Today’s good gun deed has me practically bouncing in anticipation for people to check their email inboxes and (hopefully) get back to me. When we returned from the NRA Annual Meeting, I went through the photos of the Revolutionary War display and looked up every name in the DAR patriot database.
I found one match between a gun that definitely belonged to an ancestor of two living members. With the help of another woman in my chapter, I actually tracked down the member names and their chapters – both in Illinois – and emailed the chapter leaders today with a high resolution photo of the rifle and powder horn.
I can’t even imagine how excited I would be if someone emailed me to let me know that a gun used by my Revolutionary War ancestors was still around and in great shape. In both cases, the man who owned and used the rifle was the 5th great grandfather of these women. Even the person in my chapter who just helped me find out who to contact is really excited about sort of “reuniting” this gun (at least in photo form) with his descendants.
This really makes me want to find other collections of Revolutionary War arms and see which ones can be tracked back to other people with proven descendants. It feels good to share this history that’s not only part of their family history, but is also key to American history.
back in the day, in the wild wild west days of the internet, Aim Surplus was moving lots of old Swiss K31 rifles. And cheap. I purchased mine for $89 (and I considering Gun Broker has some currently listed – though not selling – for $400-600 I realize I should have purcahsed 20 of them). One of the great joys for new K31 owners was that we could remove the butt plate, and more often than not there would be a card there with the name, rank, address, etc. of the Swiss Citizen who previously had been assigned the rifle.
Well done!
I HAVE to get my membership going. I’ve got enough info to start setting up a SAR and DAR membership, one for me and one for my daughter.
I can honestly say that without the DAR ties, there would have been no way to reasonably research the lineage of this guy in any serious way. I’m thrilled to have been able to connect this family with that gun, even if it’s just through a digital photo. Plus, I am enjoying the actual organization, too.
You guys will love this. I just heard back from one of the women, and her son is a gun collector. :)
They knew NOTHING about this family heirloom in the hands of a collector, so I think I’m going to see if the same group is considering a similar set up next year, or in Louisville. If they are, I will have to let them know since these folks are within driving distance to Louisville, and Nashville they they are willing to stay the night.