Archive For The “Uncategorized” Category
Colonial Georgian-style 1746 house built by Judge Seth Wetmore. Intersection of Connecticut Route 66 and Camp Road. Members of the Wetmore Family enslaved three people named Tony, Membo, and Dick as documented in the Middletown Land Records. Photographers Jerrye & Roy Klotz, M.D. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
We are excited to announce that we have collaborated with the Godfrey Memorial Library of Middletown, Connecticut to add 50 records with the Godfrey Memorial Library: Middletown, CT Manumissions, 1774-1823 database as part of American Ancestors’ 10 Million Names initiative. These records were compiled during 2020 and 2021 by Albert Fiacre, Terry Latimer and Diane Reid. Please visit their website to learn more about their work.
All the records in this study were taken from the Middletown land records. The earliest manumission found was in 1774 while the latest one was in 1823. Only one purchase/sale of an enslaved person was found. It was quite possible that other means were used in slave manumissions such as court records. This effort focuses exclusively on land records.
As can be seen in the documents, the typical process in the emancipation of an enslaved person was first to have the Selectmen of Middletown certify that an enslaved person could be set free and then for the enslaver to record the emancipation on the land records. Many of the documents make reference to the “Abolition Act” and the desire to cooperate with the sentiments of that Act.
This watercolor from the American War of Independence is by Jean Baptiste Antoine de Verger (1762-1851). The watercolor shows the variety of soldiers fighting for American independence, depicting, from left to right, a black soldier of the First Rhode Island Regiment, a New England militiaman, a frontier rifleman, and a French officer. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
We are excited to announce that we have collaborated with the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) to add 7114 records with the Daughters of the American Revolution: Patriots of Color, 1712 – 1888 database as part of American Ancestors’ 10 Million Names initiative. This data comes from decades of DAR research that culminated in the creation of their Patriots of Color Database in 2021. The database is part of the DAR E Pluribus Unum Educational Initiative, which seeks to highlight the stories of underrepresented Patriots and increase access to historical and genealogical resources surrounding the lives of people of color and women in the American Revolution. The DAR Patriots of Color Database can be found here.
This database encompasses a less-examined aspect of the American Revolution: the Black, Native American, and mixed-descent participants. For the patriots that can be found here, the information available is extremely varied and comes from many diverse sources. There were both free Black and enslaved Patriots, and these entries sometimes only include a first name, or a first name and their enslaver’s last name as parenthetical information. Native American participants may be listed under their indigenous names and their tribal affiliation will be provided when known. These entries cover the original thirteen colonies as well as some of the frontier areas, such as the “Old Northwest,” which encompasses most of the Great Lakes region.
Please note: Please Note: This database is available to all NEHGS members, including Guest members, at no cost. Consider membership.
If you are interested in volunteering, please contact our Database Volunteer Coordinator, Zobeida, at zobeida.chaffee-valdes@nehgs.org.
We are excited to announce that we have added 103 more volumes of school records to our database, Portsmouth, NH: School Records, 1846-1958. This database is the result of a partnership between the Portsmouth Athenaeum and NEHGS, and it is full of interesting surprises that can help paint a picture about the students’ lives. This addition contains more records from the late 19th and early 20th century and includes many names of children whose families emigrated from Eastern Europe, Italy, and Greece.
In addition to birth dates, parents, and residences, you can also find nicknames, deaths, doodles, course plans and books, notes about major events, staff, children running away, the weather, pranks, and punishments. When complete, this database will have 597 volumes. The current addition includes 103 volumes from Cabot, Farragut, and Franklin schools, and the Portsmouth Teacher Training School.
The Portsmouth Athenaeum maintains a library of over 40,000 volumes and has held the city’s historic school records since 1991.
The records included in this database are now housed in the collections of Portsmouth Public Library.
We thank the volunteers who have made this database possible! If you are interested in volunteering, please contact our Database Volunteer Coordinator, Zobeida, at zobeida.chaffee-valdes@nehgs.org.
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
Today we’ve added 6 new and updated sketches to Early Vermont Settlers, 1700-1784. The people profiled in these sketches lived in Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, and Vernon.
These sketches were created by Scott Andrew Bartley, who is researching the heads of families who lived in Vermont prior to the Revolutionary War. His study project is not only identifying those who sought better lives on the frontier, but is also illustrating major players on the political and religious fronts and uncovering regional migration patterns for this period.
The following new and updated sketches have been added:
Orvis, William, Jr. (Vernon, Dummerston)
Partridge, Jasper (Brattleboro, Guilford)
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
Edwin Whitefield, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Today we’ve updated Early New England Families, 1641-1700, adding two new sketches. These new sketches feature Samuel Gaylord (m. 1646, 1681) and Gamaliel Phippen (m. 1649).
The Early New England Families, 1641-1700 study project is led by Alicia Crane Williams. This project highlights heads of families mentioned in Torrey’s New England Marriages to 1700 and focuses on individuals who immigrated from 1641 through 1700. These individuals are grouped by year of marriage.
Interested researchers should also read Alicia’s Vita Brevis post, “Genealogical Clusters”, which discusses her research process and discoveries while preparing a sketch for Edward Jackson.
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
Whitelaw, James; Callender, Benjamin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Today we’ve added 20 new and updated sketches to Early Vermont Settlers, 1700-1784. The people profiled in these sketches lived in Vernon, Dummerston, Brattleboro, and Fort Dummer.
These sketches were created by Scott Andrew Bartley, who is researching the heads of families who lived in Vermont prior to the Revolutionary War. His study project is not only identifying those who sought better lives on the frontier, but is also illustrating major players on the political and religious fronts and uncovering regional migration patterns for this period.
