Archive For The “Uncategorized” Category
Tourists motoring past Tunnel Cottage or Long Tunnel Cottage, Glengariff, Co. Cork. National Library of Ireland on The Commons, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
We are excited to announce that the third indexed volume of Ireland: The Annals of Beara has been added to its database, adding 50,069 records and 49,391 names!
Riobard O’Dwyer published this three-volume study of the families of the Beara Peninsula (West Cork, Ireland) in 2009. The work contains information on families from the parishes of Adrigole and Allihies (in Volume 1); Bere Island and Eyeries (in Volume 2); and Castletownbere and Glengarriff (in Volume 3). Volume 3 also contains a brief history of the O’Sullivan clan.
The family records range in date from 1776 to 1992, with the majority of records in the period 1822-1956. Many of the families and descendants are traced from their origins in Beara to the United States and other countries.
This database is now indexed for all three volumes. Tables of contents for all three volumes may be downloaded to help locate the volumes and pages for specific towns and parishes in Beara. The NEHGS Library also holds the research papers of Riobard O’Dwyer in its Special Collections, call number Mss 1097.
Special thanks to Sam Sturgis for his help implementing this update!
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the last Transcription Challenge! The next set of challenges are also from the Old Stone Bank in Providence, Rhode Island and it includes an entry that could be a location, an occupation, or something else! You can participate by going to the “Transcription Challenge” tab at the top of the page and submitting your suggestions in the comments.
After going through every response, we have settle on:
1. Leon Jambard
2. Weissac (Weissach), Prussia
3. Waterloo, C.E. (Quebec)
4a. Francesco Giambastiani
4b. Wiehe
5. Draw Filer
6. Maria A. Sharket
We appreciate everyone’s help and are excited to see the suggestions for the next set of challenges!
We are very excited to announce our new database: General Society of Colonial Wars Membership Applications, 1893-1949.
This database will eventually include all applications and supplemental applications to the General Society of Colonial Wars starting from their formal founding in 1893. Material is not included for individuals listed in the applications who were born after January 1, 1950. 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 adds more than 390,000 records to search.
Currently, the database includes applications from Member 1 to Member 2629. If an application in this range is excluded, it is either due to the privacy policy outlined above, 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 very happy to announce a new database today in collaboration with the Rhode Island Historical Society; Providence, RI: Old Stone Bank Records, 1844-1897.
This database currently contains the first 10 volumes of Signature books from the Old Stone Savings Bank. When complete, the database will contain all 29 Signature books. The added 10 volumes contain more than 4,500 browsable pages and over 193,400 new searchable records.
The Old Stone Bank of Providence, Rhode Island was founded in 1819, first as The Providence Institution of Savings. Following the 1854 construction of the iconic domed building located at 86 South Main Street in Providence, it was informally known as the “Old Stone Bank”, eventually officially renamed as the Old Stone Savings Bank in 1967. The institution operated under the name “Old Stone Savings Bank” until it was absorbed as a part of Citizens Bank in 1993, which subsequently donated the Old Stone Bank Savings Bank records to the Rhode Island Historical Society.
Many of the records pertain to immigrants to Providence. This is particularly valuable for Irish immigrants as the native county is provided which is critical information for additional research in Ireland. All records will be of type residence and will be for the location of Providence, Rhode Island. For more information regarding specifically Irish Immigrants appearing the Old Stone Bank records, check-out researcher Ray McKenna’s project, Federal Hill Irish, where he explores genealogical and regional connections from Providence to the Emerald Isle.
This database is the result of partnership with the Rhode Island Historical Society. The Rhode Island Historical Society has the original books for Old Stone Savings Bank. Additional context for the full collection at RIHS can be found here. RIHS has partnered with NEHGS to digitize and index these books and make them available online.
This database is made possible by the efforts of not only our NEHGS volunteers, but volunteers working with the Rhode Island Historical Society under the direction of Ray McKenna.
