Archive For The “Uncategorized” Category

Today we’re announcing the addition of vital records from nine new towns in western Massachusetts to Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850.

This update includes over 36,000 records and 80,400 names.

Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850 presents the vital records of many (but not all) towns in Massachusetts. The volumes that comprise this database come from a variety of different sources including vital records published by NEHGS, vital records published by other individuals or organizations (such as Franklin P. Rice, the Essex Institute, or the General Society of Mayflower Descendants), and manuscripts from the NEHGS collection.

The new records added in this update come from the Corbin Collection, specifically the 2003 CD that transcribes the contents of the original manuscript collection located in the R. Stanton Avery Special Collections here at NEHGS.

Walter and Lottie Corbin, the genealogists who created the Corbin Collection lived in Florence, MA themselves (one of the new towns added in this update). According to the introduction to the CD, Walter and Lottie “traveled throughout western Massachusetts transcribing and compiling records until they had assembled perhaps the largest and most valuable collection of materials ever created for this area. The Corbins traversed the countryside transcribing church records, vital records, cemeteries, probate records, and many private records. They visited individuals in their homes, traipsed through overgrown cemeteries, and carefully examined dusty, centuries-old volumes in clerk’s offices, libraries, and churches.” The Corbins’ collection of records, most of which pertain to the 1650-1850 time period was purchased by NEHGS in 1964.

We’d like to thank Sam Sturgis for his help in making these towns available online.

The new volumes are listed below:

Blandford – V1
Florence – V1
Goshen – V1
Haydenville – V1
Huntington – V1
Middlefield – V2
Monson – V1
Pelham – V2
Plainfield – V1

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

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Today we’ve added 10 new volumes to Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920 from St. Philip in Roxbury, St. Monica in South Boston, St. William in Tewksbury, and Sacred Heart in Weymouth. This update adds over 30,000 names to search.

We’d like to thank Sam Sturgis for his help in making these parishes available online.

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

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Today, we’ve added 4 more volumes to Boston, MA: Provident Institution for Savings, 1817-1882. This update adds over 40,000 names to search.

The new volumes are:

Signature 11, 1854-1858

Signature 14, 1863-1867

Waste Book 1C, 1820

Waste Book 4C, 1821-1833

The Provident Institution for Savings in the Town of Boston was one of the first savings bank to be incorporated in the United States. About 80% of the individuals represented in the early records of this bank were immigrants to Boston. The Waste Books provide lists of daily transactions that happened at the bank–often one person is depositing money in benefit of another person. Residence locations are provided (usually a town), and occupations are often recorded.

If you are interested in the subject of bank records in general, be sure to watch genealogist Eileen Pironti’s webinar, Using Bank Records in Family History Research.

This database is still a work in progress. When complete, the database will contain 6 signature books and 6 “waste” (transaction) books. Three signature books and six waste books are currently available.

This database is possible through our partnership with the Boston Athenaeum. The Boston Athenaeum holds the original record books and performed the digitization of all the images. The full collection at the Boston Athenaeum is Provident Institution for Savings in the Town of Boston Records.

We’d like to thank our volunteers Judy Welna, Loretta Aldrich, Barbara Macken, Wendy Sheppard, Laura Engehardt, Blaine Parker, Barbara Foote, Gale Stevenson, Gig Moineau, Leslee Johnston, Maya Kuzma, Michale Giannetti, Katie McCarver, Liz Odell, Ellie Witham, Jannean James, Chelsea Hester, Charlie Watson, Ida Nystrom, Nancy Borman, and Margaret Parker for their work on this update.

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

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Today we’ve added 9 new volumes to Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920 from St. Hedwig in Cambridge and Immaculate Conception in Stoughton. This update adds over 7,000 names to search.

We’d like to thank Sam Sturgis for his help in making these parishes available online.

These new volumes are listed below:

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Massachusetts: Automobile Registrations, 1908-1910 is a three-volume database detailing early automobile registrations here in the commonwealth. These volumes include:

Massachusetts Automobile Registrations, 1908
Massachusetts Automobile Registrations, 1909
Massachusetts Automobile Registrations, 1910

Transcribed information includes the owner’s first and last names, town of residence, and the manufacturer and engine size of their vehicles. Appendices also include records about automobile dealers, garage and supply services, and lodging for those traveling by car.

