Search for relation to signers of Declaration of Independence
Is there a way to find out if I am related to any of the signers of the Declaration of Independence? It seems like there was something on the home screen once that let you search for your relationship to famous people or the founding members of the USA or LDS church, but I can't find that now.
Answers
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I googled: "FamilySearch Famous Relatives" and found this link:
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That page does not explain how to find ordinary American Revolutionary War soldiers and patriots. Has to figure out who is who and cross reference with the DAR records.
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The person through whom my great great aunt worked out she could join the DAR was in the Revolutionary army for a total of 36 days (which he survived) and she had to delve deep into Mass. local records to find the evidence ... I would guess the easily identifiable ones are a small minority.
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@PattyReay Since your Original Question asked how to find out if you are related to an original signer of the Declaration of Independence, this page may help you get started in your research:
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/signers-factsheet
The link thoughtfully provided by @Nyx773 is a great start IF you have a fully developed tree here on FamilySearch - but, if you don't, then you will need to begin by looking into the trees of the original signers.
The details from the page on the NARA website, and related links, will give you a nice jumpstart.
Best of luck in your research!3 -
You can look for signers of the Declaration of Independence by going to the Activities tab and choosing Famous Relatives from the drop down menu: https://www.familysearch.org/en/discovery/famousrelatives/
You will get a page like this:
Note the warning in blue text. In addition, whether you get any results will depend entirely on the extent of your family in Family Tree.
Also, I don't know how Family Search decides who should be on this page or if all the signers are so designated.
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Another place to go is Relative Finder at https://www.relativefinder.org/#/home . One of their built-in groups is Declaration Signers:
Just click that box it see your list:
Again, this is only as accurate as your linage in Family Tree.
Also, you have to be careful of terms! These features show who you are related to. They do not show if you descended from any of them! You have to check each one to see if you are a descendant and you will likely find that you are not.
For example, here is how I am related to George Washington:
Our closest common ancestors are a couple who lived in the mid-1500s.
Basically, if you have a family line that goes back that far in England, you are going to find the vast majority of the time that you are related to every person with a family line back that far in England from all the signers of the Declaration of Independence to the poorest pauper wandering the streets of Pennsylvania that day.
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