The following new and updated sketches have been added:
Bridgman, Orlando, Jr. (Vernon)
Holton, Thomas (Vernon, Dummerston)
Partridge, Jasper (Brattleboro, Guilford)
Patterson, Eleazer (Vernon, Brattleboro)
Patterson, Jonathan (Vernon, Brattleboro)
Sargent, Daniel (Vernon, Dummerston)
Sargent, Rufus (Vernon, Dummerston)
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
We’re excited to announce 22 new sketches to our Boston Tea Party Participant Biographies database! All of the sketches included in this update are proven participants or eyewitnesses.
The goal of this project is to create comprehensive biographical sketches for all individuals associated with or known to have participated in the Boston Tea Party, which took place on December 16, 1773 in Boston Harbor. This project is launched in conjunction with the announcement of the Boston Tea Party Descendants Program, a new lineage society for those whose ancestors participated in the historic revolutionary event. This project, as well as the Descendants Program, are both in collaboration with the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum. You can learn more about the Boston Tea Party Descendants Program here.
Below is the list of new biographies for the following individuals:
Brewer, James (1742-1806) [Participant]
Burton, Benjamin (1749-1835) [Participant]
Cheever, Ezekiel (1720-1784) [Participant]
Crane, John (1744-1805) [Participant]
Decker, David (1719-1800) [Eyewitness]
Dickman, John (1750- 1833) [Participant]
Fulton, John (1733-1790) [Participant]
Gammell, John (1751-1828) [Participant]
Hewes, George Robert Twelves (1742-1840) [Participant]
Hooton, John (1754-1844) [Participant]
Horton, Elisha (1757-1837) [Participant]
Hunt, Abraham (1748-1793) [Participant]
Ingersol/Ingersoll/Ingoldson/Ingollson, Daniel (1751-1829) [Participant]
MacIntosh/McIntosh/Mackintosh, Ebenezer (1737-1817) [Participant]
McNeil, Archibald (1750-1840) [Participant]
Mellus, Henry (1756-1832) [Participant]
Miller, Aaron John (1749-1838) [Eyewitness]
Newell, Eliphalet (1735-1813) [Participant]
Purkitt/Purkett, Henry (1755-1846) [Participant]
Rice, Benjamin (1722-1796) [Participant]
Simpson, Benjamin (1755-1849) [Participant]
More sketches will be released soon, so stay tuned for more!
Please note: This database is available to all NEHGS members, including Guest Members, at no cost. Consider membership.
We are excited to announce that we have added a new database: American Offshore Whaling Crew Lists, 1799-1927 to our collection. This database is comprised of 6082 names and records and is searchable for given names and surnames, and includes port and voyage information.
This database includes information about all known American offshore (or “pelagic”) whaling voyages from the 1700s to the 1920s. The voyages included in the database sailed from, or were under the registry of, what is now the United States. A voyage was defined to be complete when the vessel returned to its port of departure or registry. This database includes crew lists from four New England ports: Fall River, MA, New Bedford, MA, Salem, MA, and New London, CT.
This database is the result of a partnership with the New Bedford Whaling Museum, Mystic Seaport Museum, and the Nantucket Historical Association. Their joint work on whaling history can be found here.
Please Note: This database is available to all NEHGS members, including Guest members, at no cost. Consider membership.
If you are interested in volunteering, please contact our Database Volunteer Coordinator, Zobeida, at zobeida.chaffee-valdes@nehgs.org.
We have added nine new volumes to our General Society of Colonial Wars Membership Applications, 1893-1949 database. These volumes include application numbers 5265-6929 and contain 232,422 records, 549,876 names, and 20,680 pages. This database is searchable for given names and surnames, and includes records for provided births, baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials listed for persons in the line of eligibility for membership on the application forms.
This database will eventually include all original and supplemental applications to the General Society of Colonial Wars starting from their formal founding in 1893, and currently includes applications 1-5264. Material is not included, however, for individuals listed in the applications who were born after January 1, 1950. If an application in the current range is excluded, it is either due to the privacy policy, or it has been deemed as missing from the archive.
This database was created through a partnership of the General Society of Colonial Wars and American Ancestors. The Society of Colonial Wars was founded in New York in 1892 (the General Society was founded a year later in 1893) for the purpose of furthering the interest in, and study of, America’s Colonial history for the period between the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia on May 13, 1607 and the battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775.
Through the years, the General Society of Colonial Wars has established a large network of Colonial War descendants all over the United States. For more information about this society, visit the General Society of Colonial Wars webpage here.
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
We are excited to announce that we have added 100 volumes of school records to our database, Portsmouth, NH: School Records, 1846-1958. This database is the result of a partnership between the Portsmouth Athenaeum and NEHGS, and it is full of interesting surprises that can help paint a picture about the students’ lives.
In addition to birth dates, parents, and residences, you can also find the nicknames, deaths, doodles, course plans and books, notes about major events, staff, children running away, the weather, pranks, and punishments, including one about a child who put cayenne pepper in the stove! When complete, this database will have 597 volumes. This addition includes 100 volumes from the following schools: Atlantic Heights, Bartlett, Cabot, Farragut, Franklin, Hanover, Haven, High Street Primary, Jones, Lafayette, Manning, New Franklin, Peabody, Portsmouth High, and Whipple.
The Portsmouth Athenaeum maintains a library of over 40,000 volumes and has held the city’s historic school records since 1991.
The records included in this database are now housed in the collections of Portsmouth Public Library.
We thank the volunteers who have made this database possible! If you are interested in volunteering, please contact our Database Volunteer Coordinator, Zobeida, at zobeida.chaffee-valdes@nehgs.org.
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.