My mother and sister Laura have had their applications approved to join Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). They’ll be sworn in on April 6th. This has been in process for quite a while now. We have a couple dozen ancestors they could have used, but they’ve held out for James Kenney, a horse breeder in Kentucky.
Lots of reasons. First, he’s in our direct female line, which gives him a special place in all our hearts.
Second, his breeding operation at Stonerside Farm stayed in the family for many generations. It’s now part of the holdings of the ruler of Dubai. (Yes, really.) The last horse breeder in our direct line (although not at Stonerside) was my mom’s grandfather, Wilford Luce.
And third, he and his family were pioneer settlers with Daniel Boone at Boonesborough (Kentucky), which means the DAR applications clear the way for all of us to join the Boonesborough Society. (Probably, I’m the only one who will.)
One of my grandmother’s cousins was a member of DAR on this line, but it needed some work to bring it up to modern standards.
My cousin Mark and I joined Sons of the American Revolution last year but we did it on a different line—Capt. Andrew Grant. This line also has special meaning for us. It’s essentially our Mormon line. Andrew Grant’s daughter Ruth (Grant) Luce was an early Mormon convert. She was a pioneer of Nauvoo (Illinois), then came across the plains in 1848 when she was 73 to become a pioneer also of Salt Lake City City (Utah) and Ogden (Utah).