Now The Waiting Game Begins

On April 21st I mailed a second letter and packet of evidence to DAR. The first was in support of Abraham Sankey being an American Revolutionary Patriot and that was mailed to them on April 14th. This included the page from "Delaware Signers of the Oath of Allegiance" plus my thoughts about Abraham Sankey's service in the 2nd New Castle County Militia. First, the oath should answer any questions about his loyalty. Second, the fact that he paid a fine for missing two muster calls of the militia more or less proves he answered the other four during that six month period in question.


The second letter and packet contained the copies of deeds that showed John Van Buskirk had bought the land that my ancestor William sold to settle William's share of the estate. This sale was the key to linking William to John. Thank goodness I have a very nice and kind cousin in Robert Van Buskirk. As soon as I heard from DAR I emailed Robert and asked if he could copy those deeds and send them to me. This he did and I had them in a few days. They were extremely hard to read so I transcribed them to make them easier for DAR to read and to follow. I have found that transcribing documents is the best way for me to really understand what was going on. It was thru this exercise that I finally figured out who the mysterious Juliann Van Buskirk was. She appears in the last two deeds of John Van Buskirk's land and no one knew who she was. Some theorized that she was John's third wife, but no -- she was his son Henry's wife. For some legal reasons the deeds were put in her name well after John Van Buskirk died. This was necessary because the deeds had not been recorded when the land was bought. I learned that deeds only have to be recorded when the land is about to be sold.



So the research I did last year on finding John Van Buskirk's lost child was very valuable in this instance. It was information I went back to to help in my challenge from DAR. I believe the evidence is quite convincing and now I simply have to wait for their verdict.