Author Archive
We are very happy to provide you a new enhancement to the search experience on American Ancestors. Now you have the ability to link directly to Google Maps using the location text from a record. The example above shows the Record Detail page where the location text is highlighted in blue and followed by a push-pin icon; indicating that you can click on the location to display the location in Google Maps.
This new capability is also available for locations on the Transcript display page, as shown in the example below.
The Google Maps link is provided for all validated locations. You can see the Google Maps page from the previous examples in the image below. A valid location is defined as having a known modern name for the city, county, region/state, and country components of the location. This means that the location will properly be understood and displayed by Google Maps. In cases where the location is not a modern location, or has some sort of error, the location text will still display on the form, but the link to the map option and icon will not be available.
Over time we will review and update locations to expand the number of records that can use this capability.
We hope you find this new capability helpful for your research. Please send us any feedback on this enhancement, or new suggestions to improve the search experience on American Ancestors, via email to webmaster@nehgs.org.
Today we are releasing volumes 4, 5, and 6 (1850-1852) of the in-depth re-indexing of all the genealogical records in the database Vital Records from The NEHGS Register. This update adds 32,000 records and 86,000 searchable names.
This ongoing project will unlock the value of all the information captured in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register since the first publication in 1847. We are reviewing every published article and extracting a broad set of records for those articles that are genealogical in nature. So, in addition to birth, marriage, and death records there are now records of type; residence, immigration, military records, church dismissals, and more. The index we create is at the same level we have used for the Archdiocese of Boston and the Mayflower Silver Books. It includes spouses, parents, and locations.
Users of American AncesTREES will also benefit by being able to get hints from the newly indexed volumes in their family trees.
This update is made possible by the efforts of our volunteers: Nancy Borman, Rich Wood, Jan Lundquist, Charlie Watson, Gale Stevenson, Ron Wilson, Karen Ristic, Ray Ristic, Linda Peterson, Erica Yee, Susan Van Allen, Tom Clements, James Cox, Ginny Marshall, Larry Akin, Margaret Sears Lindley, Ellen Anderson, Cannot Release Name, Karen Buchinger, Kay Sencabaugh, Jaimie Williams-Peterson, Randy Hube, Fran Danico, Julie Bliss Hammons, Julie Nathanson, and Pat Harney. If you would like to become part of the team working on this rewarding project to revamp the index to the NEHGS Register, please contact Rachel Adams, Database Services Volunteer Coordinator via email at rachel.adams@nehgs.org.
Published quarterly since 1847, The New England Historical and Genealogical Register is the flagship journal of American genealogy and the oldest journal in the field. The Register has featured articles on a wide variety of topics since its inception, including vital records, church records, tax records, land and probate records, cemetery transcriptions, obituaries, and historical essays. Authoritative compiled genealogies have been the centerpiece of the Register for more than 150 years. Thousands of New England families have been treated in the pages of the journal and many more are referenced in incidental ways throughout. These articles may range from short pieces correcting errors in print or solving unusual problems to larger treatments that reveal family origins or present multiple generations of a family. The indexing for these records includes full names, Publication year (not the year of the record), and article titles and authors.
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
We are extremely happy to announce a new database today; Massachusetts: Plymouth Colony Deeds, 1671-1673. This database of transcribed Plymouth Colony Deeds, is based on the book Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, Vol. III, pt.2, 1671-1673; which was transcribed and indexed by Scott Andrew Bartley and released in 2019.
This work is a continuation of the series ordered by the Massachusetts legislature, who published 12 volumes of records of Plymouth Colony from 1855 to 1861. The last of these volumes contained Deeds from 1620 to 1651. This book is available in the NEHGS Library with call number F68 .N55. Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs restarted this series by publishing the 13th and 14th volumes covering Deeds, Volume 2 for 1651-1663 (published in 2016), and Volume 3, part 1 for 1663-1671 (published in 2017).
