Genealogy draws in new members.
The Daughters of the American Revolution dug themselves a decades-deep hole in 1939 when they banned Marian Anderson from giving a concert in a Washington hall they owned because she was black. In the Philadelphia suburbs and elsewhere around the country, the organization is working with missionary zeal to complete the digging-out process. There are more than 2,000 dues-paying DAR members in the region, volunteering at veterans hospitals, sponsoring schools in impoverished areas, helping maintain a national lobbying office in Washington, and running essay contests with patriotic themes in public schools. But we're really much more active than that. In fact, experts say, as the amateur genealogy field has grown in recent years, they have seen growing popular interest in the DAR, which requires potential members to document their lineal descent from Revolutionary War veterans.