After a week off following
the FGS conference in Cincinnati, I return today to the subject of the Society's
manuscripts--as promised, the dozen or so greatest collections covering
families. The first of these is 53 vols. by Henry Franklin Andrews on his
Andrews and Hamlin kinsmen. The Hamlin material was later published; 32 of these
vols., however, cover all descendants (daughters of daughters of daughters, as
well as sons of sons of sons) of the author's immigrant patrilineal forebear,
John Andrews of Ipswich, d. 1708. I believe these vols. are unindexed and have
used this enormous collection very rarely.
The second collection is that
of Edmund Dana Barbour—l0 bound vols. (now on the open shelves), dated 1907 and
indexed, on all descendants, again through female as well as male lines, of
Captain George Barbour, a founder of Medfield, Mass. We also have 5 boxes of the
original manuscript and notes. See also NEXUS 3 (1987): 29. I was
especially pleased to find William Marsh Rice of Houston, the founder of Rice
University (my family's home when I was born was on Rice Blvd., named after the
philanthropist and university) in this set.
The third collection consists
of 12 small vols. covering many New England Cook/Cooke families and 31 small
vols. covering most Connecticut Lewises. This collection is by Rollin Hillyer
Cooke, the great Berkshire Co. genealogist, whose 10 vols. on all early
Pittsfield families were copied by W. E. Corbin and are part of that collection
(covered in the last column). Mr. Cooke also gave us 9 vols. of Berkshire Co.
deed abstracts and two cartons of miscellaneous genealogical notes (see
Register 139 [1985]: 154-55). Another 54 vols. of Berkshire Co.
source material collected by Mr. Cooke is at the Berkshire Athenaeum in
Pittsfield. I might add that Mayflower and Rhode Island Cookes are
covered in vol.12 of Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, and the
2-vol. 1987 Thomas Cook genealogy by Jane Fletcher Fiske (plus some TAG
and Register contributions).
The fourth collection, by Elwin
Gerry Davis and Samuel F. Rockwell, consists of 4 boxes of 14 bound record books
that collectively cover most New England Davises. This collection is only partly
indexed and should generally be used only after printed sources have been
exhausted. The fifth collection to note is 122 vols. of alphabetically arranged
lineage papers and membership applications for the Governor Thomas Dudley
Association. Gov. Dudley, of royal descent, a major colonial figure, left an
extremely large and prominent progeny, including Channings, Danas, Wendells,
Holmeses, Elliots, Nortons, Morisons, Lowells, Parkmans, Winthrops, Alsops,
Auchinclosses, and various duPonts.
The sixth collection consists of 28
vols. by William Crowninshield Endicott, Jr., on the descendants of Governor
John Endicott, 1588-1665/6. Many female lines of this noted Salem family
are also included. The Willis Freeman genealogical collection is, in my opinion,
one of our major possessions. Its consists of 60 bound folio vols.
authoritatively covering almost all Freemans in England, New England, and the
mid-Atlantic states, plus numerous southern Freemans. Arranged alphabetically by
given names, and then chronologically by birth year, 32 vols. cover male
Freemans, 22 vols. treat female Freemans, and 6 vols. cover Freemans of
Woodbridge, N.J.
Henry S. Gorham's 28 vols. on the descendants of Captain
John Gorham of Bamstable is a massive typescript compiled 1931-1944. Captain
Gorham was the son-in-law of John Howland of the Mayflower and the first
four generations of this study (to about 1720) are superseded by Elizabeth P.
White's vol. one (1990) on the descendants for five generations of that Pilgrim.
The ninth collection consists of 28 vols. on the agnate and some
female-line descendants of William Nickerson, first settler of Chatham on Cape
Cod. These vols., by William Emery Nickerson, are a major basis for the ongoing
Nickerson genealogy (4 vols. to date) published by the Nickerson Family
Association. Also included in the collection are 7 boxes of notes by Anna C.
Kingsbury, sponsored by Mr. Nickerson, on over 50 other largely Massachusetts
families. Horace Wilbur Palmer's "Palmer Families in America," contains 13
typescript vols. on almost all New England and many mid-Atlantic and southern
Palmers. Other copies of the collection are at the New York and Los Angeles
Public Libraries. Two parts of this collection, on the descendants of William
Palmers of Yarmouth and Duxbury, Mass., respectively, have been published; see
Register 130 (1976): 57-59. The unpublished part of this collection is
unindexed, and much concerns the progeny of Walter Palmer of
Stonington.
Wesley Weyman's "Descendants of Captain Myles Standish, Male
and Female Lines," 5 cartons, is the largest study to date on the progeny of the
military leader of the Mayflower company. It is superseded for the first
5 generations, to about 1720 only, by vol.14 of Mayflower Families Through
Five Generations. Two other cartons compiled by Mr. Weyman treat Bennetts,
Ramsdells, and Wymans.
Many other families are well covered by sizable or
large manuscript collections at NEHGS. We also have the original notes for
numerous genealogies (those for the John Hayes of Dover, N.H., work are
especially voluminous). The above are simply those collections I have much used
or noticed and those, with the caveats about indexes, etc., noted above, that I
think visitors to the library will most want to use. These collections are open
to members but cannot be loaned. I encourage everyone who would like to delve
into one or more of them, to visit Boston and NEHGS.