This database is indexed by first and last name, and date of the deed. All records are of the type Deed. The names of Indians involved in these transactions are captured in the first name field, along with any alias that applied. The Preface contains a detailed explanation of the presentation of the transcription. The database has over 250 pages and 2,300 indexed names.
Please note: This database is available to NEHGS members only. Consider Membership.
Today we are announcing that we have updated all of the Massachusetts Probate File Papers databases so that they now provide hints for American AncesTREES. In addition, we have made the searchable version of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese available for hinting. This addition includes the following databases:
- Berkshire County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1761-1917
- Bristol County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1686-1880
- Essex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1638-1881
- Franklin County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1812-1915
- Hampshire County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1660-1889
- Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871
- Norfolk County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1793-1877
- Plymouth County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1686-1881
- Suffolk County, MA: Probate File Papers
- Worcester County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1731-1881
- Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900
This update increases the number of databases providing hints to 22, and provides hints on over 1.6 million people that include over 2.6 million records.
You can get a complete list of databases that provide hints from the Database List A to Z screen (under Search). If you do a search for the term Hinting, you will see the full list.
American AncesTREES is available to all members. You can learn more information about it here.
We are extremely happy to announce a new database today; GU272 Descendants, 1785-2000. This database provides the indexed genealogies of the descendants of the 272 Slaves sold by Georgetown University (The GU272) in 1838, and was produced in a partnership with the Georgetown Memory Project. The article published in American Ancestors Magazine provides more information about these enslaved people and this project.
This database is organized into volumes. Each volume is based on a Register-style report on the descendants of the original families. The volume name includes the name of head of the family followed by the group number in parenthesis. For example: “Campbell, Adaline (Group 34)” contains the report of the descendants of Adaline Campbell, who is the 34th family. The final volume, titled Source Documents, contains indexed images of birth, marriage, and death certificates for people who are documented in the Register reports in the earlier other volumes.
The GU272 Descendants database contains 50 volumes with nearly 1,000 images and over 10,000 records and 32,000 searchable names. The database is indexed with name, date, location, record type, and family members where available. This database will also create hints for American AncesTREES.
Please note: This database is available to all NEHGS members, including guest members. Membership options.
Today we’ve added 6 new volumes to Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900 for St. Thomas Aquinas in Bridgewater. This update adds 709 pages and over 28,000 names to search.
Father Roche, when he was the pastor of Abington, would come regularly to offer Mass to the Catholics in Bridgewater in the homes of local residents. In 1858 he started the construction of the church. The parish was named after St. Thomas Aquinas (patron of Catholic schools, colleges, and universities) because of the Normal School nearby as well as the fact that Fr. Roche was a Dominican like St. Thomas. Bridgewater was instituted as an independent parish in the middle of 1863 and Rev. Lawrence S. McMahon was appointed the first pastor. The church is located on 103 Center Street.
These are the new volumes for St. Thomas Aquinas
- St. Thomas Aquinas (Bridgewater) Baptisms 1865-1881
- St. Thomas Aquinas (Bridgewater) Baptisms 1882-1905
- St. Thomas Aquinas (Bridgewater) Baptisms and Marriages 1853-1856
- St. Thomas Aquinas (Bridgewater) Confirmations 1885-1922
- St. Thomas Aquinas (Bridgewater) Confirmations 1885-1940
- St. Thomas Aquinas (Bridgewater) Marriages 1863-1908
This update is made possible by the efforts of our volunteer Kayla Hinrichsen . If you are interested in helping this project, 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.
Volume 62, for the year 2013, has been added to The Mayflower Descendant database and is fully searchable. This update adds approximately 220 new pages and 1,700 searchable names.
Mayflower Descendant has been published by the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants since 1899. It is an essential source of information on many New England families, and its focus is not limited to those with Mayflower lineage. The journal includes transcriptions and abstracts of deeds, wills, vital records, and other original documents. In addition, it features compiled genealogies and analytical studies of genealogical problems.
The indexing for these records includes full names, Publication year (not the year of the record), and article titles and authors.
