Sons of the American Revolution 
Revolutionary War Graves Committee
Patriots of the American Revolution

Latest Changes: 05Sep14 - rework database suggestions / 05Sep24 - split off patriot lookup / 07Aug01 - cleanup format /

Submitting Rosters | Merging Rosters | Master Roster page

Guidelines for Preparing Individual Rosters for Submission 

Format: We prefer to receive a roster as an Excel file attached to Email. Our second choice would be a file with tab-separated columns of all-text data. Beyond that we will accept files in MS Word, PDF, JPEG, GIF, or HTML.

Basic Information: You must include in the base file (or send as a separate message) an introductory paragraph with the following
     1. Citation of the source document(s) used
     2. Name of the transcriber
     3. Description of any data fields whose headings are not obvious.

Typical Fields

  • Record sequence number: 1,2,3, etc
  • Names: first, middle, surname, Jr/Sr (separate fields)
  • Relationship to focus person (who might be the husband)
  • Rank at the time the roster or other document was written
  • Public office held or service performed (if not military service)
  • State of service, county of service (if applicable), regiment name or colonel, company number or captain (separate fields)
  • Dates as year, month, day (separate fields) for such items as roster listing, battle, non-military service, birth, death, marriage, rank advancement, enlistment date, service end date
  • Locations as state, county, town (separate fields) for birth, marriage, residence, death, burial
  • Name or location of battle(s)
  • Comment field if necessary
See Examples of Databases

Merging Multiple Rosters 

The following is background information, not needed to prepare and submit a roster.
  1. Upon receipt of a new roster we shall assign it a unique Roster-ID, a Transcriber-ID that is unique to each transcriber, and a Source-ID that is unique to each source. This will allow us to track any record to its transcriber and cited source.

  2. We shall embed the Roster-ID as a single record at the end of the original roster, using unique values in two fields so that the line will sort to the end and can also serves as an end-of-file flag while processing the file. The unique values and the two fields are 999999 in the Index field and ZZZZZ in the Surname field. We shall place the Roster-ID in the First Name field. The other fields may be left blank.

  3. When we merge a submitted Roster into the Master Database we shall add a new field with the Roster-ID to each record as it is placed into the Master Database.

  4. When we merge a submitted Roster into the Master Database we shall add a new field with and assign a unique Patriot-ID to each each new record.

  5. Each new entry will be compared to others for that name (and other relevant data such as birth date), and if the records appear to be for the same person we shall assign the lower number to both records. The Patriot-ID allows us to find all the other records that seem to refer to the same person.

Tables Associated with the ID Tags

The details associated with each type of ID will be stored in a table.
  1. Transcriber-ID Table: Fields are the Transcriber-ID (as T000123), the transcriber's name, organization, and contact information

  2. Source-ID Table: Fields are the Source-ID (as S000123), the source citation, and archive holding the source

  3. Roster-ID Table: Fields are the Roster-ID (as R000123), a brief title, the submission date, Transcriber-ID, Source-ID, page range within the source, and notes on key values (such as the regiment name) that are the same for all records in the list.

  4. Patriot-ID Table: Fields are the Patriot-ID (as P000123), prefered surname, prefered first name, Roster-ID, Roster index (sequence number assigned to the original, and a comment field.
A Sample Source Tracking Database [Excel file]

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