We would like to extend our gratitude towards Ray’s team: Casey Zahn, David Adams, Donna Adkins, Heather Anderson, Karen Apple, Jamie Babcock, Holly Barrick, Donna Burgess, Marcia Carr-Carvalho, Michael Carragher, Greg Casey, Patty Crowley, Rosemary Danforth, Shawn Driscoll, Deborah Esborn, Beth Feltus, Susan Fougstedt, Susan L. Griffith, Jeff Hartley, Mike Kenyon, Kathy Kittredge, Stacy McCue, Jeff Poulton, Maria Tilford Hunter, and Helena Zurowski. Without their hard work, this project would not have been possible!
We would also like to thank the team of NEHGS volunteers who have also dedicated their time to this project: Gale Stevenson, Mirca Sghedoni, Katherine Marshall-Mayer, Ross Weaver, and Eileen McCarthy. If you would like to become part of the team working on this or other 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 NEHGS members, including Guest members, at no cost. Consider membership.
We’re excited to announce 8 new sketches to our Boston Tea Party Participant Biographies database, in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. All the sketches added during this update are proven participants.
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:
- Charles Conner (1734-1791) [Participant]
- John Cochran (1749-1839) [Participant]
- Stephen Bruce (1746-1806) [Participant]
- Thomas Chase (1739-1787) [Participant]
- Thomas Melvill (1751-1832) [Participant]
- William Etheridge (1739-1789) [Participant]
- William Molineux/Molineaux (1717-1774) [Participant]
- William Pierce/Pearce (1744-1840) [Participant]
New sketches will be released regularly, so stay tuned for more!
Please note: This database is available to all NEHGS members, including Guest Members, at no cost. Consider membership.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the last Transcription Challenge! We had 70 responses and 60 of them were in just the first two days! The research and suggestions were so helpful and we loved reading about some of Rhode Island’s history, such as Rumford Chemical Works, which made Rumford Baking Powder, and this fascinating article about Waldo and Emma Barnes! https://warwickonline.com/stories/back-in-the-day-the-story-of-the-dead-horse-man,152750
The next set of challenges are also from the Old Stone Bank in Providence, Rhode Island and it includes names, occupations, and locations. You can participate by going to the “Transcription Challenge” tab at the top of the page and submitting your suggestions in the comments.
After going through every response, we have settle on:
1a. Tattrie
1b. Gilder
2a. book agent
2b. Rumford Chem. Wks., Rumford Chemical Works
3. Clerk in iron store on Canal St.
4. tentmaker
5. Co. Westmeath
6a. Laborer at church, works on farm
6b. Stucco worker
We appreciate everyone’s help and are excited to see the suggestions for the next set of challenges!
Today we’ve added 5 new sketches and updated 1 sketch in Early Vermont Settlers, 1700-1784. The people profiled in the new sketches all lived settled in Brattleboro.
With this study project, Scott Andrew Bartley researches the 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.
The new sketches are listed below:
The updated sketch is listed below:
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the last Transcription Challenge! Everyone provided helpful feedback and suggestions! To change things up for the new set of challenges, we have added some occupations and locations! You can participate by going to the “Transcription Challenge” tab at the top of the page and submitting your suggestions in the comments.
It is always really interesting and helpful to see how everyone transcribes this tricky handwriting! After going through every response, the names we have settled on are:
1. Henihan
2. McGuert, McGuerty
3. Julla, Julia
4. Harrison
5. Thersir, Tessier
6. Thomas
We appreciate everyone’s help and are excited to see the suggestions for the next set of challenges!
Today we’re very excited to be announcing a new database, Massachusetts: Shaker Records of the Fruitlands Museum, 1791-1918. The database features over 14,000 records from five volumes kept by the Harvard and Shirley Shaker communities. These archives are part of the Trustees of Reservations’ Fruitlands Shaker Manuscript Collection.
