Author Archive
Captain William Booth, 1788, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
We are very excited to announce a new database: Black Loyalist Directory, 1783-1788.
This database was created from The Book of Negroes: African Americans in Exile After the American Revolution, edited by Graham Russell, Gao Hodges, and Alan Edward Brown, which contains transcriptions of Brigadier General Samuel Birch’s inspection roll of black and mixed-race Loyalists who emigrated to Canada, the UK, the West Indies, and Germany at the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783.
In 1775, the British issued a formal proclamation promising freedom to any enslaved blacks who chose to bear arms with the king’s military forces. Four years later, a second proclamation was issued to include any male or female enslaved person who could support the British military in other roles, such as servants, cooks, nurses, laborers, and laundresses. As a result, tens of thousands of enslaved people fled from their owners to join the British.
General Birch’s ledger of about 3,000 Black Loyalists was originally created to tally the cost of the United States’ lost property for future compensation; therefore, it includes details such as first and last names, ages, physical descriptions, former owners, former residences, freedom status, military certificates (recorded as GBC or GMC), birth records, ship destinations, and ship captains. There are also the names of those who departed with their British enslavers because the proclamations did not include the enslaved people of Loyalists.
Most of the information that we captured for this database are emigration records, but we were also able to include military records for anyone with General Birch’s certificate, as well as some birth and manumission records, and records of others who were present.
This database is presented as part of 10 Million Names, a project which aims to recover names and restore information to families of the estimated 10 million women, men, and children of African descent who were enslaved in the U.S. until emancipation through a collaborative network of expert genealogists, historians, cultural institutions, and descendant communities. This project seeks to amplify the voices of people who have been telling their family stories for centuries, connect researchers and data partners with people seeking answers to their family history questions, and expand access to data, resources, and information about enslaved African Americans.
To learn more about the 10 Million Names project, please visit the full website, To learn more about the 10 Million Names project, please visit the full website, here.
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 .
Note: This database is available to all members, including Guest Members, as part of 10 Million Names.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the last Transcription Challenge! Everyone provided helpful feedback and suggestions! Please check out our new set of challenges by going to the “Transcription Challenge” tab at the top of the page and submitting your suggestions in the comments.
It is always really interesting and helpful to see how everyone transcribes this tricky handwriting! After going through every response, the names we have settled on are:
- Touhey
- Hurlburt
- Solivowo, Solivoda
We appreciate everyone’s help and are excited to see the suggestions for the next set of challenges!
Thank you to everyone who participated in the last Transcription Challenge! Everyone provided helpful feedback and suggestions! Please check out our new set of challenges by going to the “Transcription Challenge” tab at the top of the page and submitting your suggestions in the comments.
This set of challenges was tricky! The spellings might not be 100% correct, but the search tool for our databases is flexible enough for these names to show up in the results for anyone searching for other spellings.
After discussing the possibilities with others, and going back and forth on the letters many times, the names we have settled on are:
1 – Breneeser
2 – Durish
3a – Maria F. Giblin
3b – Florant
4 – McKurliss
5 – Piram Jarvis
6 – Dengue
Thanks again for your help! We look forward to your suggestions for the next set of challenges!
Thank you to everyone who participated in the last Transcription Challenge! Everyone provided helpful feedback and suggestions!
These last challenges are tough! After discussing the possibilities with others, and going back and forth on the letters many times, we have only settled on one name:
#2a. Folardeau
We have saved all of your suggestions from the last set of challenges and have decided leave them up a bit longer for anyone new or anyone who wants to try again with fresh eyes!
Please check out our new set of challenges by going to the “Transcription Challenge” tab at the top of the page and submitting your suggestions in the comments.
Thanks again for all of your help!
Thank you to everyone who participated in the last Transcription Challenge! We had 40 responses and everyone provided helpful feedback and suggestions! Please check out our new set of challenges by going to the “Transcription Challenge” tab at the top of the page and submitting your suggestions in the comments.
This week was difficult! After discussing the possibilities with others, and going back and forth on the letters many times, the names we have settled on are:
1a – Dinivan
1b – Meloy
2 – Hoogs
3a – Divner
3b – Maredin, Mardin
We appreciate everyone’s help and are excited to see the suggestions for the next set of challenges!
Thank you to everyone who participated in the last Transcription Challenge! We had 60 responses, and everyone provided helpful feedback and suggestions! Please check out our new set of challenges by going to the “Transcription Challenge” tab at the top of the page and submitting your suggestions in the comments.
After going through every response, the names we have settled on are:
#1a – Donolan
#1b – Dowely
#1c – Desmond
#1d – Kaefes, Keefes
#1e – McGinnis
#2 – Demeris, Demaris
#3 – Rooney
We appreciate everyone’s help and are excited to see the suggestions for the next set of challenges!
Thank you to everyone who participated in the last Transcription Challenge! We had 58 responses, and everyone provided helpful feedback and suggestions! Please check out our new set of challenges by going to the “Transcription Challenge” tab at the top of the page and submitting your suggestions in the comments.
It was really interesting and helpful to see how many ways everyone transcribed this difficult handwriting. After going through every response, the names we have settled on are:
#1 – Nighy
#2 – Carleman
#3 – Dwyre
We appreciate everyone’s help and are excited to see the suggestions for the next set of challenges!
After a long hiatus, we are excited to announce that the Transcription Challenge has returned! You can participate by going to the “Transcription Challenge” tab at the top of the page and submitting your suggestions in the comments.
We will review your comments every week and will post new challenges as we find them!
We look forward to hearing from you and appreciate your help!
We are excited to announce a new collection! Lynn, MA: Harry Lipsky Company Records, 1934-1936, a collection From the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center (JHC).
The Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center (JHC) at New England Historic Genealogical Society is a destination for exploring, preserving, and advancing the history of Jewish families, institutions, and communities in New England and beyond.
The Harry Lipsky Company was a furniture moving company founded in 1910 in Lynn, Massachusetts by Harry Lipsky, who owned and operated the company until his death in 1926. He was born between 1887 and 1888 in Slavita, Russia (modern-day Ukraine) and immigrated to Boston, Massachusetts around 1904. He married Dora Rabotnick in 1910, and together they had three children, Jacob “Jack,” Sidney Samuel, and Rose. His sons took over operations until the company was sold in 1988.
This database contains a detailed ledger of all the moves that the Harry Lipsky Company undertook between 1934 and 1936, including the names and addresses of clients, and the cost and contents of the moves.
We are grateful to the volunteers who indexed all of the names for this project, including Karen Del Vecchio, Sara Stison, Joan Sullivan, Amelia Devin Freedman, Jaimie Williams-Peterson, Eileen McCarthy.
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 all Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.