Vermont?!?!?!

Did I mention I have an ancestor who served in the Revolutionary War? Yeah, you can look him up in the military records of the National Archives and Records Administration: Nicholas Schryer, Yates Militia, 14th Regiment out of Albany, New York.

This is definitely cool genealogically speaking, and it’s not about the Revolutionary War or any war in particular. It’s about records and record keeping. The feds do a great job of keeping track of soldiers. Yeah, yeah, you hear about red tape and all the rest but for the most part the feds do a good job of keeping lots of records on soldiers.

But. But after reading a dissertation on the town where my ancestor served I have learned that while I am still eligible to join the Daughters of the American Revolution (not that I would people, jesus, you know me better than that), my ancestor served DURING the Revolutionary War but not directly in the cause of the Revolutionary War.

Yates’s militia was formed to quell the violence of the people-who-would-be-Vermonters and those in New York that supported them.

Vermont? Yeah, we defended New York against people who wanted to form the state of Vermont. Who cares about Vermont enough to die for it? OK, not me, that’s for certain. Mostly the would-be’s filed lawsuits in England but they also conducted raids into New York to prove their point. Little I-heart-Vermont riots. Crimany. My ancestor had to get out of bed in the middle of the night because of Vermonters?

The 14th militia, under another general, curbed loyalist activities and did regular Revolutionary War-type activities, but us? We were the riot police.

What a let-down.

Oh? And by the by, my family moved to Vermont pretty much immediately after the stopped them from rioting against New York.