52 Ancestors Week 12: Membership

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 12

The theme for Week 12 is "Membership." It isn't unusual to find our ancestors as members of a group, such as churches, school alumni, veterans organizations, or fraternal societies. Have you found an ancestor who was as member of a group? Or maybe you've made a discovery by being a member of a genealogical or historical society. Write about it this week!

What? You didn't see this card coming? It's the 60th anniversary of Earth's mightiest! 
I have to celebrate somehow!

    I've found that people become members of a group or an organization in order to find fellow like-minded individuals who are united by a common goal. This would be organizations like the "Order of the Sons and Daughters of Italy in America" or other groups dedicated to various ethnicities. In the beginning, the Sons of Italy served to help immigrants assimilate and better understand the strange new country they now call home. Now, the organization is a place where Italian-Americans can discuss important issues facing their ethnic group or just be a place where Italian-Americans can get together and have a good time.

     Other organizations like the "Sons of the American Revolution" are clearly lineage societies who have members whose ancestors fought in the American Revolution. I find myself in a very unique position because I could easily be a member of both organizations. But, what does it take to join them? Join me as I take a look and see if I need a tri-cornered hat and my grandma's rolling pin to apply to these places. Wow. There's an image for you!

    Believe it or not, I have no direct ancestors who belonged to the Sons of Italy. That's not surprising because I'm not sure it was of any interest to Vincenzo, Marco , Giuseppe or any of my other Italian ancestors who ended up in Haverhill. It probably just wasn't their thing. And besides Giuseppe had his hands full with the Italian-American Credit Union. So, there's that.

    Instead of direct ancestors in the Sons of Italy, I have plenty of other people in my tree who joined like my great-aunt's husband, Arnold Villanucci. To your left you see his application to join the Victor Emmanuele Lodge in Haverhill.

    As you can see the application is pretty straight forward. Arnold was asked where he was born, who his father was, what he did for a living, where he lived and if he had ever been a member of the Order before. On the surface, the application seemed like a standard application to join any organization. However, it seems like in the old days a person would have to prove that he or she is of Italian descent. The odd thing is that I've seen this exact same form in English as well as in Italian.

    Here's Antoinetta Penta's application and as you can see it's clearly in Italian. I wonder if they did it this way because Antoinetta was born in Grottaminarda and likely wasn't fluent in English at the time of the application. That makes sense to me. Hopefully, it makes sense to you readers checking out these documents! 

    Both of these application forms are chocked full of genealogical gold because the information can confirm the person's birthplace, year and maybe their parents if you're lucky. I like to think of these applications as a suppliment to any birth record I find and trust me I've found MANY of these Sons of Italy applications.

    This is all well and good. However, what does it take to join the Sons of Italy now? On their website, they've listed the following criteria:

1. Ability to prove Italian lineage.

2. Must be 18 or older to apply.

    I guess that's it. It should be noted that these days some lodges in America are male only and some are female only. Some lodges have become co-ed. Interesting. 

    It should be noted that the Haverhill lodge has long since closed. However, there are still plenty of lodges scattered all around the east and west coasts of the United States, the Southwest, the Great Lakes region and a few in Colorado, Nebraska and Texas. Not bad. Italians do get around. 

    I bet these days they discuss very important topics like Italian-Americans in government, entertainment and their own history as well as community outreach since Italian immigrants are still coming to America.

    In contrast to the Sons of Italy, we come to the Sons of the American Revolution. Because the Revolution was two-hundred and forty years ago, application to this organization is probably more rigid than George Washington's ivory teeth. Sorry, Internet. They weren't wooden.

    On their website, they clearly state that in order to apply you need to prove that you are a descendant from a soldier who fought in the Revolution in either the army or the navy. You also have to prove various other facts such as your ancestor being a member of the Continental Congress, rendered aid in some fashion, were a doctor/nurse and even a participant of the Boston Tea Party! I laughed at that last bit for some reason. Would you qualify if you descend from the guy who cleaned out Paul Revere's horse's stable? 

    I'll have to ask my friends who are in the DAR/SAR about that one. Give the poor guy a break! He likely fed the horse just before they ran off to tell everyone that the British were coming! That was a very important night in American history! If the horse wasn't fed, then he'd have no energy and if the horse had no energy then he can't run. So, basically that guy who fed the horse saved America. If time travel in movies and in television shows have taught me one thing, it's that small moments in time can have big consequences.

    Anyway, would I be able to join the Sons of the American Revolution? That'd be a big "yes" ten times over. If you look at this page on WikiTree,  you'll see that I most certainly can join the Sons of the American Revolution if I wanted to. Seven of the ten ancestors listed there have pages on the DAR website and three do not have any pages. They're still proven soldiers, though thanks to various sources. No one has claimed them as a SAR or DAR ancestor.....yet.

    If I were to apply, would it be best to play it safe by using someone who is already on the site as a way into the SAR? Or would it be best to prove a link to a guy who isn't even ON the SAR website? Those are really my only choices. I don't think it really matters which way I go as long as I can prove a relationship to those guys. I have ten options. Either one would do because these are super confirmed NSDAR patriots etched in titanium. I like to call them the original New England Patriots. =D

    There are a number of ways you can prove or disprove a relationship to a DAR patriot. You could look up the vital records in the town the lived in, check out fold3 for pensions and check out various genealogy books. Be cautious about the last one, though. Sometimes they can be erroneous. Luckily, the ones I've found have been pretty legit and mesh with the vital records in towns like Malden where Amos Sargent came from.

    Truthfully, I'm not sure which organization I would join. There's a great deal of criteria to be a SAR member and there's no doubt that I could easily join. Heh. Imagine me at their reenactments. It'd be funny and would have to be recorded for posterity. The Sons of Italy still takes care of Italian immigrants in America. However, I don't know what the extent of it is. I'd have to do more research. I could do both. Or I could do neither and join the Filles du Roi society. Yes, I can easily join that organization, too. The possibilities are endless for me.

 For now, I think I'm happy just being a friendly neighborhood WikiTreer. Though, even Spidey joined the Avengers eventually. You never know, true believers.

See ya next time!