At this
summer’s two sessions of “Come Home to New England,” I have spoken and will
speak on identifying lines readily traceable in printed sources. As my readers
well know, a large quantity of my research concerns the “New England family” -
probably 100 million contemporary Americans descended from 5-8,000 Great
Migration immigrants of 1620-50. If you have 50 or more sets (husbands and
wives) of Great Migration immigrant forebears, you are probably related to
almost all of the 100 million, within the range of 8th-12th cousins. The
probability of kinship to notables is fully 100 percent, and the number of such
“household name” distant kin probably surpasses 500, possibly 1000.
I
trace notables, including new American presidents, by first looking at
biographies in large bookstore chains or new-book racks at leading libraries. I
also check Current Biography, sometimes “Names-in-the-News” New
York Times profiles, and if the person is the child of someone who is
somewhat notable, the National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (75
vols., completed in the late 1970s, sometimes still useful for living
Americans), social registers (consolidated since the late 1970s), Harvard, Yale,
Princeton and Dartmouth class books, and New York Times obituaries. For notables
with Massachusetts origins, or with a parent or grandparent from Massachusetts,
I usually check the post-1841 vital records on microfilm here at NEHGS; for
natives of Maine (born after 1892), New Hampshire (born before 1900), Vermont
(born before 1955), or Rhode Island (born before the early 1890s), I can check
pertinent vital records at NEHGS as well.
I sometimes consult the often
erroneous but still useful Compendium of American Genealogy, edited by
F. A. Virkus between 1925 and 1942, especially volume 1, for the parents or
grandparents of notables. I also often check county mugbooks for natives of the
mid- or far West esp., and when in Salt Lake City, I sometimes use the Mormon
family group sheets compiled between 1942 and 1969 for the immediate ancestry of
Mormons who have become prominent in American life. Thereafter - for earlier
forebears of notables -- I use the usual printed genealogical
sources. For notables or socially prominent persons, biographies,
social registers, college class books, and obituaries in national newspapers “of
record” serve as a substitute for oral knowledge and “family sources.” Five
generations back, the ancestry of notables is much like anyone else’s - in fact,
five generations back is probably about the point at which you will begin to
share ancestors with “household names” of whose kinship to your family you are
completely unaware.
With a set of charts or a few names of ancestors -
which I usually have for Society library patrons or notables for whom I have
culled available information from the above sources - I usually begin by
checking “classic” (1860-1914) or “modern” (post-World War I) “revisionist”
genealogies. About these, and the remainder of the sources I shall list below, I
have written in more detail in previous columns - or in articles no doubt
indexed in PERSI. I then check New England “town genealogies,” of which
the best cover 1) Cambridge, Charlestown, Watertown, Lexington, and Newton
(Middlesex Co., near Boston); 2) Braintree (the Sprague collection on
microfilm), Hingham, Weymouth, Cohasset, Scituate (the manuscript H. W. Welch
collection) and Hull (the 1988-89 Register articles by Ethel F. Smith
on its 17th century families); 3) Bridgewater, Plymouth, Barnstable (these three
only partial and with some mistakes), Cape Cod (“Genealogical Notes on Cape Cod
Families” on microfilm, and sometimes the 2-vol. Library of Cape Cod
Genealogy), Martha’s Vineyard (NEHGS owns the original notes of C. E.
Banks, with one further generation for all families), and Nantucket (Starbuck’s
history, plus the lavishly annotated published VRs); 4) Salem, Rowley, and
Salisbury/Amesbury (Essex Co.); 5) Springfield (the typescript by T. E. Warren),
Northampton and Pittsfield (in the Corbin Collection on microfilm), Hadley,
Hatfield, Deerfield, Northfield, Amherst, Sunderland, and Whately (western
Mass.); 6) Hartford (Barbour), New Haven and Fairfield (both 3-vol. sets by
Jacobus), New London (manuscript by C. D. Parkhurst), Woodstock (8 vols.,
Bowen), Milford (Abbott), and Guilford (Talcott) (Conn.); and 7) Little Compton
(Wilbour) and Bristol (Saunders) (R.I.).
If your family is from
Connecticut or Rhode Island, check Genealogies of Connecticut Families From
NEHGR, 3 vols., Genealogies of Rhode Island Families From Rhode Island
Periodicals, and From NEHGR,4 vols. total, the (L. B.) Barbour
Collection of civically-recorded pre-1850 Conn. VRs, and the printed Rhode
Island vital records by Arnold and Beaman, plus those for Providence through
1940, and the R.I. VRs on microfilm mentioned above. If your ancestors are from
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont or Maine, check the VRs mentioned above
plus, for Maine, the Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire
(for N.H. also), Maine Probate Abstracts (3 vols., to 1850), Maine
Families in 1790 (6 vols. to date), and Massachusetts and Maine
Families in the Ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davis (3 vols., consolidated in
1996). For Vermont ancestors, check Vermont Families in 1791 (2 vols.
to date). For New Hampshire families, check the surname index to New Hampshire
town histories by William Copeley.
To check the periodical literature,
which one should do for all hard problems especially, consult PERSI
(Periodical Source Index); the Register every-name indexes (vols.
1-50, 51-148, in 6 vols.); Jean Worden’s Register (vols. 51-142), TAG
(1-60), and Record (1-113) subject indexes, with a supplement by Harry
Macy covering vols. 114-25 of the Record; M. B. Colket’s Founders
of Early American Families (1976), Jacobus’s Index to Genealogical
Periodicals (through the early 1950s, with “My Own Index” for early
multi-ancestor works); and M. L. Sanborn’s 1991 and 1995 Supplements to
Torrey’s New England Marriages Prior to 1700.
I shall continue
with these short summaries of “best sources” for major areas or genealogical
topics - often a review of previous lists - in my next column. I hope this
“QuickSearch” guide for “easy-to-trace lines” proves helpful to many
readers.