Analysis of Dawsons SAR Application
On October 7, 1942, Fred Albert Dawson prepared an application to the Indiana chapter of Sons of the American Revolution, claiming to be a lineal descendant of Timothy Church, who served as Lieutenant Colonel of the Southern Regiment of Cumberland Co., VT, during the Revolutionary War. The application was four pages long. Click on the images below to see a high-resolution scan of each page and a full transcript for each.
Page 1
Pages 2-3
Page 4
Another application to Sons of the American Revolution was made by Fred Alfred Dawson's nephew, Irvin Herrick Dawson, a year later. It contained identical genealogical and reference information.
This webpage is my attempt to determine the suitability of Dawsons' SAR applications as source documents for genealogical research.
Contents |
Claims made
Nine generations of people are detailed in the Dawson SAR application. All genealogical data contained in the application are replicated in the table below, presented one generation per line.
8 Richard Church (1649-1684) married to Mary Churchill (????-????) 7 Samuel Church (1667-1737) married to (unknown) (????-????) 6 Nathaniel Church (1704-1780) married to Rachel McCranny (????-1788) 5 Timothy Church (12May1736-13Nov1823) married on 9Jun1757 to Abigail Cousin (1738-????) 4 Samuel Church (~1765->1845) married prior to 1821 to Elizabeth ? (????-????) 3 George Dawson (~1790-7Jul1845) married in 1831 to Rebecca Church (~1801-~1866) 2 Henry Lee Dawson (28Feb1841-28Jan1923) married in 1883 or 1885 to Rhoda McFadden (26Nov1862-27Sep1933) 1 Fred Albert Dawson (1Jul1891-present) married to Helen Amanda Dawson (no relation) (????-present) 0 Martha Joan Dawson (1Apr1924-present) and Mary Patricia Dawson (3Mar1926-present), daughters of Fred & Helen
In addition to the genealogical data above, the application gives the following account of the service of Timothy Church during the Revolutionary War:
- "Served as Second Lieut., Capt., and Lieut. Col. from Brattleboro, Vt., He was appointed Second Lieut. on January 4, 1776, by the Committee of Safety. He was than[sic] serving in the Brattleborough Co. Vt. On August 18, 1778[9?] he was made a Captain and in July 1782 he was appointed Lieut. Col. Of the Southern Regiment of Cumberland Co. Vt. by the Council of Appointment of N.Y. At that time there was a territorial dispute between New York and Vermont regarding Cumberland Co., each Colony claiming it as part of its territory.
- He is buried in Brattleboro, Vt. and his tombstone designates him as a Col. and says that he died November 13, 1833, at age 86. This appears to be a discrepency[sic] in other records which show his death as having been in 1823."
References given
The SAR application provides a space for the applicant to list references used to determine the ancestor's service during the war as well as for the genealogical data contained in the application. Fred Dawson lists the following three sources only:
Vermont Rev. Rolls. Pages 822, 823, 826. New York in the Revolution Vol. 15, page 277. Annals of Brattleboro. Vol. 1 pages 67, 68.
State of Vermont Revolutionary War Rolls mentions Timothy Church three times:
- "The Line Officers were commissioned Feb. 26, 1776, as follows: ... Brattleborough Company, Captain, John Sergeant; 1st Lieut., Oliver Cook; 2d do Tim Church; Ensign, John Alexander" - pg. 822
- "Changes in the First (Lower) Regiment...August 18, 1778... Tim Church, Captain, Brattleboro' Co." - pg. 823
- "Officers commissioned 18 Aug. 1778. Companies in the Southern Regiment...Captains...Timothy Church..." - pg. 826
New York in the Revolution mentions Timothy Church once:
- "Cumberland County Militia. The returns of the earlier organisations are incomplete. The Committee of Safety commissioned the following officers for Cumberland...Feb. 26, 1776, as follows: ... Brattleborough Company. Captain, John Sergeant, 1st Lieut., Oliver Cook, 2d do Tim'y Church, Ensign, John Alexander..." - pg. 277
Annals of Brattleboro mentions Timothy Church twice:
- "The militia of Cumberland County formed a brigade, subsequently divided by the Legislature of New York into the northern regiment and the southern regiment. The officers of the southern regiment, who received their commissions from the Council of Appointment of that state, August 18, 1778, were, in Brattleboro, Timothy Church, Captain..." - pg. 67
- "On the fifth of June and the twenty-fourth of July, 1782, were chosen officers of the southern regiment: Timothy Church, Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant..." - pg. 68
Analysis
Immediately from the references given it can be seen that only the service record of Timothy Church is being referenced; all genealogical data is un-sourced. The service record as-stated by Dawson appears to be correct per the references given, with the exception of the day and month being incorrect on Timothy Church's commissioning to 2nd Lieutenant (two references give the date as 26 Feb 1776 whereas Dawson gives it as 4 Jan 1776).
