It’s 2026 and we’re closing in on the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States.
Events are planned nationwide for America 250, which commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. USA Today, the parent company of the Naples Daily News and The News-Press, has extensive coverage for America 250, with stories online now and more to come this year.
With the focus on how the United States began, many are probably wondering if they have an ancestor who served in the American Revolution. A few years ago, I set out on my journey to learn if there were any Patriots in my family tree.
Here’s what I found out and how it works.
Digging into my family tree
I’ve always enjoyed reading and soaking up anything I can about American history. As a kid, my room’s wallpaper (I grew up in the ’70s!) had a colonial American theme and my mom even found a copy of the U.S. Constitution and burned all around the edges and framed it.
And it seems, as we grow older, we start to wonder about our own origin story. My interest grew exponentially when we began watching Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates’ “Finding Your Roots.”
On the PBS show, Gates shares ancestry information with celebrities and discusses what they found about their ancestors.
That’s when my journey took off. With my better half, Kristie, we began digging into our family trees and she helped a great deal with mine because it’s tedious work reading handwritten documents online from hundreds of years ago.
Initially, I believed I had found a Patriot based on what we found on ancestry.com ― one of the most popular genealogy sites. And that was my first mistake, because just because ancestry.com shows a connection to someone doesn’t mean you’re related.
Diving deep into family tree roots
Others on ancestry.com may connect information to one of your ancestors but it’s not 100% verified. It’s not intentional, that others included such information. But it becomes time to roll up your sleeves and get to the nitty-gritty ― actual documents.
This means tracking down birth and death certificates, census rolls, wedding licenses, pensions, grave markers and more. That’s the barebones of genealogy, finding pieces of paper online with signatures and dates.
We began tracking down that information from my parents, to my grandparents, great-grandparents and so on. To dive deeper, though, I reached out to the Sons of the American Revolution in Florida to learn more.
What does it mean to have Patriot ancestor
The state chapter directed me to an SAR genealogist named John Robinson, an SAR member in Palatka. For the summer of 2023, he worked with me as a guide and researcher delving into my family history.
To become a member of the Sons of the American Revolution or Daughters of the American Revolution, dar.org, you must prove that you’re a direct-line descendant of a Patriot. What is that? It simply means you must have a grandparent who was a Patriot, not a cousin or uncle or aunt.
And what’s defined as a Patriot? Some assume an ancestor must have brandished a musket and fought in a battle. But it’s also anyone who “aided the American Cause,” as SAR says on its website, sar.org. This includes those who foraged for food or made guns, for example, between April 19, 1775, and April 19, 1783.
The verification process can take a few months, and the SAR national office asked Robinson to verify that my Patriot actually lived in the district from which he fought.
Robinson ― who said he has ancestors from the same area of western South Carolina ― found a book for $8 on eBay that verified he lived in that region in the late 1770s.
Both SAR and the DAR are nonpolitical organizations focused on patriotism, education and historic preservation.
Finding my Patriot
Months of research paid off in summer 2023 when we found my Patriot. His name was John Watson, my seventh-great grandfather who served as a private in South Carolina. He fought in battles including Eutaw Springs, the last major engagement in the Carolinas.
Both sides claimed victory but the fight was enough to convince the British redcoats to head north to Yorktown, where they lost for good.
While I have yet to visit Watson’s grave, in summer 2024 we found the grave of his daughter and my sixth-great grandmother ― Liney “Lucy” Watson Osborn ― in northeast Georgia, buried alongside her husband and my sixth-great grandfather, the Rev. Nelson Osborn.
They’re in a cemetery next to Carroll’s Methodist Church ― where he preached for decades ― on a hill along a red-clay dirt road with the Georgia mountains to the north.
Why trace your ancestry
Some may shy away from delving into your family history but it’s always good to know the truth. Everyone has a skeleton or two in our closets, including mine, but I wanted to find out who these people were, what made them tick.
And I never expected to find a Patriot in my family tree but it’s cool that I did. If nothing else, do it as a favor for your future generations.
Tips to find your patriot
FamilySearch: In addition to ancestry.com, check out family familysearch.org. It’s free. FamilySearch is operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and you don’t have to be Mormon to sign up.
Newspapers.com: This is a good source for marriages and deaths, and it costs about $8 a month to use it.
National Archives: Check out this free resource especially for Revolutionary War pension files. Go to archives.gov to find tons of information.
Fun fact: Only four U.S. presidents do not have Patriotic ancestors. They are Woodrow Wilson, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and Donald Trump because their ancestors were in Europe or Germany during the Revolution.
Dave Osborn is the regional features editor of the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. Contact him at dosborn@usatodayco.com and follow him on Instagram @lacrossewriter.
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Patriots in family tree? How to find American Revolution ancestor
Reporting by Dave Osborn, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Naples Daily News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
