DAR – Copper Leaf Genealogy

I greatly enjoyed Amy Johnson Crow’s 31 Days to Better Genealogy! Many tips were wonderful reminders of how I should be doing my genealogy research – especially Day 12 – Research the Siblings.

With that in mind, I decided to look at one of my favorite brick walls, David Witherell (also spelled Wetherell, Witherall, Witherill, Witheral, etc.). David’s parents are supposedly John and Judith (Bullard) Witherell (see the above link for that information if curious). I had hoped to find some kind of connection through the Bullards to connect to my known Witherell’s and began to search in probate records for David Bullard, Judith’s possible father. Through that I learned about possible Revolutionary War information for Judith’s father and thought to give the DAR records a shot – with a win!

The diary, part of the material used for a DAR membership for a known relative of mine, mentions wonderful new clues to follow:

John Witheral senior
Judith Bullard, wife of John Witheral senior born July 4 1793
John Witheral Jun Born Oct 5 1811
David Witheral Born Feb 10 1813
Darius & Cyrus Witheral Born Sep 12th 1816
Jane Witheral wife of Wm Curr [or Carr?] born Jan 12th 1819
Janet Vincent – wife of Darius Witheral Born Aug 22nd 1882
[Under Janet’s name there is a faintly written part that seems to read “Infant daughter born… 13th 1840 died the same…” day maybe?]
Hadley _ Witheral son of Darius and Janet born Feb 25th 1841
[There seems to be another line after the above but the copy doesn’t go down far enough to see it. I’d need the original.]
Ray Witheral son of John Witheral Junior born Aug __ 1838

Look at all these wonderful people I have to research now! Not to mention the sister’s husband’s name!

So I started with a quick search on Ancestry with John Junior. I did find some possible Civil War records for both John senior and junior, BUT I want more confirmation that they are the same people. The ages are off enough that make me think they may not be and I’ve ordered records before thinking it was my ancestor only to find (after quite an expense) that I was wrong. Oops!

I realized then that I was searching rather aimlessly and I need to create a plan for John Jr. as well as the others, especially since this started with a project titled 31 Days to Better Genealogy. Better Genealogy – so I want to do this right.

To keep me on track, I will write about my plans and the results as I go along! Here’s hoping I lose some bricks in this wall!

One of my biggest (and most frustrating) brick walls is David Witherell’s parents. I have clues but it’s not enough direct and indirect evidence yet to prove parentage. All of my clues at the moment point to John Witherell and Judith Bullard as his parents. I’ve mentioned these two previously.

So in the hopes that maybe I could learn more about the Witherells, I began to look into Judith’s family. Her family is the one mentioned in Pioneer History of Orleans County, New York after all, including the names of her parents: David and Elizabeth Bullard ((Arad Thomas, Pioneer History of Orleans County, New York: Containing Some Account of the Civil Divisions of Western New York, with Brief Biographical Notices of Early Settlers and of the Hardships and Privations They Endured, the Organization of the Towns in the County, Together with Lists of Town and County Officers Since the County was Organized, with Anecdotes and Reminiscences, Illustrating the Character and Customs of the People (Albion: Orleans American Steam Press Print, 1871), 231.)).

As I began to look into David, I kept seeing American Revolution records popping up with his name. He would have been about 15 when the war had started, which is a bit too young for me to look there for records((Thomas, Pioneer History of Orleans County, New York: …, 231.)). It’s not unheard of of course, just not somewhere I would have started with.

About the time I discovered there may be records for him from the American Revolution, the DAR also announced that their supporting documentation would be available for purchase. Good timing! So I searched, and found him listed with several associated applications. Several of them were from the line of Judith and John Witherell. I was incredibly excited! So I purchased the supporting documents and saw the member’s name and recognized it immediately – she was from David’s line too! I felt like I was definitely on the right track!

Some of her sources were awfully familiar. The same book I already noted above was used for the line of David and Elizabeth, linking them to Judith and John Witherell. There were new books too, ones I hadn’t heard about until now (and added to my list to get). There was also this WONDERFUL source:

A copy of a page from a family Bible with John and Judith’s children’s birth dates listed. I HAD NO IDEA THIS EXISTED!!!

Intrigued, I went to Fold3 and looked for more records on David’s service. Here I was quite dismayed to find more behind this story… it turns out Elizabeth applied for a pension after David died. She has a long listing of everything he told her he did (he was apparently a fifer)((Declaration by Elizabeth Bullard, widow of David Bullard, 9 October 1843, (Mass., Revolutionary War), pension no. R. 1419; digital images, Ancestry.com’s Fold3 (http://www.fold3.com : downloaded 22 February 2015), page 3; imaged from Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, National Archives microfilm publication M804 [roll number not cited at Fold3].)). However, there was no proof of his service and she was then denied pension because there were no records of him serving with any officer and she couldn’t provide any proof of his service nor of her marriage((Pension Office Letter of Denial, Elizabeth Bullard widow of David Bullard, 8 July 1844, (Mass., Revolutionary War), pension no. R. 1419; digital images, page 19.)).

Where does this leave me? Well, I definitely have more now to go along with who David’s parents are and I’d say some pretty convincing clues that I could use in a proof argument (after more research of course). David would have been my first nearly confirmed relative who had participated in the American Revolution and I was quite excited about that. Now though, I don’t think I could quite say I could qualify for DAR with this particular ancestor.

Not to worry. I’ve had family in America for quite some time and I’m positive there are more ancestors who could have been a part of the American Revolution. 🙂

Have you used DAR’s records in your research? Share below!

Happy hunting!

Tag: DAR

Sibling Research Part 1

DAR Records