We are very happy to announce the new database: Portsmouth, NH: High School Students, 1846-1902. This project is the result of an excellent partnership between the Portsmouth Athenaeum and NEHGS. The information about the students in this database can provide a more personal insight into their high school experience. This database contains eight volumes with over 2,300 pages of information about the High School students and includes over 48,000 searchable records and 50,00 searchable names.
Portsmouth, New Hampshire first established a system of primary schools in 1846 through an act of the General Assembly. In 1848 Portsmouth organized its system of education and elected a School Board to oversee its affairs.
The Portsmouth Athenaeum has held the city’s historic school records on deposit since 1991, and in 2020 partnered with The New England Historic and Genealogical Society to digitize and index records related to Portsmouth High School for the years 1846 through 1902. These records include students’ names, information about their studies, when they graduated, and occasionally students’ birth dates and names of parents or guardians.
The records included in this database are now housed in the collections of Portsmouth Public Library. Since most records do not provide an age for the student, we have primarily used a record type of Residence, meaning that the student lived in Portsmouth when the records was written. Some birth records are included in this database.
We thank the volunteers who have made this database possible, including; Carol Demers, Carol Farrington, Joan Hammond, Peggy Hodges, Pamela Hugie, Susan Kindstedt, Ginny Marshall, Linda Martin-Berke, Robin Merrow, Melissa Millay , Alan Phelps, Bob Rainville , Carol Sawyer, John Seavey, Gail Wine, Mara Witzling, and Elaine Wood. If you would like to become part of the team working on rewarding genealogical projects, please contact Rachel Adams, Database Services Volunteer Coordinator via email at rachel.adams@nehgs.org.
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.