The Spread of New England Settlement and Institutions to the Mississippi River, 1620–1865
Lois Kimball Mathews
Foreword by Ralph J. Crandall
NEHGS, 6 x 9 softcover, xv + 303 pp., illus.
reg. $17.95, member price $16.16
Originally published in 1909, this history of westward expansion provides an important context and framework for anyone researching their early New England and pioneer ancestors.
Topics include the socio-economic and religious impetuses for migrating first to New England and then westward, war’s impact on the ever-shifting frontier, the settlers’ relationship with Native Americans, the history of the formation of new states, and more.
Nearly 30 detailed maps help illustrate settlement patterns east of the Mississippi River in the 17th and 18th centuries and the population migration shift to Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and the Old Northwest Territory during the 19th century. 2011
4-Volume Set
Marsha Hoffman Rising, CG, FASG
NEHGS; 6 x 9 hardcover, 2,962 pp.
reg. $189, member price $150
For more than 17 years, Marsha Hoffman Rising researched the origins of the first thousand pioneers who bought land from the Springfield Land Office between June 1835 and March 1839, with the goal of finding their geographic origins. Using a variety of sources and approaches, and developing some new techniques of her own, the author was able to pinpoint the origins of more than 85% of these pioneers.
This four-volume set includes settlers from Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Missouri, Georgia, Ohio, Maryland, and elsewhere. It also contains a lengthy introduction that details Rising’s methodology and innovative research techniques, and a comprehensive index with more than 10,000 entries, prepared by Patricia Law Hatcher, FASG. 2010
Edited by Helen Schatvet Ullmann
NEHGS; 6 x 9, paperback, 326 pp.
reg. $29.95, member price $26.96
In 1790 Western Massachusetts was a crossroads for New England families heading west into New York or north into Vermont. The transient nature of families living in this area, especially during the post-Revolutionary War years, presents certain genealogical challenges. Western Massachusetts Families in 1790 contains fifty genealogical sketches of heads of households and a listing of their children. Contributed by NEHGS members, these compiled sketches provide a major addition to the published research on this region.