Author Archive
Green Mountain Boy Memorial in Rutland Vermont, 1915. Public Domain courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
We are very happy to announce a new database today that is related to our Early Vermont Settlers Study Project; Early Vermont Settlers Index Cards, 1750-1784.
This database contains the indexed images of the index cards prepared by Donald Alan Smith for his thesis, Legacy of Dissent: Religion and Politics in Revolutionary Vermont, 1749 to 1784 (Clark Univ., PhD., 1980). This information represents one of the key resources for the NEHGS study project Early Vermont Settlers to 1784.
The index cards in this database provide excellent information about personal data on individuals (only a few women) who lived within the borders of present-day Vermont. The index cards are not standardized in their format but do follow a general layout. The upper left of the card is the name of the settler, sometimes with several spellings. These names have been standardized for the ease of finding them. The upper right is the town or towns of settlement. This index records the first town settled in Vermont only. Sometimes that town’s name does not appear here, but it found in the settlement date area. Detailed information on the layout and abbreviations can be found in the database description that appears below the search form on the link above.
The Early Vermont Settlers Index Cards database provides over 12,000 pages of index cards, organized into 18 volumes, and over 12,100 searchable names. The database supports the following searchable fields:
- First and last name
- Year
- Location
In cases where the card relates directly to people in one of the sketches from the database Early Vermont Settlers, 1700-1784 https://www.americanancestors.org/search/databasesearch/1565/early-vermont-settlers-1700-1784, a link is provided to the sketch in both the record display page and the transcript page.
This new database is made possible by the indexing effort Scott Andrew Bartley, who is also responsible for the Early Vermont Settlers Study Project. We genuinely appreciate the support of everyone who helps create online databases. If you are interested in joining the team, for even a few hours a month, please contact Rachel Adams, Database Services Volunteer Coordinator rachel.adams@nehgs.org.
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
A preview of the GU272 Memory Project portal
We have updated our American Ancestors Magazine database to include volume 19 covering the year 2018. This update providdes over 280 new pages and 3,400 searchable names.
The image above is taken from the article A Community Betrayed. The Fate and Legacy of Slaves Sold by Georgetown University, which begins on page 24 of volume 19.4. The image is a preview of the forthcoming GU272 Memory Project portal; which will contain a wealth of research tools designed for GU272 descendants and others interested in African American family history. The two main components of the site will be a new database and a collection of oral histories.
The indexing for these records includes full names, Publication year (not the year of the record), and article titles and authors.
A 64-page magazine published by NEHGS beginning in 2010, American Ancestors contains a wealth of information for family historians. American Ancestors features a wide range of article topics and styles, and is designed to appeal to family historians of all levels. Topics include coverage of a particular region or group of people; case studies; descriptions of particular record sets; “how-to” articles; compelling historic accounts that illuminate the past; research strategies and methodology; and accounts of migration and immigrant groups.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 database digitization and indexing process please contact Rachel Adams, Database Services Volunteer Coordinator via email at rachel.adams@nehgs.org.
The entire run of New England Ancestors is available at our NEHGS Boston research library, call number F1.N49.
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
New Print page range button on the Record Detail Page
The most requested feature for our search capabilities over the last couple of years is to be able to print more than one page from a database at a time. This is most valuable when your search results are from one of the Probate File Papers databases or from one of our Journal databases, since the information you want is typically spread over multiple pages.
We are very happy to make the Print Page Range capability available today. With it, you can simply enter the number of consecutive pages you would like to print and press Print! So now for those multi-page articles or Probate case files you can get all the images at once. Also, you also have the option of producing a PDF; if your browser supports that as a print option. The screen below describe how you can use this new capability.
Button location: This new option appears on the Record Detail (see above) and the Image page as shown below.
Print Page range on the Image display page.
Enter the number of pages to print: When you click the Print Page range button, you will have the opportunity to specify the number of pages you would like to have printed. Just enter the number and select Print. You will need to know the number of pages to print. The cover of each Probate File papers indicates the number of pages in it. For journal articles you will need to read to the end, the return the the beginning. lease remember that it takes time to download multiple large image files, so be patient.
Form to enter the number of pages to print.
Pages appear in a pop-up: When the pages have been formatted, they appear in a new Tab. So, you must have pop-ups enable on your browser or you will not get to see the results. After the pages have appeared, the browser print window will allow you to print the pages.
Print page range apears in a separate tab
Print to PDF: Most web browsers provide you a print to PDF option. So, if you change the browser print option to that you can produce a PDF of the article or probate case file. Here is a sample of possible options from the Chrome browser.
