East Texas Genealogical Society
by Scott Fitzgerald

East Texas Genealogical Society will hold its regular monthly meeting on Saturday, June 9th at 2:00 p.m. at the Tyler Public Library in the Taylor Auditorium featuring Don Raney. Don will present a program called "Finding Your Revolutionary War Ancestor. "

It is estimated that over 250,000 men fought in the American Revolution. About one out of every five males in the colonies served and many thousands more filed claims for services and materials provided to the colonies. Therefore, anyone who had ancestors living in the colonies in 1776 had a high probability of being a descendant of one or more patriots or Revolutionary War veterans.

This lecture describes how you can use sources such as, Genealogical Abstracts of Revolutionary War Pension Files, HeritageQuest Online images of the Revolutionary War pension files, Pierce's Register, Rider Index, DAR Patriot Index, DAR Genealogical Records Committee National Index, and the SAR Patriot Index. In addition, nineteen Internet sites are provided as additional sources for information on your Revolutionary War ancestor. If your ancestor is found in one of these sources, additional information can be obtained from the National Archives microfilm collection and state archives records on veterans of the state militia.

Mr. Raney, an active genealogist for twenty-five years, is a sixth generation Texan. He teaches beginning, intermediate, and advanced genealogy courses at Richmond College.

He is a past director of the Dallas Genealogical Society, GENTECH, and a life member of the San Jacinto Descendants. He is the author of "Martin Varner, Texas Pioneer: 1785-1844." He has been a speaker at numerous conferences and society meetings throughout the state.

Approximately 30 minutes following the conclusion of the regular program and refreshments, the Computer Interest Group of the East Texas Genealogical Society will meet with Lawrence Oliver and Beverly Bailey Odom who will host an open question program on any computer topic.

ETGS meetings are free and open to the public. For more information about ETGS, go to our website: www.rootsweb.com/~txetgs or contact Scott Fitzgerald, Publicity Director at scottfitzgerald@tyler.net, 903-597-7865 or 903-592- 6576.