Six new sketches have been posted in the Early New England Families Study Project database:[1]
John Dunham (c. 1615–1692), son of John Dunham (GM); married Mary ___; settled in Plymouth; farmer; 7 children.
Richard Newton (c. 1606–1701) married Ann/Hannah Loker alias Riddlesdale; settled in Sudbury and Marlborough; husbandman; 10 children. Continue reading Update on the Early New England Families project
[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.]
From Collecting published accounts:
This may turn out like watching sausage being made or paint dry, but let’s walk through the process of creating an Early New England Families Study Project entry.
We start with the entry from Torrey’s New England Marriages Prior to 1700: Continue reading A genealogist’s research process
As I tie up loose ends on the Early New England Families Study Project sketch for Richard Newton, it is time to assess the work.
Newton’s sketch is fairly short, four pages at the moment: his birth and ancestry are unknown, he did not participate in town or colony governments, was not in trouble with the courts, and left no interesting biographical highlights. A lot of information was already in print about the Newton family, including a full transcription of Richard’s will in the Newton Genealogy. Continue reading Composition: Part Four
Each Early New England Families Study Project sketch is an article by itself, so full bibliographic citations are given the first time a source is used, with short form citations thereafter. I have a Word file with the full citation for every source I have used (which grows with each new sketch), and I can “cut and paste” these into footnotes without having to retype. This is my manual version of the bibliographic and footnote options that come with most genealogical database programs these days. Continue reading Composition: Part Three
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.
Few of us enjoyed English composition in school (do they still teach it?), and with texting and tweeting the art of complete sentences is dying. I happen to like writing, have a little training, and through years of experience am getting better at it, but I can see the “deer in the headlights” look in the eyes of many researchers when they are faced with the idea of “writing” their genealogy. Continue reading Composition: Part One
Friday’s post, by Steven Solomon of the Society’s Development team, marked the four hundredth blog post at Vita Brevis. Since its launch in January 2014, the blog has featured posts by 64 bloggers, almost all of them NEHGS staff members, with a few outside contributors or transcribed interviews making up the remainder. What does the genealogical mosaic about which I wrote in the first post at Vita Brevis look like after eighteen months in the blog’s life? Continue reading 400 posts at Vita Brevis
See the previous chapters in the series here, here, here, and here.
Published versions of vital records (in print or digital) for early New England families are plentiful. Between americanancestors.org, familysearch.org, and ancestry.com, you can search the published volumes of “Massachusetts Vital Records to 1850”; Holbrook’s “Massachusetts Town Records 1620-1988,” which includes images from some original records; the Barbour collection of “Connecticut Vital Records to 1870”; Arnold’s “Rhode Island Vital Records, 1636-1930”; “Vermont Vital Records 1720-1908”; “New Hampshire records 1654-1949”; “Maine records 1620-1922”; and many more. There is no excuse these days for not checking an early New England vital record. Continue reading Collecting published accounts: Part Five
At first glance, the titles that comprise our Experts’ Choice series of books might seem a little randomly selected. We’ve got everything from collections of information on the earliest settlers of New England – Pioneers of Massachusetts, Pioneers of Maine and New Hampshire, and The First Puritan Settlers of Connecticut – to a guide book on the location and condition of Massachusetts public records in the nineteenth century, to an accounting of soldiers and officers who fought in King Philip’s War. All are tied by a common thread, however: these books are ones that NEHGS staff turn to over and over again when helping our members with their research. Continue reading The Experts’ Choice series
Five new sketches have been posted in the Early New England Families Study Project database:
Nathaniel Bacon (c. 1621–c. 1673) married Hannah Mayo, dau. of Rev. John Mayo; settled in Barnstable, tanner, 8 children.
Joshua Holgrave (c. 1615–c. 1643), son of John and Elizabeth (––) Holgrave (covered in the Great Migration series, or GM), married Jane Conant (see below), to New England about age 18 with parents and younger siblings; settled in Salem, 2 children. Continue reading Early New England Families Study Project update
Continuing the series on “Collecting published accounts” that began here and continued here and here:
The next large group of records that I want to check is the published Massachusetts Bay Colony records (MBCR). I have downloaded the entire set on my computer and am creating my own hard copy as I work on each sketch. This takes paper and ink, but it eliminates having to find a place to keep the huge large-volume set in the house or to repeatedly pull up the digital version if I already have a page printed. I am collecting similar copies of other published sources (or at least of their indexes) that have a high density of the names I need. Continue reading Collecting published accounts: Part Four