Author Archive

Alicia Crane William’s study project, Early New England Families, 1641-1700 focuses on immigrants to New England , using Torrey’s New England Marriages as a guide.

Today we’re announcing two new sketches:

Samuel Carter (m. 1639) Samuel was a shoemaker in Charlestown who married Winifred Harwood and died in 1681.
Thomas Carter (m. 1639, 1679) Thomas was Samuel’s brother.  Their brother John also has a sketch available as part of this database.  Thomas was a yeoman who married twice, first a woman named Ann, and then Elizabeth (Bunker) Johnson.

Click here to download a complete pdf list of all Early New England Families sketches with links to each sketch.

Click here to visit our bookstore to purchase a print compilation of the first 50 sketches in the series.

Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.

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After a bit of a hiatus, we’re back, just in time to be mentioned in American Ancestors Magazine!  We have a brand new set of challenges for you; visit our Transcription Challenge page to offer a suggestion.  These new challenges come from St. Patrick in Lowell, and St. George in Framingham.

We so appreciated all of your help and suggestions from last time!  Over 60 participants offered suggestions.  Here are the final answers we have settled on:

1. Connulu, Connelly
2. Alice O’Connor
3. Briscilla, Priscilla
4. Bernahan (last name of a godmother)
5. Coyle, Collyer

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We’re announcing two new sketches to Western Massachusetts Families in 1790.  This database focuses on families listed in the 1790 census in historic Berkshire and Hampshire counties, an area which includes parts of modern Franklin and Hampden counties as well. Sketches are submitted by NEHGS researchers and members and edited by Helen Schatvet Ullmann, CG, FASG. The new sketches for two Revolutionary War veterans are listed below:

Elnathan Curtis (Stockbridge)
Solomon Stockwell (Windsor)

Please note:  This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.

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Alicia Crane William’s study project, Early New England Families, 1641-1700 focuses on immigrants to New England , using Torrey’s New England Marriages as a guide.

Today we’re announcing two new sketches and one revised sketch:

Henry Lamprey (m.1641) Henry came from England to Boston and died in Hampton, New Hampshire as an old man.

Daniel Fisher (m. 1645, 1651) Daniel also came from England and settled in Dedham.  He was the town surveyor who helped determine the limits of the town at the time.

Joseph Phippen (m.1640) (revised) Joseph Phippen came from England and lived in Massachusetts coastal towns including Hingham, Boston, Falmouth, and Salem.

Click here to download a complete pdf list of all Early New England Families sketches with links to each sketch.

Click here to visit our bookstore to purchase a print compilation of the first 50 sketches in the series.

Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.

 

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We’ve added 14 new volumes to Massachusetts: (Image-Only) Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900 from St. Stephen’s parish in Boston.  St. Stephen’s is located in Boston’s North End.  The church was originally founded as a free church for those who could not pay to belong to another parish.  At its founding, it was called St. John the Baptist.  As the parish grew, they expanded to a new church building, formerly known as New North Church, designed by Charles Bulfinch.  When they expanded to this new building, the parish became known as St. Stephen.  This update consists of the following volumes:

St. Stephen (Boston) Index to Baptisms and Marriages, 1842-1887

St. Stephen (Boston) Baptisms and Marriages, 1842-1845

St. Stephen (Boston) Baptisms, 1846-1853

St. Stephen (Boston) Baptisms, 1854-1862

St. Stephen (Boston) Baptisms, 1862-1870

St. Stephen (Boston) Baptisms, 1870-1877

St. Stephen (Boston) Baptisms, 1877-1882

St. Stephen (Boston) Baptisms, 1883-1889

St. Stephen (Boston) Baptisms, 1889-1900

St. Stephen (Boston) Baptisms, 1900 (part 1)

St. Stephen (Boston) Baptisms, 1900 (part 2)

St. Stephen (Boston) Confirmations and First Communions, 1875-1900

St. Stephen (Boston) Marriages, 1846-1872

St. Stephen (Boston) Marriages, 1872-1900  

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We’ve added the parish of St. James the Greater in Boston to Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, 1789-1900.  This parish was established in 1854, located in what is now Boston’s Chinatown.  In 1854, the neighborhood was largely of Irish descent.  The original church on the corner of Albany and Harvard streets was demolished when the land was sold to a railroad company.  The new church was built on Harrison Street and still serves the Catholics of Boston today.  An enormous thank you is due to all of our volunteers who helped make this large parish now available.

