Submitted by ADeFrancesco on

New GRS Feature - Supporting Documentation Now Available for Purchase

Lynn Young, President General

I am so thrilled to tell you about a new feature which has just been added to the Genealogical Research System (GRS). In addition to the ability to purchase Record Copies, you will now also be able to purchase the Supporting Documentation that was submitted with the application or supplemental. The documents may include family bible records, deeds, wills and other various materials that were used to prove lineage to a patriot of the American Revolution. Similar to Record Copies, any vital records or applications that contain personal information (birth, death, marriage, divorce or other sensitive documentation) will not be included with the Supporting Documents unless they are over 100 years old. DAR is committed to privacy and these efforts are in place to keep members and their family’s personal information confidential.

Access to these Supporting Documents may prove to be very helpful to researchers who are looking for a missing piece in their genealogy search.  For example, if a researcher is having issues connecting two generations or finding proof of an ancestor’s military service, the needed documents could possibly be included in the Supporting Documentation submitted for a common ancestor.

We are continually working to make genealogical materials more readily available for members and the public, and adding this new feature which gives access to these Supporting Documents in the GRS supports this goal. We believe the Supporting Documents will serve as a wonderful research tool.  In some cases, the ability to access the Supporting Documents directly from the GRS may ease some of the searching associated with seeking out different documents that might be located in various collections, because now they may be found in one spot in the GRS.

These Supporting Documents have been reviewed and indexed by DAR staff genealogists and DAR member volunteers.  More Supporting Documents will become available as more are reviewed. Any documents that have not been thoroughly reviewed will not be available for purchase on the GRS. If you would like to volunteer to help with indexing records, visit the Genealogical Records and DAR Genealogy Preservation Committee pages to learn more about these projects.

Record Copies and Supporting Documents are now part of the DAR Online Library Documents Service. This service allows you to select Record Copy or Supporting Documents (if they are available), pay by credit card, and instantly download the document as an Adobe PDF document.

How does the DAR Online Library Documents Service work?

  1. Search the DAR Genealogical Research System.
  2. Where you see a green “Purchase” or “$” button, click on it to add the record to your shopping cart. You may purchase more than one record copy at a time. If a record doesn't have a green button, it is unavailable pending review.
  3. If supporting documents are also available, an option will appear to add those to your order after you click on the “Purchase” button.
  4. Pay online using Visa or MasterCard via our secure payment system.
  5. Use the link(s) provided on the payment confirmation screen to access and download your document(s). You will also receive an email receipt with the same information.
  6. Download the purchased document(s) to your computer. All files are in an Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) and you will need Adobe Reader to view them.
  7. Purchased documents can be downloaded for a period of one week after purchase.
  8. Please note, all record copy and supporting documentation fees are non-refundable, and no substitutions will be made.

Members and the public now have the ability to purchase Record Copies for $10, Supporting Documents for $20 or both for $30. Before purchasing a Record Copy the user has the ability to preview the document, unfortunately this feature will not be available to Supporting Documents. The user will be able to see how many pages are included for the Supporting Documents, but not the exact types of documents it contains.

I am so excited that we have made these documents available to researchers who use the GRS and I hope you find these documents to be useful in your future research.

Thank you to our Headquarters Genealogy, Library and Information Systems Staff for their hard work to make this feature available on the GRS.

Additional information about Supporting Documents in the DAR Genealogical Research System, can be found here.