- May 1, 2024
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Kim Harty, Janice Lowry and Carolyn Hadfield may not have known each other for very long, but they all share a common connection.
Each woman can trace her direct lineage back to an ancestor who assisted the U.S. in the fight for independence during the Revolutionary War. Because of this, the three women have become a part of the Sugar Mill Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
The three new members, through research and even some traveling, have been able to prove their lineage to enable their membership with the DAR.
For Harty, the journey to the Port Orange organization started in the 70s when she was in high school. When a woman from the DAR spoke at her school she later told her father about what she had heard. His reaction?
"You could be a member."
Harty then found out that there family could not only be traced back to the Revolutionary War but even further to when one of her ancestors, Constance Hopkins, traveled to America on the Mayflower.
However, it would be years before Harty would consider becoming a DAR member. But when she began doing more research on her family, she was faced with the challenge of sorting through records that became less and less clear as they went back.
Harty was able to trace her direct lineage back to Isaac Snow, a Revolutionary War patriot and Harty's seventh great-grandfather.
And even though Harty found her ancestor, she continues to dig into her history
"You never stop researching," Harty said. "It kind of become like a treasure hunt."
For Janice Lowry the hunt to find her direct ancestor had already been started by her aunt on her father's side who had also started a DAR chapter in Texas in the 50s. Lowry started with knowledge of her lineage that went back eight generations. But like Harty, she didn't start to really pursue finding her Revolutionary War ancestor until years later when several friends urged her to join the DAR.
Lowry found out that not only was her ancestor involved in the Revolutionary War but he was a lieutenant. Her ancestor, Thomas Cochran, was traced back on her father's side.
"I've always loved history and I'm just proud to be able to trace it back to the Revolutionary War and know where I came from," Lowry said. "It's nice to know that lineage has been officially recognized by such an important organization."
Carolyn Hadfield began her search for her ancestor when she retired. That search took her online with ancestry.com and up north when she traveled to Pennsylvania with her husband last year. Hadfield even spent time going to the Daytona Beach Library to research genealogy.
When she traveled to Pennsylvania, where she is originally from, she was able to visit the churches and towns that she knew her ancestors had been to and lived in. It took about two years but she was eventually able to find her direct ancestor — Johann Michael Enterline, a reverend who was originally from Germany.
Hadfield had been able to trace her ancestry line from her grandfather, Howard Chase, to Chase's mother, Julia Enterline Chase, whose ancestry line she traced to the revolution.
Hadfield was able to visit the church Enterline had founded and discovered he was one of 26 ministers who drafted and signed the first constitution of Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium of North American.
During the war, Enterline would go out on horseback to different settlements and bring supplies and minister to the people there. He also formed schools and churches throughout Pennsylvania.
Since finding out about Enterline, Hadfield has uncovered the identity of more ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War.
"This is fascinating," Hadfield said. "I always believe that you can't move forward until you know what happened in the past."