This update consists of the twelve following volumes:

St. James the Greater (Boston) Baptisms, 1854-1864

St. James the Greater (Boston) Baptisms, 1865-1874

St. James the Greater (Boston) Baptisms, 1874-1875

St. James the Greater (Boston) Baptisms, 1875-1879

St. James the Greater (Boston) Baptisms, 1879-1883

St. James the Greater (Boston) Baptisms,1883-1888

St. James the Greater (Boston) Baptisms, 1888-1900

St. James the Greater (Boston) Confirmations, 1858-1900

St. James the Greater (Boston) Marriages, 1855-1873

St. James the Greater (Boston) Marriages, 1874-1884

St. James the Greater (Boston) Marriages, 1884-1894

St. James the Greater (Boston) Marriages, 1895-1900

Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.

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We’re announcing a new database, Suffolk County, MA: Probate File Papers.  This database was created from digital images and index contributed to NEHGS by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives. It contains the records of 21,387 Suffolk County probate cases filed between 1630 and 1800. The probate cases include wills, guardianships, administrations, and various other types of probate records. The cases range in length from one to over 350 pages, with a total of over 191,600 individual file papers.

The complete Suffolk County File Papers collection will eventually cover cases 1-94,757, which includes years up to 1893. The cases are indexed chronologically, which allows us to present them in sections while digital photography is taking place. The digital photography is expected to continue through 2020. We will continue to add additional cases as they become available.

If you have questions on how to search this database, or about our collaboration with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives, please watch our video, How to Search Massachusetts Probate File Papers.

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Here at NEHGS we’re always working to improve some of our older databases.  We’re re-launching Lincoln County ME: Commissioners Marriage Records, 1759-1777 and Westfield, MA: Deaths in the First Church, 1728-1836.  Both of these collections are based on manuscripts held in our collection.  Each collection now has images.  We want to thank our volunteers for their help with these projects; including Margo Blank, Elizabeth Handler, Arlys LaFehr, Liz Odell, and Marie Wells.

At its beginning, Lincoln County, Maine covered most of the modern state.  It was established at the same time as Cumberland County, stretching from that western border north and east towards modern Canada.  Marriages in this collection are found in modern Hancock, Kennebec, Knox, Sagadahoc, and Washington counties, as well as Lincoln.

In the 1700s, Westfield was a frontier town, on the very western edge of Massachusetts’ boundaries at that time.  Settlers to the area farmed the alluvial valley.  Congregations have been worshiping in the same church building in Westfield since 1860, although the church was first established around 1673.

Lincoln County, ME: Commissioners Marriage Records 1759-1777 is now indexed by:

• first and last name
• spouses’ first and last names
• location
• date
• all records have the record type “Marriage.”

Westfield, MA: Deaths in the First Church, 1728-1836 is now indexed by:

• first and last name
• parents’ first and last names
• spouses’ first and last names
• date
• all records have the record type “Death”
• all records have the location Westfield, Hampden, Massachusetts, United States

Please note: These databases are available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.

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We’ve added 9 new volumes to Massachusetts: (Image Only) Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900 from St. Rose of Lima in Chelsea.  St. Rose of Lima was the first Catholic church established in Chelsea; their church building was dedicated in 1865.  They named their parish for the first saint born in the Americas.  This update consists of the following volumes, amounting to over 3,000 new pages.  We want to thank our wonderful scanners Eileen McCarthy, Angela Napolitano, Ross and Linda Weaver, and John Phlo for their help in digitizing this parish!

St. Rose of Lima (Chelsea) Baptisms and Marriages, 1850-1867

St. Rose of Lima (Chelsea) Baptisms, 1867-1874

St. Rose of Lima (Chelsea) Baptisms, 1874-1882

St. Rose of Lima (Chelsea) Baptisms, 1882-1889

St. Rose of Lima (Chelsea) Baptisms, 1890-1893

St. Rose of Lima (Chelsea) Baptisms, 1894-1897

St. Rose of Lima (Chelsea) Baptisms, 1897-1900

St. Rose of Lima (Chelsea) Marriages, 1867-1888

St. Rose of Lima (Chelsea) Marriages, 1888-1900

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We’ve added three new volumes from St. George in Framingham to Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900.  In One Hundred Years of Progress, James S. Sullivan describes the mills that arose in Framingham, drawing immigrants (particularly Catholics) from other countries.  He says, “in no place did they receive a heartier welcome than in Framingham…it should not be surprising that the little hamlet Saxonville [where St. George is located] should take such a prominent part in the early days of Catholicity in New England. (p.778)”  This latest addition includes over 4,000 new records and over 18,000 new names.  The new volumes are:

St. George (Framingham) Baptisms, 1878-1900

St. George (Framingham) Baptisms and Marriages, 1848-1859

St. George (Framingham) Marriages, 1894-1900

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