Daughter of the American Revolution

Wave that flag, wave it high and wide. My grandmother was that kind of a daughter of the American Revolution. Our family has our roots in the religious freedom side of emigration to America, and were firmly entrenched by the time the Revolutionary War rolled around. They came initially to Massachusetts, but like many found the land quickly became too crowded and they went northward to find their fortunes, settling in southern Maine. The DAR, founded in 1890 and headquartered in Washington, DC, is a volunteer women's service organization dedicated to promoting and preserving American history, and securing America's future through the education of children. Any woman is eligible for membership who is not less than eighteen years of age and can prove lineal, bloodline descent of an ancestor who aided in achieving American independence. I just read the Willard Sterne Randal biography of Ethan Allen, and his family history resonated with some of my own (except for the folk hero aspect of course--I resonate more with Ethan Allen's siblings and my Revolutionary fore bearers). His father and grandfather took the family further away from the center of Puritan civilization in search of greener pastures, and while they ended up in Connecticut, Ethan Allen went into the more controversial territory of what is now Vermont. My family stuck with less contentious land, but were made of that hardy stock that is associated with New Englanders of the 18th century. The weather alone was enough to distinguish them as long suffering. My grandmother was born into the end of the 19th century into a farm that was not unlike that of the 18th century--her mother canned fruits and vegetables. She embroidered and she made clothing. I left New England over a 1/4 century ago, and I did not grow up there, but some of those traits of my early ancestors resonate with me today. So while I don't entirely share the politics of a daughter of the American Revolution, I do share those genes.