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The eyes of Texas are upon you...


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And then,

after this news and getting worked up...

come home and find message on my answering machine. A lady has heard scouts is picking up in our area. She has an 11 year old, never been in scouts and she said he asked if he could get involved. Dude, that's what it is really all about.

have a nice night

bd

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Residing in one of the most PC states in the union, sometimes referred to as the left coast, I get rather jaded about United Way. It really hurts in areas where scouting is more dependent on United Way. We seem to be doing very well without them.

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"Adrian, would it matter if you were, say a member of an ethnic group that made up 3 percent of the population, and it was that 3 percent that was being excluded."

 

NJ, I wasn't commenting on the ethicality of either policy. I was commenting on the numbers. By modern standards, the gender policy "discrimination" dwarfs the gay one. It just wasn't an issue for the United Way and it isn't as big an issue for the media either.

 

 

"As for the 'boy' part, it's a different issue. The 51 percent of youths who are not allowed in the Boy Scouts are allowed in the Girl Scouts."

 

Gays are allowed to join Camp Fire USA (and Girl Scouts). You know very well that people don't object to the gay issue because there are no other organizations to join. That isn't why you object. I don't think the issues are the same, but the numbers are curious.(This message has been edited by Adrianvs)

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I am (I believe) qualified to be a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. Family history (vocal) has demonstrated this. About 10 years ago, I requested an application.

 

 

There was no DNA test required or even offered. But that was 10 years ago. FOG may be correct that they are requiring a similar test today. It wouldn't surprise me.

 

The requirements (I'm a bit fuzzy on the details after 10 years) were that you had to prove your relationship to an existing family member who was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution or the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) with your birth certicate, their birth certificate and/or a family bible.

 

If no one in your family had been a member of either organization, you needed as many records as possible, including hadn-written records in a family bible and other hard-to-find and rarely kept records proving your ancestry to a veteran.

 

I wasn't really interested in being in the SAR, I just wanted my descendants to be able to have the option and to save them the research back to 1775-17?? by requiring them to only have to search as far as my birth in 1965.

 

My grandmother cautioned me with several bad words about both groups. She was proud of our heritage, as am I, but felt both the SAR and DAR were full of snobs and we weren't that type. We still aren't. I hope.

 

I am proud of my heritage and relationships to our founding fathers and will share them with you. If you're not interested, go ahead and move on to the next thread. If you are, you may find some weird stuff below:

 

I am a direct descendandt of Corporal Benjamin Griggs who served with G. Washington at Valley Forge.

 

I am a great (many great times) nephew to Ethan Allen.

 

Aaron Burr was an ancestor on my mother's side. I've met with some of his direct descendants. Not a popular figure in this nation's history, but a figure none-the-less. I feel akin to Uncle Aaron in that I can see the wisdom of letting the other guy take the first shot in a duel so your shot will count when his pistol is empty. A brief moment of fear inspired by a panicked individual and clean up by a clear-headed guy. I'm a nice guy, but I aim to win.

 

I have a purse upstairs in my china cabinet. The label on the box it sits in is very old. It says something along the lines of given to my mother by Mary Todd Lincoln.

 

Okay, so the thread has gone astray from United Way issues. I freely admit that.

 

But I do thank you for the opportunity to allow me to reflect on what this country and its history mean to me.

 

To me, the United Way can do what it will. The Sons/ Daughters of the American Revolution as an organization can do what it wants to do. The Boy Scouts of America can do what it wants to do. (I'm speaking in terms of membership.)

 

My job with my family is to make sure that each new member learns, without embellishment by family, their family history. They will do with it what they will, but I will do my duty to explain to them some of the colorful characters who have had an impact in our nation, no matter how small.

 

Sad to say I am not one of those characters. :(

 

DS

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Regarding the SAR, does it matter on which side the ancestor fought? Just kidding.. ;)

 

You've got some interesting connections, DSteele. I didn't think that I had any Revolutionary ancestry, but I remembered that my paternal grandmother told me about being related to the Hale family and descended from Nathan Hale. My father's side of the family hasn't been researched very much.

