land: a bounty-land warrant was a right to free land in the public domain, granted to veterans and their heirs for their service.[7]

The 1836 act required the widow to have married the veteran before his last period of service expired.[7] It relied on the service rules of the 1832 act, which covered veterans with at least 6 months of service.[7] The 1832 act covered service in the Continental Line or State troops, volunteers or militia.[7] The checker tests the 1836 marriage date, the 6 months and his kind of service against those categories; if you don't give his kind of service, the 1836 law stays "Still possible".[7] The 1836 act paid the widow only while she stayed unmarried.[11] The 1838 act granted 5-year pensions to widows married before January 1, 1794.[7] The 1838 act's own text adds two rules: his service had to be the kind described in the act of June 7, 1832, and the marriage had to come after his last period of service ended.[12] So the checker asks about his months and kind of service for the 1838 law too, and a marriage before his service ended rules the 1838 law out (that widow falls under the 1836 law instead).[12][7] The 1838 pension stopped if she married again.[12] The July 1848 act granted life pensions to widows married before January 2, 1800.[7] Its own text names the service it covered: the Continental line, State troops, volunteers, militia or the naval service.[13] It was paid during her widowhood, and a widow already receiving a pension could not get a further one under it.[13] Acts in 1853 and 1855 removed the marriage-date restrictions.[7] The source used here gives no other terms for those two acts, so the checker marks them "Can't check here". The 1878 act covered widows of soldiers who served as few as 14 days or were in any engagement.[7][14] Its pensions to widows ended if they married again, and it did not apply to anyone already receiving a pension of $8 a month or more.[14] The March 1855 bounty-land act covered veterans with as few as 14 days of service, and their widows and minor children.[7] Its own text says no warrant was issued for under 14 days of service unless he was actually in a battle, and it extended the act to Revolutionary War soldiers, their widows and minor children.[15] It also required militia, volunteers or State troops to have been regularly mustered, with the service paid by the United States, and it refused a warrant if the muster rolls showed he deserted or was dishonorably discharged.[15] A widow who had married again could still get the warrant if she was a widow when she applied.[15]

Where these rules come from. The National Archives guide to the pension files, checked against the laws themselves in the Statutes at Large as scanned by the Library of Congress.[7][12] Terms about her later life (remarriage, other pensions) or about his muster rolls can't be tested from dates, so the checker lists them under "Not checked here" instead of counting them as settled.

What a result means

The checker draws every conclusion your answers support and labels what stays open. It never says a law simply "fits": even when every rule it can test is settled, the law's own text has terms it can't test.

Where did the service-date check go?

Typing a patriot's service dates on their own told you little, so that check now lives in the patriot step of the Lineage Evidence Matrix. There it checks his dates against the period DAR accepts for his type of service[16], points you to the records for his state and type of service, and can pass his service end date to this checker.

Related guides: How to Read a Pension File, Bounty Land Warrants.

Sources

  1. SAR — About (Mission & Goals). Retrieved 2026-10-31. https://www.sar.org/sar-missions-and-goals/
  2. DAR — What is DAR?. Retrieved 2026-10-31. https://www.dar.org/discover/become-member/what-dar
  3. DAR — How to Join. Retrieved 2026-10-31. https://www.dar.org/discover/become-member/how-join
  4. The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America — Membership. Retrieved 2026-10-31. https://nscda.org/about/membership/
  5. NSCDA in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts — Membership. Retrieved 2026-10-31. https://nscdama.org/membership/
  6. SAR — Apply in 4 Easy Steps. Retrieved 2026-10-31. https://www.sar.org/how-to-apply/
  7. NARA M804 descriptive pamphlet — Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application Files. Retrieved 2026-10-31. https://www.archives.gov/files/research/military/army/dc/m804.pdf
  8. Library of Congress — United States Statutes at Large: About this Collection. Retrieved 2026-10-31. https://www.loc.gov/collections/united-states-statutes-at-large/about-this-collection/
  9. NARA — The American Revolution (research page). Retrieved 2026-10-31. https://www.archives.gov/research/military/american-revolution
  10. National Park Service — Revolutionary War Pension Files: Tips and a Guide for the Curious. Retrieved 2026-10-31. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/what-might-you-find-in-the-revolutionary-war-pension-files.htm
  11. Library of Congress — U.S. Statutes at Large, 24th Congress (scanned; Act of July 4, 1836 at 5 Stat. 128). Retrieved 2026-10-31. https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/llsl/llsl-c24/llsl-c24.pdf
  12. Library of Congress — U.S. Statutes at Large, 25th Congress (scanned; Act of July 7, 1838 at 5 Stat. 303). Retrieved 2026-10-31. https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/llsl/llsl-c25/llsl-c25.pdf
  13. Library of Congress — U.S. Statutes at Large, 30th Congress (scanned; Act of July 29, 1848 at 9 Stat. 265). Retrieved 2026-10-31. https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/llsl/llsl-c30/llsl-c30.pdf
  14. Library of Congress — U.S. Statutes at Large, 45th Congress (scanned; Act of March 9, 1878 at 20 Stat. 27). Retrieved 2026-10-31. https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/llsl/llsl-c45/llsl-c45.pdf
  15. Library of Congress — U.S. Statutes at Large, 33rd Congress (scanned; Act of March 3, 1855 at 10 Stat. 701). Retrieved 2026-10-31. https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/llsl/llsl-c33/llsl-c33.pdf
  16. DAR — Accepted Revolutionary War Service. Retrieved 2026-10-31. https://www.dar.org/national-society/accepted-revolutionary-war-service