DAR Chesapeake Chapter

12/06/2024

Visit the reenactment and stop by our tent!

Chilly but sunny this weekend for the reenactment of the Battle of Great Bridge. Come out and support us with your presence. We’ll be there! We hope you will be, too!

Image: 1775 Map of Great Bridge by Francis Rawdon Hastings, “A View of the Great Bridge Near Norfolk, Virginia when the Action Happened between a Detachment of the 14th Regiment & a Body of Rebels…” courtesy of the William L. Clemens Library, University of Michigan. [Note: Map is oriented with North at the bottom.]

11/14/2024

November is Native American Heritage Month. To highlight this month, let’s turn our focus to the Chesepiuc people, more commonly known as the Chesapeake.

The name “Chesapeake” is an anglicization of the Algonquian word, K'che-sepi-ack, which roughly means "great water." The Chesapeake people likely spoke an eastern Algonquian language, like many tribes along the east coast of North America. Based on archaeological evidence, they maintained the village of Skicoke, likely in modern day Norfolk, and the villages of Apasus and Chesepioc, in what is now Virginia Beach. The locations of these villages are circled on the 16th Century map seen here. Despite sharing a language with the powerful Powhatan Confederacy under Chief Powhatan, the Chesapeake were either an independent tribe or related to the Carolinian Algonquians from modern-day North Carolina. Englishman John White depicted the Carolinian Algonquians as he observed them during an expedition to America in the 1580s.

Evidence suggests the Powhatan Confederacy feuded with the Chesapeake and attacked the tribe in the early 1600s. The Powhatan likely killed many of the Chesapeake, absorbing any survivors into their chiefdom and resettling them into nearby villages. As an independent tribe, the Chesapeake no longer exists. During archaeological digs conducted in the 1980s, remains of approximately 64 Chesapeake people were recovered. The remains were given a proper burial in 1997, when they were reinterred at First Landing State Park in Virginia Beach. The legacy of the Chesapeake lives on as the name of our great city – the only city in Hampton Roads that evokes the area’s native predecessors.

11/11/2024

11/09/2024

Mark your calendars! Come out and join us.

Get ready for the Annual Battle of Great Bridge Reenactment!

Join us for this free living history event celebrating the 1775 Patriot victory over British Crown forces at the Battle of Great Bridge. All are welcome at this family-friendly event with historic trade demonstrations, educational displays, a sutler marketplace, food trucks, children’s colonial crafts and games.

The first weekend of December includes a special commemoration by the Great Bridge Chapters of the Daughters and Sons of the American Revolution at Battlefield Park, home of the Great Bridge Battlefield & Waterways History Foundation.

We look forward to releasing more details on the event soon, so make sure to follow this page so you can stay up to date!

10/30/2024

Can’t wait for America’s 250th anniversary in 2026? Then we have the perfect activity for you!

We are partnering with Great Bridge Battlefield & Waterways History Foundation to host a free bus tour of regional sites related to the American Revolution.

The tour includes stops at Patriot's Park in Virginia Beach to learn about the Skirmish at Kempes Landing. Next, we visit Battlefield Park in Chesapeake, home of the Great Bridge Battlefield and Waterways Museum to discuss a significant Patriot victory. Then, we travel to St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Norfolk, which still bears the scars of British guns. We conclude at Trinity Episcopal Church in Portsmouth where the historic cemetery is the final resting place for several brave Virginian Patriots. Historians will guide you, describing how local events made a big impact on the War for Independence.

The bus tour is free, but seating is limited. This program is limited to 20 participants per tour. Reserve your spot here:
https://anc.apm.activecommunities.com/cityofchesapeake/activity/search/detail/29007?onlineSiteId=0&from_original_cui=true

We look forward to driving through history with you!

10/14/2024

10/12/2024

Annual observance on October 11th!

Today is DAR’s 134th anniversary and the National DAR Day of Service! DAR was founded on October 11, 1890, when our four founders came together on the ideals of education, patriotism and service. Today and throughout the month of October, DAR members across the world will give back to their communities through service projects in celebration of our Society’s founding. Be sure to share photos of your National DAR Day of Service activities using the hashtag . We can’t wait to see all of the amazing volunteer projects!

10/10/2024

DAR is excited to announce that the data from the DAR Patriots of Color Database is now live on the 10 Million Names website by American Ancestors!