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

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Today we’ve added six new sketches to Early Vermont Settlers, 1700-1784. The people profiled in the new sketches all lived in Brattleboro. The new sketches are listed below:

Andrews, James
Andrews, Seth
Calkins, Simeon
Chamberlain, Joseph
Chamberlain, Thomas
Compton, John

With this study project, Scott Andrew Bartley researches heads of families who lived in Vermont prior to the Revolutionary War.  These sketches illustrate major players on political and religious fronts, uncover the migration patterns for this period in the region, and identify all those just looking to better their lives on the new frontier.  This project is proceeding in two series, settlers to 1771 and 1772-1784.  The work so far has been geographical, focusing on Windsor and Windham Counties.

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

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We are very excited to announce a new database: Pittsburgh, PA: Gaines Funeral Home Records, 1925-1934. This database contains two volumes of funeral home records. Searchable fields include names of the deceased; dates and locations of birth, death, funeral service and interment, names of parents and spouses.  Other information available in the images includes occupation, cemetery, age at death, name of the attending physician, and clergyman. The records begin in 1925 and end in 1934. This project makes 2,186 records and 5,680 names fully searchable.

The Gaines Funeral Home was established by George W. Gaines in 1919 in the historically African-American neighborhood of Homewood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Most people in this database were buried in Monongahela Cemetery in Monongahela or Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh.  Other burials occurred in Greenwood and Homewood Cemeteries in Pittsburgh.  Some bodies were transported to further locations for burial including Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. While most of the records in this database pertain to the Pittsburgh area, people in this database were born in a variety of locations including Virginia, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Alabama, Maryland, Washington D.C. and more.

The original volumes are kept in the R. Stanton Avery Special Collections at NEHGS, call number Mss 1080.

We are grateful to the many dedicated volunteers who indexed all of the names for this project, including: Sandy Caldwell, Janet Essency, Nancy Johnson, Linda Weaver, Kathleen Oberley, Rich Wood, Linda Mathew, Melanie Nelson, Loretta Aldrich, Donna McClure, David Fredette, Carol Farrington, Renda Smith, Jaimie Williams-Peterson, and Eileen McCarthy. If you would like to become part of the team working on rewarding genealogical projects, please contact Rachel Adams, Database Services Volunteer Coordinator via email at rachel.adams@nehgs.org.

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

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Today we’ve added 14 new volumes to Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920 from Sacred Heart in Ipswich, St. Ann in Marlborough, St. Michael in Lynn, St. John-St. Hugh in Roxbury, and St. Mary in Salem. This update adds over 15,000 names to search.

We’d like to thank Sam Sturgis for his help making these parishes available online.

The new volumes are listed below:

St. Ann (Marlborough) Baptisms, 1919-1920

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Today we’ve added 44 new volumes and updated 7 volumes in Massachusetts: (Image-Only) Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920 from 7 parishes across eastern Massachusetts. This update adds over 13,000 new pages to browse.

The new and updated parishes include Blessed Sacrament (Cambridge), Our Lady of Lourdes (Jamaica Plain), St. Charles Borromeo (Woburn), St. Jean Baptiste (Lowell), St. Mary of the Angels (Roxbury), and St. Mary (Winchester).

If you need help navigating the image-only collection, please consult our webinar, Archdiocese of Boston Catholic Records Project: We’re Expanding! 

The new and updated volumes in Massachusetts: (Image-Only) Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, 1789-1920 are listed below. Volumes with an asterisk have been updated. Previously they were truncated to only display records from before January 1, 1901. Now they are presented on our site either in their complete form or with the records up to December 31, 1920:

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Today we’ve added four new sketches to Early Vermont Settlers, 1700-1784. The new sketches pertain to the Brattleboro area and include:

Alexander, John (Fort Dummer)
Cook, Oliver (Brattleboro)
Cook, Thomas (Brattleboro)
Frost, Jesse (Brattleboro)

With this study project, Scott Andrew Bartley researches heads of families who lived in Vermont prior to the Revolutionary War.  These sketches illustrate major players on political and religious fronts, uncover the migration patterns for this period in the region, and identify all those just looking to better their lives on the new frontier.  This project is proceeding in two series, settlers to 1771 and 1772-1784.  The work so far has been geographical, focusing on Windsor and Windham Counties.

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

Read more »