There is an off-hand comment made by Dawson about the date of death on Church's tombstone being off by 10 years, as it is given in "other sources" as 1823. The nature of these other sources is not given, nor is there anything to back up the statement that the grave marker in Brattleboro lists his rank as full Colonel.
The genealogical data given in Dawson's SAR application is not sourced in any way. Beyond generation 2, many of the dates and some of the names are uncertain. With no sources to corroborate any of the relationships listed, these data should be considered suspect at best. It is important to realize that Fred Dawson had incentive to provide a link between himself and Timothy Church for the purposes of gaining entrance to SAR, and that demonstrating conclusively that each step in the lineage was correct beyond a shadow of a doubt was probably not a priority.
Re-creation of Dawson's Lineage from Available Data
It is reasonable to assume that Dawson knows the genealogical details of himself, his wife, his children, and his parents, so it is probably safe to assume that the data for generations 0-2 in the table above are accurate. Indeed, the people mentioned in these generations appear frequently in available genealogical data found on the internet, including census records, draft registration cards, marriage records, etc. In reasonably short order, I was able to re-create the data for generations one and two on the following pages using nothing more than Fred Dawson's name as a starting point (click on a name to see the data).
The trouble begins in Generation 3, where I need to get from Henry Lee Dawson to his parents full names. Notably, this generation is where the lineage outlined in the SAR application changes from Dawson to Church, so I particularly need to document Henry's mother's maiden name. However, the only data I have after finishing the research for Henry is his father's last name (Dawson) and his mother's first name (Rebecca). Census documents prior to 1850 only list the head-of-household, so Rebecca is unlikely to appear by name in any of them. The fact that Henry's father is apparently dead by the time he is eight years old make it unlikely that documents of public record will list them both together. What is needed is some sort of family correspondence, church records, or an obituary that lists detailed family information. Barring any of that coming to light, I must make some assumptions to proceed.
Since Rebecca's maiden name is really what I'm after, what I would really like to find is a marriage record. If I assume that Rebecca wouldn't have gotten married before age 18 or so, and that she was married before the birth of the oldest son listed in 1850, then the marriage must have occurred between 1819 and 1837. If I further assume that the marriage occurred near Hancock Co., Indiana (where Rebecca is in 1850), then a search of available marriage records on the internet returns two possible matches:
- Thomas Dawson and Rebecca Michael, 17 Feb 1820, Fayette Co., IN
- George Dawson and Rebecca Church, 10 Nov 1836, Henry Co., IN
I tried searching for Thomas and Rebecca Dawson in 1850 census information throughout Indiana and came up blank. I have no data that specifically rules out this match as invalid, but I have found no further information to back up this marriage record as being the correct Rebecca and Mr. Dawson, either.
George Dawson, on the other hand, shows up in Centre Twp., Hancock Co., IN in the 1840 census. The number and gender of people present as well as the age ranges match exactly with the people listed in Henry & Rebecca's 1850 census (minus George himself, who is presumed to have left or died between 1840 and 1850). This is not iron-clad proof that the Rebecca Church is the same Rebecca Dawson that shows up in the 1850 census, but the coincidences are piling up. While additional documentation on this connection would greatly strengthen the case, I am comfortable continuing under the assumption that I now have the correct full names for Generation 3.
Now the real challenge begins. Getting from Rebecca Church to her father's name will again require a document with detailed family genealogical information.
[NB: This research is on-going, but at the time of this writing, no valid source documents have been found that connect Rebecca Church to her father directly.]
