Daughters of the American Revolution Insignia has Middletown Ties

     Some of Godfrey's collections touch on history far outside the Library's New England focus. The insignia of the Daughters of the American Revolution is a point of pride for the Society. One Godfrey collection suggests that the insignia might have had Connecticut ties.

    The Godfrey Library is the repository of the Collection of books and papers of Daughters of the American Revolution, Wadsworth Chapter. Page 29 of the Historian's Report, Volume II recounts the founding of the Chapter - and its ties to the insignia's creator. According to the website of a South Carolina DAR chapter, George Goode designed the insignia, modeling it on his mother's spinning wheel.
    
      "Our indebtedness to Dr. G. Brown Goode of Washington, and to his wife, our first member, can never be over-estimated. Dr. Goode, a graduate of Wesleyan and a citizen of Middletown (we are proud to recall) while visiting friends in Middletown, in  1891, spoke of his great interest in a new society that was organized a year before in Washington, and known as the Daughters of the American Revolution. He so impressed some of our patriotic women that he was requested to forward from Washington the requisite application blanks, twelve in number. These blanks were received and soon executed, and his ladies are now designed as charter members of Wadsworth Chapter."

     Wadsworth Chapter, Connecticut's first, therefore, can claim a role in the creation of DAR's best known symbol - or perhaps the reverse is true!

    Interested in the history of Connecticut's DAR chapters? Check out our library catalog for a DAR publications, papers, and more!
    

Check Out the Genealogy Club!

For those of you who do not know, the first Saturday of the month from 9:30 to 10:30 AM the Godfrey Library Genealogy Club meets at the library to talk about their findings, methods, and listen to presentations put on by members and visiting speakers.  The past few months have been particularly exciting, with Executive Director of the Godfrey Library Beth Mariotti speaking on the resources in the Godfrey Collection and how to find them, Godfrey Board Member Jen Zinck presenting on the exciting new field of using DNA to help your genealogical research, and guest speaker Bryna O’Sullivan discussing the DAR and Revolutionary War Records. 

Let us proceed chronologically with Bryna O’Sullivan’s talk on February 1.  Bryna is a member of the Wadsworth Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution and has a degree in History with a focus on the American Civil War.  She spoke about the membership requirements for the DAR and how to use DAR membership records to help your own genealogical research. 

January 4 brought us Jen Zinck’s presentation on using DNA testing to further your family tree if the paper trail runs cold.  Jen is affiliated with Family Tree DNA and was able to tell us all about genetic genealogy: a new experience for many of us!  It is amazing how far science has come!

The most recent presenter for Genealogy Club was the Godfrey’s own executive director and professional genealogist, Beth Mariotti on March 1.  Her talk went into detail about some of unique records and collections housed in the Godfrey on in our online collection.  She included information on our growing online collection and a brief tutorial on using our Scholar+ database.  This presentation can be found online here.

The Genealogy club’s next presenter is another familiar face at the Godfrey: Ned Browning, Godfrey board member and long time volunteer will be speaking on Early New England Research: 1850-1620.  We are all looking forward to his presentation!

If you would like to sit in on presentations like these and get together with others who share your interest in genealogy, why not join the Genealogy Club?  We meet on the first Saturday of every month from 9:30-10:30 at the Godfrey Library.  You are encouraged to bring your laptop and stay after the meeting to research. There is a $25.00 annual membership fee.  We would love to see you there!