Sharon F. DePuy, National Chairman
Committee Overview
The Genealogical Research Committee was established in 1913, and its name was changed to the Genealogical Records Committee (GRC) in 1932. In 1986, the Committee was placed under the direction of the Librarian General because its work directly benefits the DAR Library. The national chairman, the division vice chairmen, and the state and chapter chairmen constitute this committee.
Purpose of Project
1. Collect and index unpublished records
Volunteer opportunities abound at DAR and the Genealogical Records Committee welcomes new volunteers every day. Whether you love roaming through cemeteries transcribing tombstones, hunting through dusty volumes in your local county building, or collecting precious family Bible records, your contribution of primary source records will be a priceless addition to the vast Genealogical Record Collection housed in the DAR Library. There is no better way to preserve American History. Directions for gathering and transcribing source records can be found on the committee website and in the publication Instructions for Copying Source Records and Preparing Them for Library Use. (Form LG-GRC-2000) Particular emphasis continues to be on records of the 1880-1900 period to help fill in the void left by the loss of the 1890 Federal census, but older historical records, particularly Bible records and cemetery transcriptions are always wanted.
The wide variety of genealogical records which are acceptable for copying includes county and town deeds; marriages; probates; court orders and minute books; town council minutes; parish registers of marriages, births, and deaths; vestry minutes or session books; Bible records; church records; funeral home records; schools censuses; newspaper accounts of vital records published prior to 1900; tombstone inscriptions and cemetery records; and documented family histories, diaries, papers, and letters found in manuscript collections of libraries, historical societies, state archives, and private collections.
2. Nationwide Indexing Project
Another exciting project of this committee is the ongoing indexing of every name in the more than 20,000 GRC volumes currently in the collection. This indexing is done online using the GRC Indexing website and the new Phase II Indexing Program. The program allows the indexing to be done from digitized images of pages in the GRC volumes. We will no longer be sending GRC books out of the NSDAR Library and so it will not longer be possible to use Sky Index to accomplish this indexing. The computerized index will open the doors to this wonderful collection and make it easily accessible to all. To become a volunteer please click on the Volunteer Now link on this page. The GRC National Index, available on the Members’ and public websites to all researchers, is a valuable and growing research tool, thanks to the efforts of our volunteers. Recognition awards will be presented at Continental Congress for the top three Master Every Name Indexers. The awards will be based on the number of entries submitted to the National Committee from March 1 to February 28(29) prior to the Continental Congress at which the award is presented.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR STATE CHAIRMEN AND REGENTS:
Chapter Regents: Points are given in Section 8 of the Chapter Achievement Form for contributing original source material to the GRC collection, as well as for participation in the Master Every-Name Indexing Project. Also, be sure to check the Genealogical Records page in the Master Questionnaire this fall.
State Chairmen: Awards will be presented at Continental Congress based on the total number of pages of original source records submitted to the national committee by each state. Please read Instructions for Copying Source Records and Their Preparation for Library Use pages 15-16 for more information about this contest.
Preparation of Documents
The Instructions for Copying Source Records and Their Preparation for Library Use (Form LG-GRC-2000) publication is now available online. This publication gives the procedures for copying source records and should be studied before project work begins. Members at the chapter level copy or make abstracts of certain types of records in the chapter's geographic area. The work may be done by computer or with a typewriter. The chapter chairman sends these records to the state chairman, who in turn submits the collected materials into an indexed volume or volumes for mailing to the GRC office at the DAR Library. A binding fee of $10.00 for each volume submitted would be greatly appreciated. Every chapter and state chairman should maintain a list of the records sent to the national office. It is also essential for each state chairman to pass on to her successor information on the GRC's work in her state to ensure continuity of the work.
The National Project
Indexing of the Genealogical Records Committee Volumes for each state is an ongoing project to offer one more research aid for prospective members and is being implemented by the National Chairman. The final product will be an on-line national index for these thousands of unique compilations. See the PDF document, NSDAR Master Every Name Index," for details on how to prepare an index as part of this project.
The Library staff has reorganized the state sets of GRC reports in the DAR Library and assigned volume numbers to all books (when these were not already in place). This facilitates the creation of master indexes to the state sets. The Library’s volume numbers must be used for the indexing and will in most cases not match volume numbers assigned at libraries in the states. The instructions mentioned above give more information on this situation.
Awards and Presentation
The national chairman presents Genealogical Records Awards at Continental Congress to the state in each of six membership categories which contributes the largest number of pages of original source records. There is a single chapter award also, for the chapter in the nation submitting the most pages of original source records.
