DAR Membership Update - Patriot Samuel King

In a previous post, I told you about my application for membership with the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, and my patriot ancestor, John Merrill.

Well, after my application was reviewed, the DAR genealogist requested more evidence that my third great grandmother was actually his daughter. (I wrote about this problem, in case you're interested in the details.) The complication is that there were other women in the area by the same name, her husband also had a very common name, and a courthouse fire or two created a gap in the records for the time.

So, I have more research to do for this line of my family, but the chapter registrar recommended we go with one of my other lines, and document my relationship to patriot Samuel King.

Lineage Verified and Membership Approved

We were a little worried that this other line might also be difficult because one of the generational links was a little tenuous.

My third great grandfather, William Riley King, died in the Civil War at age twenty-five, and because of this, there weren't a lot of records for his tragically short life. There was one census record, an obsure one, that placed him, his wife, and my second great grandmother together, just before the war.

William served in Company D of the 60th Regiment, North Carolina. Interestingly, his father was jailed for a short time because he was a Union man.

Just one short year after he enlisted, William died in Tennessee, likely from disease rather than battle injuries.

I hope to write more about my patriot, Samuel King, and the other interesting people in this line of my family, but that might be after I complete the research on my Merrill line.