Tag Archives: Early New England Families Study Project

ICYMI: The disappearing Leveretts

American History, Family Stories, ICYMI

[Editor’s note: This post originally appeared in Vita Brevis on 15 January 2014.]

Alicia Crane WilliamsI cannot imagine the faith that John Leverett and his wives, Hannah Hudson and Sarah Sedgwick, must have had to cope with deaths of so many of their children. By his two wives, John was the father of eighteen children, eleven of whom died as infants or young children. Six of these children were given the name Sarah after their mother, and five of them died before the sixth survived. Three sons were named John, none of whom lived to grow up.

John Leverett kept meticulous records of the births and deaths of his children in his Bible, noting the time of day and sometimes the tide. The record of his seventeenth child, one of the Sarahs, states that she was born at “10 clock in the evening at Low water” on 30 June 1670, baptized on 3 July, and “departed 16 day july at 2 a clock afternoon, halfe flood.” Continue reading ICYMI: The disappearing Leveretts →

The skipped generation

American History, Genealogical Writing, News, , , ,

Alicia Crane WilliamsThree more sketches (16 pages) in the Early New England Families Study Project have just been posted – John Carter of Woburn; Samuel Maverick of Noddles Island, Boston, Maine, New York, etc.; and his wife Amyas (Cole) (Thomson) Maverick.

John Carter is the first example in the Early New England Families Study Project of a second-generation New Englander who arrived with his parents during the “second,” unpublished, half of the Great Migration. This results in the anomaly that John Carter’s sketch is published before his father’s, which might confuse researchers assuming that the two projects are seamlessly synced. Continue reading The skipped generation →

Three years in

American History, Genealogical Writing, Research Methods, , , ,

Alicia Crane WilliamsWe are just about to start the fourth year of the Early New England Families Study Project. There are presently 72 sketches online, and now the first of the hard copy publications covering 50 families is available as well. New sketches scheduled to be uploaded in January include Samuel Maverick and his wife Amias (Cole) (Thompson) Maverick.

These sketches have definitely developed into far more detailed and complex endeavors than we originally conceived. It isn’t that we thought it was going to be easy, but we did have some hopes that “summarizing” a couple of centuries of collected works on these families would be simpler that it is turning out to be. So why is that? Continue reading Three years in →

2015: the year in review concluded

American History, Family Stories, Genealogical Writing, News, Research Methods, , , , , , ,

Great Migration DirectoryOn the first day of 2016, Vita Brevis can boast 780,157 page views over the life of the blog. With dozens of voices writing for the blog, I hope that readers will check back often to see what’s new at Vita Brevis. Following yesterday’s blog post, here follows a snapshot of the second six months of 2015 at the blog.

Robert Charles Anderson’s post on the new Great Migration Directory was published on 1 July:

The Great Migration Directory attempts to include all those who immigrated to New England during the Great Migration, and only those immigrants. After much examination of the historical record, and particularly of the activities of the passenger vessels each spring, I determined that the Great Migration ended during 1640, and so this volume is designed to include every head of household or unattached individual who arrived between 1620 and 1640. Continue reading 2015: the year in review concluded →

Saturday’s Fireside Chat

American History, Genealogical Writing, Research Methods, ,

Alicia Crane WilliamsOn Saturday I had the honor and fun of joining with Bob Anderson and Chris Child in a Fireside Chat in the Treat Rotunda at NEHGS. We were each touting publications for sale – Bob’s Great Migration Directory (so popular it has sold out and there were none to physically sell that day!); Chris Child’s first issue of Mayflower Descendant under the new banner of NEHGS, which will be available in January; and Volume 1 of my Early New England Families series. The “Chats,” which took place in three sessions throughout the day, included interesting questions from our moderators, Jim Power and Penny Stratton, and from the audience about our projects, how we all got started in genealogy, and how we work. There were at least 150 people who came for the special day of discount prices in the bookstore, access to the library, and to hear stories from two old genealogists (Bob and I), many of which predated Chris’ birth. I think everyone enjoyed the event. Continue reading Saturday’s Fireside Chat →

Update for Ancestors of American Presidents

American History, Genealogical Writing, News, , , , , , ,

Editor’s Note: NEHGS Senior Research Scholar Emeritus Gary Boyd Roberts makes his Vita Brevis début with a series of articles updating entries to his Ancestors of American Presidents, 2009 Edition, and its 2012 reprint.

Ancestors of Am Pres-14829The subject matter of Ancestors of American Presidents (first published in 1989) is intrinsically interesting, of course, but I have also found it to be a useful delineator of major patterns in American genealogical evolution. As I noted in the introduction to the 2009 edition of this book, within it “lie not only clues perhaps to new lines in your own ancestry, but also … various, and collectively millions, of kinships to presidents. Discovering and enjoying these kinships…, you will, I hope, have further thoughts about your own genealogical connection, or ‘fit,’ into the country at large.”

The following entries show recent published research on the ancestors of American presidents and their spouses: Continue reading Update for Ancestors of American Presidents →

Piano lessons

American History, Genealogical Writing, ,

Alicia Crane WilliamsThat pile of photocopied original documents you have sitting on your table looks especially mountainous when you start compiling genealogical text. How much of it needs to be included? How should it be presented? What is important and what is not?

Before you can properly transcribe, abstract, or translate records, you need to know what they say. What are the parts of a deed, of a will, what is an “execution” from the court? These can all be topics for future Vita Brevis posts. In the meantime, look at examples of abstracts in the Early New England Families Study Project sketches for ideas. Continue reading Piano lessons →

Genealogical writing styles

Genealogical Writing, Research Methods, ,

Alicia Crane WilliamsSome Vita Brevis readers have sent me really nice samples of what they are doing using the Early New England Families Study Project format model. Thanks, you are all “on point” and doing a great job. Plenty of questions have been sent, too, so let’s address some of those.

“Register style” vs “Early New England Families format”

First, there is no right or wrong way to use the Early New England Families format. Continue reading Genealogical writing styles →

Delayed recording of deeds

American History, Family Stories, Research Methods, , , ,
Early Maine Deeds and Wills. CD-ROM. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2006. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009), 8: 359.

While working on the Early New England Families Study Project sketch on Samuel Maverick this week, I came across a deed from 1636 that was not recorded until 1717! This is a good reminder that deeds are entered into the official books by the date they were recorded, not by the date they were made. Thus, one can never assume that a deed recorded after a person’s death – even decades after – is not that person’s deed.

A sale of land was legal, whether or not the deed was recorded, although recording the transaction helped to prove legality if disputed. Recording might be delayed until the land was sold the next time, which might be a generation or two later. Continue reading Delayed recording of deeds →

Now, it’s time to write

American History, Family Stories, Genealogical Writing, ,

Alicia Crane Williams[Editor’s Note: Between June and August of this year, Alicia wrote two series on her research and writing methodologies. In the interest of bringing them together, and sharing them with a fresh audience, they are offered again, with some of the author’s commentary. The first of these two posts appeared here:]

From Composition: Part One:

Many people enjoy fishing, but not as many enjoy cleaning the catch. That is why we all have piles of research sitting waiting to be compiled into finished accounts. In some cases we may have entered our data into a genealogical database, but as nice as they are for sorting a multitude of facts, there is still no replacement for a well-written genealogical story. Continue reading Now, it’s time to write →