Chrome option to print to PDF
We hope that you enjoy this new capability. Please contact us at webmaster@nehgs.org if you have any questions.
Drawing/wood engraving of the Reformed (Dutch) Church at 5th Avenue and 48th Street in New York City, published 1879. Public Domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
We have updated the index to Christian Intelligencer: Death reports of Reformed Dutch Church, 1830-1871 so that it is now searchable by first name and last name, location, record type, and family members (where available). The text of these extracted death records published in the Christian Intelligencer newspaper continues to be searchable via Keyword search.
With this update, there are now over 11,000 searchable names in the database. The Christian Intelligencer published death reports from literally around the world, and the database includes reports for 35 of the United States and 30 different countries.
In 1830 the Association of Members of the Reformed Dutch Church in New York City began publishing the Christian Intelligencer. From 1830 to 1871 the paper published notices of death sent by readers across the country. Many of the obituaries contain historical and other information of interest, which was uncommon in newspapers of this era. This database represents seven volumes of death records compiled and edited by Ray C. Sawyer in 1931.
This update is made possible by the efforts of our volunteer Tim Belgrad, Kiera Breitenbach, Pat Harney, Barbara Holt, Meghan McDonagh, Meg Mill, and Liz Odell. If you have some time and would like to get involved in the database digitization and indexing process, please contact Rachel Adams, Database Services Volunteer Coordinator via email at rachel.adams@nehgs.org.
The original text is part of the R. Stanton Avery Collections, call number Mss 905.
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
The cover of Volume 1 of the NEHGR from January 1847.
We are very excited to announce the very first installment of a major new project to provide in-depth re-indexing of all the genealogical records in the database Vital Records from The NEHGS Register. Today we are delivering the full re-indexing of Volume 1 of the NEHGS Register published in 1847. This update includes over 6,500 records and 26,000 searchable names.
This initiative will unlock the value of all the information captured in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register since its 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. This database previously only contained birth, marriage, and death records. We are now adding records of every type including; residence, immigration, military records, church dismissals, and more. The in-depth indexing for the new records includes, dates, locations, parents and spouses. This is the same approach we have used for the major Archdiocese of Boston and the Mayflower Silver Books projects.
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: Larry Akin, Diane Arbuckle, Julie Bliss Hammons, Nancy Borman, Edna Curtin, Patricia Dalpaiz, Julie Esposito, Elizabeth Handler, Susan Hurlburt, Meghan McDonagh, Julie Nathanson, Liz Odell, Margaret Parker, Keenan Pawley, Kay Sencabaugh, Charlie Watson, Irene Weinmann, Marie Wells, and Mearte Winter.
WIth over 170 volumes yet to be reindexed, this is a large project and it is just beginning. To become part of the team working on this rewarding initiative and help your fellow family researchers; please contact Rachel Adams, Database Services Volunteer Coordinator via email at rachel.adams@nehgs.org.
The Vital Records from The NEHGS Register database is actually not new. Today, it contains records extracted from articles in the NEHGR that were published in a tabular format. These records will still be available, and there will be a dramatically larger set of records and searchable names. For example, today’s release of Volume 1 provides over 20 times as many records as were originally available for this volume. This database complements our other Register database, the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (NEHGR). The NEHGR database provides searchable access based the names in the printed index from each volume. The Vital Records from the NEHGS Register database is indexed in much greater detail.
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.
Geological map of Essex County, Massachusetts, Author: Sears, John Henry. Publisher: Essex Institute Date: 1893. Boston Public Library, Norman B. Leventhal Map Center under the Creative Commons 2.0 Generic License in 2008.
We are very happy to have added Volume 33, covering the year 2013, to the genealogical journal The Essex Genealogist. This update contains over 200 pages and 2,400 searchable names.
The leading publication for genealogical research in Essex County, Massachusetts, this quarterly journal has been published since 1981 by The Essex Society of Genealogists (founded in 1975). Within the pages of this journal are selections of cemetery transcriptions, bible records, vital and church records relating to families from Essex County, Massachusetts. The Essex Genealogist has had published numerous Ahnentafel’s (Ancestor Tables) of the ancestry of their members, as well as verbatim transcriptions of lectures over the years. This journal continues to serve those researching Essex County families with valuable resources now entering nearly four decades in print.
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 volunteers David Anderson and Meghan McDonagh. If you would like to get involved in the database digitization and indexing process, or just find out more, please contact Rachel Adams, Database Services Volunteer Coordinator via email at rachel.adams@nehgs.org.
The entire run of The Essex Genealogist is available at the NEHGS Boston research library, call number F72.E7 E62.