Read more about the collaboration here: www.dar.org/10MillionNamesDARdatabase

Search the DAR database on the 10 Million names website here: https://bit.ly/3zGb28F

In 2023, DAR became a founding collaborating institution of 10 Million Names by American Ancestors. As a part of this collaboration, American Ancestors invited DAR to share the information from our DAR Patriots of Color Database to be included in the 10 Million Names initiative as part of the “On The Battlefield” pilot project. This section of the initiative specifically focuses on Black soldiers in all of the United States’ wars, with DAR’s data playing a key role in the Revolutionary War section.

Being able to share these names, sources, and stories with a wider audience is extremely important to our mission of ensuring that all Patriots, regardless of race or gender, are remembered for their noble actions during the American Revolution. We encourage all women who can trace their ancestry back to these brave Patriots to become members of the DAR!

Explore the 10 Million Names website: https://10millionnames.org/

Learn more about the DAR Patriots of Color Database: www.dar.org/POCdatabase

Interested in ways to research your family history? Visit: www.dar.org/Genealogy

Learn about DAR’s E Pluribus Unum Educational Initiative here: www.dar.org/EPU

09/17/2024

Did you know that this is Constitution Week, an annual observance? Read all about it!

It has been said that, when he was leaving the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was asked whether the Founding Fathers had

09/10/2024

09/08/2024

It's Grandparent's Day! (Or in this case, great-great-grandparents. Lewis Smith of Putnam County, West Virginia, and Ruby Scott of Franklin County, Virginia on their wedding day.) Let's celebrate all our grandparents—we wouldn't be here without them!

Photo: from the personal collection of L.L. Smith

09/05/2024

Today is the 250th anniversary of The First Continental Congress.

in 1774, delegates from twelve of Britain’s thirteen colonies met to discuss America’s future under growing British aggression. The list of delegates included many prominent colonial leaders, such as Samuel Adams, George Washington, and John Adams.

They convened in Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, between September 5 and October 26, 1774, to discuss boycotting British goods to establish the rights of Americans and planned for a Second Continental Congress.

Learn more about the First Continental Congress: https://bit.ly/46g8GsR

(Image Credit)
Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Courtesy of The National Parks Service.

09/05/2024

Here’s an interesting project to do from your computer anytime!
https://www.archives.gov/citizen-archivist/missions/revolutionary-war-pension-files?fbclid=IwY2xjawFF2MtleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHSzNEo5DJrxepony7WqXss-nfQokRF33ozMSox1c5EDMId7eRElLANHULQ_aem_1kjJjN6UOwb_4eAhtl7W4g

The stories of over 80,000 men and women who lived through the American Revolution are waiting to be told. Will you help us tell them? Help transcribe military pension files from the Revolutionary War! In celebration of the 250th anniversary of American independence, the National Archives and the Na...

09/03/2024

On this date the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Revolutionary War!

history.state.gov 3.0 shell

09/02/2024

Happy Labor Day! Do you know the history of this holiday?

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

06/14/2024

Flag Day may not be associated with fireworks and fanfare, but there is still history behind it!

On July 14, 1777, the Continental Congress adopted a design of the new American flag, quote “Resolved, that the Flag of the thirteen United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a new constellation.” Legend has it that George Washington commissioned Philadelphia seamstress Betsy Ross to create the flag. The official design is credited to Francis Hopkinson, who also designed the Great Seal and the first coin of the United States. Ross, however, likely sewed many of those early flags!

Nearly a century later, local celebrations of Flag Day emerged. The first Flag Day possibly occurred in Hartford, Connecticut. There, in 1861, local citizen George Morris proposed commemorating the flag’s adoption. In 1885, Wisconsin primary school teacher Bernard J. Cigrand held a Flag Day celebration at the school where he taught. Cigrand published articles and gave speeches all over the U.S. calling for a national, annual recognition of Flag Day to occur on June 14. Cigrand’s message seemed to strike a chord, at least with other school administrators. Many school boards across the county began holding observances for Flag Day in the late nineteenth century. William T. Kerr was still a student in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he founded the American Flag Day Association in 1888.

President Woodrow Wilson was the first president to issue a proclamation declaring June 14 as a National Flag Day in 1916. President Calvin Coolidge acted similarly in 1927. It was not until 1949 that Congress declared it an annual observance. Today, only the state of Pennsylvania recognizes Flag Day as a legal holiday.

06/04/2024