After a week's break to note the recent discovery of an American and
Bostonian great-grandmother for Viscountess Linley, I return today to my
coverage of the greatest manuscript collections at NEHGS, and particularly to
those with largely British or European content. There are five of these--the
collections of John Isley Coddington, John Hutchinson Cook, Joseph Jackson
Howard, George Andrews Moriarty, Jr., and Gary Boyd Roberts.
In March
1987, the Society was given its largest manuscript gift to date--125 or so
cartons of genealogical notes collected over 60 years by John Insley Coddington
of Bordentown, N.J., often called the "dean of American genealogists in his
generation." Coddington's lifelong interests in this field were royal and noble
families, colonial New England (especially Conn. and Fairfield Co.), New Jersey,
and Ireland, the last three of which were derived from his own ancestry. An
appreciation of his contribution of his contribution to American genealogy
overall and a bibliography of over 200 articles and book chapters appear in A
Tribute to John Insley Coddington, on the Fortieth Anniversary of the American
Society of Genealogists (1980), edited by Neil D. Thompson and Robert
Charles Anderson (see also Coddington's obituary in the Register 145
[1991]: 195-201). Mr. Coddington's large gift also includes the manuscript notes
of Mahlon K.A. Schnacke, former librarian of the American Academy of Rome. These
latter notes consist in part of a study of the entire known progeny of Maria
Brankovic (1466-1495), a Serbian princess who married a marquess of Montferret,
an ancestress of many royal and noble families, and the "gateway" forebear
through whom many scholars formerly thought ancestry from the ancient world was
most likely to derive. Coddington's notes also cover all families in his own
ancestry and all families on which he wrote.
John Hutchinson Cook was
Coddington's neighbor in Bordentown and Cook's enormous collection of books,
given to the Society in 1987, were the major source for many European articles
of both Coddington and Milton Rubincam. John's books, 10,000 or more (probably
the largest private genealogical collection ever assembled in this country, on
British and European topics at least) have a Latin emphasis-there is greater
coverage of France, Spain, Italy, and Belgium than of Germany, the Scandinavian
countries, Poland, or Russia. Cook's 23 boxes of manuscripts include 14 of
newspaper clippings and photographs-again the largest such collection I know
of-covering the marriages and deaths of most kings and British and European
noblemen of this century. Cook was also interested in every intermarriage since
about the Civil War of noted Europeans and Americans. His seven boxes of notes,
all in pencil but very readable, cover many of these connections and all of the
European families that interested him. Cook usually gives sources and obviously
used his own books continually. The last two boxes are labeled graphics, and one
contains photographs of houses in Burlington Co., N.J. Cook notes also cover all
of his own ancestry and were my source for comments on it in his obituary
(NEXUS 11 [1994]: 148). Cook's major American interests were families in
New Jersey and South Carolina.
A collection whose history is largely
unknown is Joseph Jackson Howard's "Pedigrees of Families of Great Britain," 50
vols., 1 missing, fully but complexly indexed. Howard was a major British
scholar, the editor of many "modern visitation" volumes, and this collection may
well have been his lifelong hobby. It carefully, but very partially, and without
documentation, traces the royal descents from Alfred the Great and later kings
of many British noble and gentry families. This collection is largely unknown in
England, but the late Sir Anthony R. Wagner expressed much interest when I told
him about it.
George Andrews Moriarty, Jr., was the most prolific article
writer (over 400) of this century; for almost 50 years he was head of our
Committee on English and Foreign Research. For an overall evaluation of his
contribution to Anglo-American genealogy see my introduction to the first series
of English Origins of New England Families (1984), vol. 1, viii-xi. His
manuscript holdings here consist of "The Plantagenet Ancestry of Edward III and
Queen Philippa," (upon which much of Royalty for Commoners and some of
the forthcoming Henderson project are based), and 19 ledger vols. and 4 cartons
of materials concerning Moriarty's entire known American and medieval ancestry.
The bulk of the ledger vols. cover English forbears of Moriarty's five royally
descended immigrant ancestors-Edward and Ellen (Newton) Carleton of Rowley, Dr.
Richard Palgrave of Charlestown, Rev. William Sargent of Malden, and John
Throckmorton of Providence, R.I, This latter ancestry is so extensive that
Moriarty treats most of the major families of medieval England.
My own
collection, "The Mowbray Connection: An Analysis of the Genealogical Evolution
of British, American, and Continental Nobilities, Gentries and upper Classes
Since the End of the Middle Ages," 23 vols. (3 of text, 6 of British charts, 10
of American charts, 2 of continental charts, a bibliography for much of the
American section, and an every-name index by Michael J. Wood of the American
charts). The charts in this collection outline the royal descents and extent of
kinship to Thomas Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, d.1399, of over 3500 American,
over 1000 British, and over 500 continental historical figures; see The Royal
Descents of 500 Immigrants (1993), pp. xvii-xxi. Also at NEHGS are positive
microfilm copies of the 130 notebooks on which "The Mowbray Connection" is
based, and photocopies of (1) 20 pamphlets covering major notable descendants of
various of my New England forebears, and (2) 11 comparable pamphlets for the
major notable progeny of New England ancestors of the late Princess of Wales and
her sons, and (3) various charts beyond what I have published on the
genealogical connections of American presidents. I add to these latter volumes
frequently.
Most readers will care primarily about our manuscript
collections covering New England towns or families, or consisting of the notes
of major New England genealogists. I hope, however, that those of you who do
find royal, medieval, or gentry ancestry will upon occasion peruse some of the
materials in these five collections. I am personally familiar, as well, with the
families in Coddington's, Cook's, Moriarty's, and my own ancestry, and will
frequently refer readers to the printed or manuscript data compiled by these
scholars. New discoveries in these fields-royal descents, American/European
connections, or even presidential forebears-are always welcome and I appreciate
knowing about them.