 

My mother's side has been researched very extensively, though it is quite unWASPy. haha.. Basically a lineage of German Catholic farmers who left Germany around 1800. Not many historical figures there, but some of my ancestors (a few greats away) were close friends of Sac and Fox chieftain Keokuk, a semi-famous figure. Anyhow, this side is the family history I know and associate with.

 

Pardon my musings..

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"There was no DNA test required or even offered. But that was 10 years ago. FOG may be correct that they are requiring a similar test today. It wouldn't surprise me. "

 

People call me literal minded. Garsh!

 

NO, they don't want blood, they still just want paper documentation that you are descended from a someone who actively rebeled against the legally constituted government (A Scout is obedient?).

 

 

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FOG,

that was 10k more than last year. But I do agree we'll have to hustle next year. I do like a challenge, though! Some of the troops/packs didn't sell near like they did last year, so next year we'll just get them a little more excited.

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Regarding the SAR, does it matter on which side the ancestor fought?

 

Not to me, but the DAR and SAR is pretty persnickery about it. :)

 

This is WAAAY off topic, but you've wadded into my other great passion, genealogy. I've got folks on both sides of the fight during the Revolution. I'm SAR eligible on both sides of my family. One ancestor was in the NJ Militia (come to think of it, NJ, we may be related after all) and another was a Continental in Washington's quartermaster corp at Valley Forge -- tough job. The story goes that he met my ggggg-grandmother while foraging apples from her father's orchard and asked if he could call on her after the war.

 

My paternal family had brothers who fought on both sides. My ggggg-grandfather died before the war and his children we too young to fight, but my ggggg-grandmother remarried to a loyalist. There are written accounts of the this guy having been captured by the Whigs who "beat him with the broad sides of their swords" trying to get him to give of the names of the other loyalists in the area. During the Carolinas campaign (1780-81) Cornwallis used my ggggg-grandfather's brother's house as his headquarters shortly after the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. This uncle and his son, a private in the Continental army, were arrested by Cornwallis and held until shortly before Yorktown.

 

Another Tory ancestor was a Captain in the North Carolina loyalist militia and served under Col. David Fanning. Fanning was the militia's equivalent to Tarleton -- a real nasty fellow who had a knack for ambushing the Whigs and disappearing. At one point Fanning's militia captured James Burke, the revolutionary Governor of NC and turned him over to the British army at Wilmington. On the way to Wilmington, the Whigs ambushed Fanning trying to rescue Burke, and my ancestor was killed in the battle. The rescue failed as Fanning had secretly sent the governor to Wilmington by a different route with only a few guards.

 

FOG explained that the DAR/SAR doesn't literally require a DNA sample, but the day is coming. As part of my research, I help administer a DNA database for our family. We've got about 20 participants now from the US, Canada and Great Britian. Through it we've been able to reinforce our genealogical research and confirmed some relationships we've suspected and disproved others. The DNA technology can't yet tell you how your are related to someone, rather it gives you a probable number of generations back to a common ancestor. Basically, the closest answer the DNA gives you is related, probably related, probably not related or not related. If anyone is interested, the company I use has a web site at www.FamilyTreeDNA.com

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Well, I don't like to brag, but there was a native american named "Big dog" on the coast to help show the pilgrins how to hunt turkeys and plant corn.

And then there was the Indian scout "Big dog" who tried to tell Custer not to go down in that valley. btw - he was kinda short so they nicknamed him 'Little big dog'.

Also a little know fact was that originally, Roosevelts phrase was 'speak softly and take a big dog with you' because of a relative of mine who saved his bacon a time or two. He was a real rough feller.

'D' day was really gonna be 'BD' day because another relative of mine was going to be the first one on the beach. 'Big dog, they said, hit the beach and don't stop for nothing'.

Ok, I'll shut up. Just wastin' time on the net..

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