These records can be a valuable resource into understanding life in the Massachusetts’ Shaker communities and can supply tremendous genealogical value in terms of dates and names of vital and church records for the community that are not reflected in state-held records.
This online database is a collaboration between the Trustees’ Archives & Research Center (ARC), and American Ancestors. In 2016, Fruitlands Museum became The Trustees’ 116th reservation, and the Shaker manuscript materials were relocated to the ARC in Sharon, Massachusetts. Currently, this online database is index-only. The original materials, as well as high-resolution digital scans, can be accessed by contacting the ARC (arc@thetrustees.org).
In 1922, Fruitlands Museum founder Clara Endicott Sears opened the world’s first museum honoring the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, more commonly known as the Shakers. Through her research on the Transcendentalists and the town history of Harvard, Massachusetts, Sears had gotten to know the Harvard Shakers personally before the community closed in 1918. In 1920, Sears purchased the original Shaker Trustees’ Office and moved the building to Fruitlands. She restored the Office, which was built in 1794, and filled it with Shaker objects as a way to share the history and culture of the Shakers. Once the museum opened, she continued to collect Shaker materials, acquiring items through gifts, purchases, and exchanges. Some of her acquisitions came directly from the Shakers themselves, who were among the museum’s early visitors and recognized that Sears was a respectful steward for their legacy. Materials continued to be collected by the museum throughout the 20th century.
In Harvard, the Fruitlands Museum site continues to display the objects that Sears collected. The museum features three separate collections of significant Shaker, Native American, and American art and artifacts, as well as a historic farmhouse that was once home to the family of Louisa May Alcott and is recognized as a National Historic Landmark. The property is situated on 210 acres of land, stunning views, and miles of walking trails.
To learn more about this unique community of Harvard and Shirley Shakers and Fruitlands, please visit the Fruitlands Museum website.
We are grateful to a very dedicated team of ten volunteers who worked over hundreds of hours to transcribe the list names found in these volumes.
Please note: This database is available to all NEHGS members, including Guest Members.
We’re excited to announce that today we are updating our Rhode Island: Vital Records, 1636-1850 database with 5 new volumes, adding more than 90,000 records to search. The majority of the added records are compiled marriage and death records from historic newspapers throughout Rhode Island.
This database includes the volumes of vital records that James N. Arnold began publishing in 1891 for the towns of Rhode Island. The series would go on to include church records and newspaper records, ultimately filling twenty-one volumes with information. This re-indexing of our original 2002 database includes records from Volumes 1-12, and 17-21.
All 21 volumes are available for viewing at the NEHGS Research Library, call number F78.A75.
Below is the list of volumes added to the database:
- Marriages and Deaths – V17
- Marriages and Deaths – V18
- Marriages and Deaths – V19
- Marriages and Deaths – V20
- Marriages and Deaths – V21
This database re-do would not be possible without the help of our wonderful volunteers. A special thank you to Alida Baker, Allyson Koehler, Arlys LaFehr, Ashley Waters, Barbara Macken, Becki Clarke, Bill Morse, Bruce McKeeman, Bruce Shaw, Cameron Picton, Carol Demers, Carolyn Jack, Ciara Leonard, Daria O’Connor, Eldon Gay, Gale Stevenson, Ginny Marshall, Jaimie Williams-Peterson, Jane Himmel, Joan Hammond, Karen Del Vecchio, Katherine Marshall-Mayer, Lisa Butler, Lisia Bisio, Loretta Aldrich, Mara Witzling, Melanie Nelson, Michelle Kearns, Nancy Johnson, Patricia Nesbitt, Pauline Cusson, Renda Smith, Rick Lagueux, Robyn Choate, Ron Wilson, Rosemary Durica, Ross Weaver, Sandy Caldwell, Sandy Murphy Mauer, Sara Stinson, Susan Fougstedt, Susan Morath, Susan Van Allen, Therese Mosorjak and Val Abrahamsen, for all of your very appreciated hard work.
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 now available to all NEHGS members, including Guest Members, at no cost.