Author Archive
Image Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
We have updated the index to Kennebunkport, ME: Voters for Town Officers, March 1833 so that it is now searchable by first name and last name, in addition to Keyword search. This database provides a list of all the residents who voted in the town officer elections of 1833. The records include the name, date and location (Kennebunkport)
Sample search results
We are very excited to announce the creation of a new searchable database of authenticated Mayflower Pilgrim genealogies; Mayflower Families Fifth Generation Descendants, 1700-1880. The General Society of Mayflower Descendants (GSMD) has published the very well-known series of books Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Descendants of the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth, Mass., December 1620 which document the first generation of descendants of the Pilgrims. Also known as the “Silver Books” this series is organized with separate volumes for each for these founding families.
Through a newly announced partnership with GSMD, American Ancestors is delivering this database with a full index of the fifth-generation descendants coupled with the page images for those people. The volumes in this collection are aligned with the volume numbers of the original series of books. Thanks to the hard work of our dedicated volunteers, we are releasing the following volumes today:
- Chilton, James and More, Richard (Vol. 15)
- Eaton, Francis (Vol. 9)
- Fuller, Edward (Vol. 4)
- Fuller, Samuel (Vol. 10)
- Howland, John (Vol. 23, p. 2)
- Priest, Degory (Vol. 8)
- Winslow, Edward (Vol. 5)
This database index includes birth, baptism, marriage, death, and deed records for these individuals, and where available, the names of parents and spouses.
Franklin County Court House. Image Credit: Back2reality06 at en.wikipedia, via Wikimedia Commons
Addition to the North American Cemetery Transcriptions
Five new volumes have been added to the North American Cemetery Transcriptions from NEHGS Manuscripts, 1642-1977 database which provide extensive coverage of Franklin County, Maine. The excellent indexing efforts of our volunteers has added over 30,000 new records and 57,000 new searchable names. The new volumes are:
- ME, Franklin: Various (MSS A 4724 Vol. 1)
- ME, Franklin: Various (MSS A 4724 Vol. 2)
- ME, Franklin: Various (MSS A 4724 Vol. 3)
- ME, Franklin: Various (MSS A 4724 Vol. 4)
- ME, Franklin: Various (MSS A 4724 Vol. 5)
Franklin county was formed from lands previously belonging to Kennebec, Oxford, and Somerset counties on May 9, 1838. It is in the west of the state, and as of the 2010 census, it was the second least populated county in Maine. Simon Titcomb, Jr., 1782-1830, is said to be the first child born to the settlers in Franklin County, and the transcription of his cemetery marker can be found here.
The index for these records includes birth and death records with full names, cemetery locations, and names of parents and spouses where available.
Image Credit: Sally Wilson (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
- Location oriented databases – They are consistently prefixed. For the United States and Canada, they will start with the city and state or province code, followed by the description, and ended with the year range for that collection (when possible). For databases from other countries, they will start with the country name. Examples include:
o Massachusetts: Jewish Cemeteries from American Jewish Historical Society, 1875-2012
o New Castle, NH: Record Book, 1745-1937
o Australia: Fortune Hunters, 1808-1857 - Census – National census start with the country name then year and description, and local censuses have the city and state or provide code followed by the year. Examples include:
o Norway: Census, 1875
o Massachusetts: 1855 State Census
o Framingham, MA: Census of the East Ward, 1837 - Journals and Periodicals – These start with the name of the journal and periodical. If the database contains only extracted records and dates from the journal or periodical, a description and year range is included. Examples include:
o Connecticut Nutmegger
o Albany Argus: Records of Deaths and Marriages, 1826-1828
o New Hampshire Gazette: Vital Records, 1756-1800
Of course, you can always browse the Database List A-Z to search the full range of databases if you don’t immediately find what you are looking for. And if you have bookmarked specific pages or saved search results in your trees – fear not, these references will be automatically redirected to use the new database names.
Great Migration Begins 3 volume set
We have greatly expanded the index to Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to N.E. 1620-1633, Vols. I-III. There are nearly 15,000 new birth, baptism, marriage, death and burial records that include the person’s full name and event date, as well as spouse and parent names where available. Searchable emigration and residence records for the featured persons in these volumes have also been added. For those people that may have saved URL’s from the original name-only index, these records are still available.
Search Tip: You can now try to include family members to help focus results. For example, a search for records on Priscilla Mullins that includes father of William returns the following:
Priscilla Mullins sample search
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
We have just updated the database Salisbury, MA: Marriages by Elder Jabez True, 1812-1835. It can now be searched by both spouse’s first and last names and the date of the marriage. The images of the original fragile manuscript are provided. Elder True lived from 1764 to 1835, and was a minister in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts for forty years.
Ten new volumes have been added to the North American Cemetery Transcriptions from NEHGS Manuscripts database covering cemeteries in Connecticut, Maine, and New Hampshire. Our hard-working volunteers have captured over 1,700 page images, 50,000 records and 200,000 searchable names in this update! Through these efforts, you can now view and search these new volumes:
- CT, Hartford: Enfield (MSS A 6115)
- CT, Tolland: Union (CT UNI 7)
- CT, Windham: Eastford (MSS A 2408)
- ME, Androscoggin: Various (MSS A 4722 Vol. 1)
- ME, Androscoggin: Various (MSS A 4722 Vol. 2)
- ME, Cumberland, Lincoln, Waldo: Various (MSS A 4723)
- ME, Hancock: North Brooksville (MSS A 7944)
- ME, Somerset: Various (MSS A 2746)
- NH, Strafford: Dover – Pine Hill (MSS A 2835 Vol. 1)
- NH, Strafford: Dover – Pine Hill (MSS A 2835 Vol. 2)
The indexing for these records includes birth and death records with full names, cemetery locations, and names of parents and spouses where available.
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
Search Improvements. We are very happy to introduce several enhancements to your search experience this week. The new capabilities include:
- Copy Citation to clipboard – When you have a search result and you would like to copy the citation information, you can click on Citation Information button on the top of the page. There you will see the convenient blue button to “Copy Citation” which will put the Citation information and the URL of the record to your computer’s clipboard. Then simply paste it wherever you would like.
- Shorter Citation URLs – Many people have noticed that the URLs for search results can be very long (as many as 185 characters!). So, as part of the Citation enhancement you get a much more compact URL that you can save in your family tree software or document.
- Image Print – If you click the Print button while looking at the image for a record, we will include the citation information and the citation URL underneath the image for your convenient reference.
- Search help – We have added the “Need Help?” button on the right-hand margin of the Advanced Search page. Now you have convenient access to Tips on how to search, a video tutorial and other information available from both the Advanced Search and Search Results pages.
These pictures below highlight the new Citation and Search Help enhancements. We hope you will enjoy these new capabilities!
