To initiate the SAR membership process, you should begin by ensuring that you can satisfy the SAR membership requirements and that you are a direct descendant of a Revolutionary War Patriot. The SAR does not restrict membership on basis of race, age, color, religion, national origin, nation of citizenship or residency. To establish eligibility you must be able to confirm that you are a direct ancestral line descendant of a Patriot by providing appropriate SAR acceptable documentation.
If you have a parent or grandparent that is or was a SAR or DAR member we encourage you to contact us before starting the Application worksheet. The SAR/DAR acceptance of an ancestor typically offers a shortcut to the worksheet. Please contact our Registrar and if possible provide the full name and SAR/DAR member number of your connection. registrar@sarsandiego.org
If you do not have an recent direct ancestor that is or was a member of SAR or DAR we recommend that you start with the Application Guide and the Application Worksheet. This is the starting point for your application, disregard the entries for National, State numbers and officer signatures. More detailed information will be found on this page and links.
For a detailed discussion on this please visit this National Society website page: https://www.sar.org/how-to-apply/ There are four “tabs” on the above page, the last tab is “Start you Application” that contains some information found on this page as well. Reading the material on this page will be useful to you as you navigate the application process.
Within the Sons of the American Revolution the people that deal with new member applications are known as “Registrars”. During the process you may deal with both the local Chapter’s and California Registrar. The Registrars will help you through the membership application process and shepherd your application through our State and National Headquarters to obtain your membership. He may be reached at registrar@sarsandiego.org .
To understand the application process we recommend that read the following documents in the order presented. This will answer most of your questions and help you in the preparation of your application. Please don’t be discouraged by the amount of material you must review. Our documents and processes have been developed over the years as a way to guide prospective members through the application process with the best chance at acceptance as quickly as possible.
Any man may join who meets the following requirements:
When you join SAR you are actually joining three different organations; our local chapter (SDSAR), the California Society (CASSAR) and the National Society (NSSAR). The initial cost is $190 (as of June 2022) of which $110 is a one-time fee charged by the National Society and local chapter. Annual renewal for all three organizations is $80 total. Click Here to view the SAR Dues & Fees schedule.
Please Note: costs on this page are estimates and subject to change without notice. Your application(s) may differ based on your age and how many family members apply at the same time. Please contact our Registrar for up to date information.
When you submit your application we request that you include three (3) checks as follows:
Checks are not deposited immediately rather they are forwarded with the application to each organization until NSSAR acts on the application.
It is not uncommon to find that your Revolutionary War Ancestor has been accepted by SAR or DAR based on an application from another direct descendant. In most cases this will reduce the amount of documentation that you need supply as you will only need documentation that links you to someone on the accepted application. For this you will need a “Record Copy” of the accepted application. It is helpful if you can find the SAR or DAR member number of the accepted application. These are numeric values and typically will be 5 or 6 digits in length. Record copies can be ordered online for a nominal fee.
Before ordering a Record Copy we suggest you contact our Registrar at registrar@sarsandiego.org for guidance. Please include your ancestors name and if available their SAR/DAR member number.
As a general rule, we do not perform research into the family history for an applicant, rather we confirm what appears on the submitted application worksheet and attached documentation.
There are exceptions however. If you have performed the basic research and completed the Application Worksheet and are willing to allow us to access your Ancestry.com records, we will attempt to locate the “best” ancestor to qualify for SAR. By “best” ancestor we mean one that already has some amount of documented lineage. This may or may not be the same ancestor that you indicated on your application worksheet. Note this is not an offer to perform basic research rather only an offer of assistance.
There are several sources for researching your family history of which Ancestry.com is probably the best known. Finding a potential relationship on Ancestry is not proof but supporting documents you might find that are relevant to your ancestors are often useful. Here are a few local resources:
Carlsbad, Georgia Cole Library has a floor dedicated to Genealogy research with online access to multiple search databases. 250 Carlsbad Village Drive, Carlsbad. https://library.carlsbadca.gov/services/genealogy
North County Genealogical Society: https://nsdcgs.org/
Firstly, you are welcome to attend our meetings or events as a guest regardless of your membership status. Our events are posted on our website under the “Events” menu option. We do not meet in June, July or December however we often have events we support during those months.
The Sons of the American Revolution and its affiliated Chapters rely on the efforts of members for 90% or better for the operations conducted by the Society. This means as you work your way through the application process you will be dealing with volunteer members rather than paid staff. There are four levels of review and approval every new application must pass.
Most documents are transferred via U.S. Mail to the next level except for the National Registrar to the Genealogist. What this means is that the process is not quick so be prepared for a number of months to elapse for your application to be processed. At any point in the process you should direct any questions you might have to the San Diego Chapter Registrar unless contacted directly by either the State or National level Registrar. As you might gather from the above, the process is not fast so we ask your patience during this period.
Local Chapter
Your primary contact is almost always our chapter’s Registrar. The Registrar is responsible for reviewing every new application for completeness, adherence to the formatting rules as well as acceptability of the provided lineage and service documentation. The Registrar will follow up with you on any issues that must be addressed.
Once your documentation and application form are complete, the Chapter Registrar will send you a formal application copy to sign and return. Before signing and returning please review all information on the form, especially names for correctness. A misspelled name is easier to correct at the local level than at the State or National level.
State Chapter
Once an application has been accepted at the local chapter level, it will be forwarded by the Chapter Registrar to the California Society Registrar. Much like the local review, the State Registrar will go over the application and documentation and if found to be acceptable will create a “final” application which will be mailed to you for your signature and return. Just like the local process you should check everything on the form and notify the State Registrar via email if there is an issue.
National Society
Once the State Registrar has finalized your application, it will be forwarded to the National Society and much like the earlier step it will be reviewed again. If it passes the review (most do) it will then go to the Society’s Genealogists office. The Genealogist will review your documentation to make sure it is acceptable and relevant to your application. Because applications have already passed two review steps most will go through without issue but there are cases where additional information or clarification is requested.
Currently an application will be at NSSAR for 6 or more weeks before it moved into the final processing stages.
Communications During the Process
Once our Chapter Registrar has sent you a formal (final) application for you signature there will be little communications unless an issue arises. After the state Registrar forwards your application to the National Society we will see a status update. Our National Society publishes a weekly status update and we check this every Friday for you and will notify you of any changes that affect your application. Note that the state forwards applications on the first and 15th of the month and there is typically a week delay before they show up on the status report.