Lineage society applications

What an application holds

An application follows a single line, generation by generation, from the applicant to the ancestor. The SAR requires direct descent from a Revolutionary War patriot who is a great-great-grandparent of some degree, proven with documents the society accepts, and two current members as sponsors. Family tradition is not accepted as proof.

The application also has to prove the ancestor's service. The SAR accepts service between April 19, 1775, and November 25, 1783, with a few exceptions, and the kinds it lists go well beyond soldiering: military or naval service, including furnishing a substitute; civil service under the colonies; supplying goods or lending money; serving on committees of safety or correspondence; taking an oath of allegiance or fidelity; signing petitions to the new state governments; being a prisoner of war; or caring for the wounded. An application may therefore point you to an oath, petition, or supply record you would not have thought to search.

Members can add further ancestors. A second ancestor is proved on a supplemental application. The Mayflower Society says a member may file a supplemental application for each other passenger, and for each separate path by which they descend from the same passenger.

Why an approved application is a lead, not proof

Standards have changed, as the SAR's own rules show. The SAR accepts official record copies of DAR and Children of the American Revolution applications approved after January 1, 1985, as evidence, but for older DAR applications it accepts only the facts that a DAR genealogist individually marked as verified. For its own applications, the cutoff is January 1, 2012: earlier ones count only for the facts marked as verified, and the SAR notes that documentation for applications approved before 1978 is limited.

When a problem is found in an approved line, the SAR attaches a flag to the patriot's record, such as FAMPCL, meaning future applicants must prove correct lineage, or a note that the line may not be used for membership. A flag tells you that a problem, and sometimes its solution, was found in an earlier application, and the SAR keeps a corrections file that explains it.

The SAR also does not accept approved applications of other lineage societies as evidence, nor printouts from its own Patriot Research System or the DAR's Genealogical Research System, undocumented family trees, or unsupported information from prior applications. If a society will not take these at face value, neither should you: use them to find the original records, then read those records yourself.

Getting a copy of an SAR application

An SAR record copy is a verified official copy of an approved membership or supplemental application. You can recognize one by the Registrar General's signature, the registered date of membership, or a Record Copy stamp. As of 2026, record copies may be ordered by members of the SAR, DAR, or C.A.R., or by a prospective member working through a chapter or state registrar or another member helping with an application. Copies of applications of living members are restricted to active members of the three societies.

As of 2026 the SAR charges a nonrefundable $10 for a digital copy and $15 for one sent by mail or fax. The online system needs the member's name, national number, and patriot. If you know only the patriot, a Patriot Ancestor Search returns the latest application filed on that patriot, but it is not a lineage search.

The documents behind an application are a separate order. A Document Search returns the paperwork used to prove the lineage; as of 2026 a request includes the first ten pages, each further page costs $0.50, and the SAR asks you to email it for a page count before ordering. Vital records of living people are not copied, and documentation for applications before national number 114,000 may not exist in the SAR files.

Mayflower lineages and the Silver Books

The Mayflower Society's main reference is the series once called Mayflower Families through Five Generations, now the Silver Books. The first volume appeared in 1975, and the name changed in 2013 when research went beyond five generations. The society says the books exist mainly for lineage verification and that corrections and additions are announced, usually in an article in its Mayflower Quarterly Magazine. The society's page lists twenty-two volumes in forty-two books, and volumes one, two, and five have been superseded.

If you have a proposed line but are not a member, the society's Mayflower Lineage Match compares it with the Silver Books and previously approved applications. It covers the 51 passengers known to have had children, is not a research service or a membership application, and as of 2026 costs $100 per proposed lineage with about eight weeks to process. Membership itself goes through one of the society's member societies, which set their own application fees.