This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/AFB.2ACE/1785.1 Message Board Post: >The LGAR is the only organization that may use the name >of the Grand Army of the Republic and is the oldest >descendants organization in the United States. I found it hard to believe that this organization, which I had never heard of before, is older than the Daughters of the American Revolution, or the Society of Mayflower Descendants, of for that matter, the Sons of Union Veterans. Curious as to why such an organization did not inherit the name of the Women's Relief Corps, which was the ladies' auxiliary of the GAR at the time veterans posts were still in existence, I Googled them and found the following at http://suvcw.org/gar.htm "With membership limited strictly to "veterans of the late unpleasantness," the GAR encouraged the formation of Allied Orders to aid them in its various works. Numerous male organizations jousted for the backing of the GAR and the political battles became quite severe until the GAR finally endorsed the Sons of Veterans of the United States of America (later to become the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War) as its heir. A similar, but less protracted, battle took place between the Womans' Relief Corps (WRC)and the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic (LGAR) for the title "official auxiliary to the GAR." That battle was won by the WRC, which is the only Allied Order open to women who do not have an hereditary ancestor who would have been eligible for the GAR. But in this case the LGAR retained its strength and was made one of the Allied Orders."