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
Wesselhoeft Water Cure. Photograph 1869?-1890? by D. A. Henry. Public Domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Today we are making a new database available: Brattleboro, VT: Wesselhoeft Water Cure, 1845-1848. This database provides an indexed listing of the many people who came to Brattleboro Vermont to take advantage of the therapeutic benefits of a spa run by Dr. Wesselhoeft. Notable people included author and abolitionist, Harriet Beecher Stowe (Uncle Tom’s Cabin), poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Song of Hiawatha and Evangeline); and American historian, Francis Parkman Jr, to name a few.
There are over 600 pages of information about the Wesselhoeft Water Cure, lists of patients, and the kinds of conditions that were treated there. The patients came from most every state east of the Mississippi and includes over 1,000 records.
This database comes as a result of our partnership with Jerry Carbone and Whetstone Brook Genealogy and the Brooks Memorial Library who provided access to the Green Mountain Spring. The Wesselhoeft Water Cure is also featured as part of the Brattleboro Words Trail, a project of the Peoples, Places, and Words in Brattleboro, funded in part by the National Endowment of Humanities. More information on the Trail may be found here.
The volumes in this database include:
- The Description of the Brattleboro Hydropathic Establishment – which is browseable, and provides a perspective on the institution
- The Green Mountain Spring from 1845 through 1848 – a regular publication of the Water Cure that descibes treatments and include names and dates for patents who visited
- The pages from The Second Report of the Brattleboro Hydropathic Establishment which contain a full list of the patients who were treated there
This database can be searched with the following:
- First and last name – in many records the first name only contains initials. For best results use just the last name.
- Year
- Location – this is the home residence of the patient who came to the Water Cure
Please note: This database is available to all NEHGS members.
The Bridge to South Harpswell, Maine, 1914. Public Domain in the United States, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
We are very happy to have added volume 35 (2013) to the database of the genealogical journal The Maine Genealogist. This update adds over 220 pages and 5,100 searchable names to the database.There image above was inspired by the article beginning on page 165 of this volume: “Daniel Ridley of Harpswell and Bowdoin Maine”.
Published since 1977, The Maine Genealogist is the quarterly journal of Maine Genealogical Society, founded in 1976. Beginning as a newsletter for the society, the publication evolved into The Maine Seine, published until 1990. The title was changed to The Maine Genealogist in 1991, and each issue, now 48 pages, contains scholarly articles on Maine families, emphasizing the solving of long-standing problems and primary source documentation.
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 database digitization and indexing process please contact Rachel Adams, Database Services Volunteer Coordinator via email at rachel.adams@nehgs.org.
The entire run of The New England Historical and Genealogical Register is available at the NEHGS Boston research library, call number F16.M345.
Please note: This database is available to all NEHGS members.
Rhode Island from a 1929 New England Rhode Map. Public Domain, courtesy of Wikimedia.org.
We are very happy to have expanded the content in the Rhode Island: Historical Cemeteries, 1647-2000 database. In this update we have added gravestone images for over 7,100 pages that did not have them before. In addition, we have added over 16,300 new records and searchable names to the database.
The new records are spread across 29 cemeteries. About 60% of the new records are in Bristol County, and 35% are in Providence County. In addition to Rhode Island records, this update includes some burial information for native Rhode Islanders who were buried out of state. You can find these new volumes added to the database:
- Chelsea, Maine – Veteran’s Cemetery Togus, Maine
- Mechanicsville, Virginia – Cold Harbor National Cemetery
- Petersburg, Virginia – City Point National Cemetery
This update was made possible by support from John Sterling and the transcriptions and images produced by the volunteers of Rhode Island Historical Cemeteries Transcription Project who work in cemeteries across Rhode Island.
This database is organized into volumes based on the city or town of the cemetery and provides information for 450,000 people and over 900,000 searchable names. The efforts to capture images of the gravestones is not complete, and approximately 25% of the records have an image to go with them. For the remainder, there is a placeholder noting that the image is not available and noting that you can see the birth and death details on the transcript page.
For most of the cemeteries, there GPS coordinates displayed on the transcript. This can be copied and pasted into a web site such as Google Maps to see where the cemetery is located.
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
The NEHG Register Winter 2018 issue
We have just posted a new volume to The New England Historical and Genealogical Register database. This update adds volume 178, which includes the 2018 Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall issues. This update adds 430 pages and 10,600 searchable names.
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.
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 database digitization and indexing process please contact Rachel Adams, Database Services Volunteer Coordinator via email at rachel.adams@nehgs.org.
The entire run of The New England Historical and Genealogical Register is available at the NEHGS Boston research library, call number F1.N56.
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.