This update is made possible by the efforts of our volunteer David Anderson. If you have some time and would like to get involved in the digitization and indexing process 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.
We have re-indexed the database Connecticut: Early Probate Records, 1635-1750. This database is now searchable by first name and last name, date, and location. All records are of type Probate Record.
Charles William Manwaring spent the last years of his life abstracting the early probate records of the Hartford, Connecticut, Probate District and publishing them in three volumes that are reflected in this database. For those that are interested in reading the original probate documents, the volume and page numbers are in the pages of this database and are displayed in the record details as Original Volume and Original Page.
Connecticut today is comprised of many different probate districts. But originally Connecticut Colony (as distinct from New Haven Colony) probate records were all kept by the colony as a whole. Then in 1666, after the union of the two colonies, probate matters were conducted by four newly formed counties, Hartford, New London, New Haven, and Fairfield. In May 1719 the colony began splitting towns off of the Hartford district to form new districts, first Windham, then Woodbury, and so on. Thus Charles W. Manwaring’s abstracts of Hartford District probates, which began in 1635, at first included the whole colony, but by 1750, when his third volume concludes, the district was considerably smaller.
This update is made possible by the efforts of our team our volunteers, specifically David Anderson. We genuinely appreciate the work of all our volunteers who make these databases possible. If you have some time and would like to get involved 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.
We have revamped the database Madison, CT: Vital Records, 1718-1890. This database now contains the page image of the original manuscript, and it is searchable by first name and last name, record type, and family members (where available).
This database is indexed from birth, marriage and death records transcribed by Louise R. Allen in 1935. Madison was first settled in 1641 and was known as East Guilford until it was incorporated as a separate town in 1826.
This update is made possible by the efforts of our team our volunteers, including; Ron Wilson, Meg Mills, Judi Schauner, and Edna Curtin. We appreciate the work of all our volunteers. If you have some time and would like to get involved 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.
Today we are releasing volumes 2 and 3 (1848-1849) of the in-depth re-indexing of all the genealogical records in the database Vital Records from The NEHGS Register. This update includes over 23,000 records and 93,000 searchable names; almost 8 times as many as the original index for these volumes.
This ongoing project will unlock the value of all the information captured in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register since the first publication in 1847. We are reviewing every published article add extracting a broad set of records for those articles that are genealogical in nature. So, in addition to birth, marriage, and death records there are now records of type; residence, immigration, military records, church dismissals, and more. The indexing we create is at the same level we have used for the Archdiocese of Boston and the Mayflower Silver Books. It includes spouses, parents, and locations.
Users of American AncesTREES will also benefit by being able to get hints from the newly indexed volumes in their family trees.
We will release each re-indexed volume of the register as it is completed. This update is made possible by the efforts of our volunteers Barbara Holt, Charlie Watson, Diane Arbuckle, Fran Danico, Jan Lundquist, Jeanne Brown, Julie Nathanson, Karen Ristic,, Kay Sencabaugh, Linda Peterson, Margaret Parker, Meghan McDonagh, Nancy Borman, Patricia Dalpiaz, Ray Ristic, and Richard Wood. If you would like to part of the team working on this rewarding project to revamp the index to the NEHGS Register, please contact Rachel Adams, Database Services Volunteer Coordinator via email at rachel.adams@nehgs.org.
Published quarterly since 1847, The New England Historical and Genealogical Register is the flagship journal of American genealogy and the oldest journal in the field. The Register has featured articles on a wide variety of topics since its inception, including vital records, church records, tax records, land and probate records, cemetery transcriptions, obituaries, and historical essays. Authoritative compiled genealogies have been the centerpiece of the Register for more than 150 years. Thousands of New England families have been treated in the pages of the journal and many more are referenced in incidental ways throughout. These articles may range from short pieces correcting errors in print or solving unusual problems to larger treatments that reveal family origins or present multiple generations of a family. The indexing for these records includes full names, Publication year (not the year of the record), and article titles and authors.
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.