Lineage societies sometimes seem to speak their own language – and the Daughters of the American Revolution are no exception. Members are often referred to as daughters. So what’s a “real daughter”?
A real daughter is exactly what you’d expect. A real daughter is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution who was a biological daughter of a DAR qualifying ancestor. Some may have been the product of a younger soldier’s first marriage. Many were likely the product of a second or later marriage, some even born in the mid-1800s. As in other wars, the steady income of a Revolutionary War pension may have provided an incentive for a younger woman to marry a soldier. When the daughters of these relationships joined the DAR as adults, they were called “real daughters” as opposed to those who were actually granddaughters, great-granddaughters, and great-great-granddaughters.