This summer I will have a chance to spend a couple of days in Washington, DC doing research. The trick is deciding where to spend my limited time. There are four facilities that I'd like to visit:
1) The National Archives
2) The Library of Congress
3) The Daughters of the American Revolution Library
4) The Society of the Cincinnati Library
The NARA has a ton of federal records, including military pension files and service records. I believe that I have the complete files for my Rev War and Civil War ancestors who qualified for pensions, so this may move the NARA down the list.
The Library of Congress has genealogies that I have not been able to access at other facilities, so it has to be near the top of "where to go."
At the DAR Library I can gain access to documents used to get a slew of Rev War ancestors into the society. That may be at the top of the list.
The Society of the Cincinnati was opened to officers who served with the American and French forces during the Revolution. Only Continental Line officers above a certain rank were eligible. So far as I know, only Capt. Edward Prall, 1st Maryland, was a member. I sent for his info a number of years ago and may have everything available on him.
So, we have the DAR and LOC as the top spots on the list, with the NARA in 3rd and the SOC a distant 4th.
Factors to consider now, hours, proximity to the hotel and what information I need the most. More on the plans in a later post.
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