King's Chapel Cemetery, Boston, Massachusetts

Many organizations were founded in the later part of the 19th Century that required the prospective members demonstrate that their ancestors had been in the United States before a certain date or that their ancestors had served in a war.  Examples of these organizations are Sons of the American Revolution (1889), The Daughters of the American Revolution (1890), The Daughters of the War of 1812 (1892), The Order of the Founders and Patriots of America (1896), The National Society, Colonial Daughters of the Seventeenth Century (1896), The Mayflower Society (1897), and The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America XVII (1915).

The National Society, Colonial Daughters of the Seventeeth Century was founded by Mrs. Harlan P. Halsey in 1896 in Brooklyn, New York.  The Society admits women of good moral character over the ages of eighteen who can prove they are descended from an ancestor who rendered service in one of the American Colonies from 1607 to 1699.

The organization is still active with twenty-one chapters supporting the Society’s aims through their providing  scholarships at Lincoln Memorial University; granting  awards to honor graduates at military academies; maintaining historical displays; has restoring and preserving important Colonial papers and documents; and establishing a publishing program.