Archive For The “Uncategorized” Category

New sketches: Boston Tea Party Participant Biographies

By |

Woodcut prospective of Boston Harbor by Nathaniel Dearborn, c. 1800. (Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons; image courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts).

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:

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.

Read more »

New Transcription Challenge!

By |

(Photo by Anna, CC BY 2.0 httpscreativecommons.orglicensesby2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

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!

Read more »

New sketches: Early Vermont Settlers, 1700-1784

By |

Bird Mountain, Castleton, Vermont, by James Hope, 1855 (Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons; courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts).

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:

Cranny, William (Brattleboro)

Kent, Samuel (Brattleboro)

Knapp, James (Brattleboro)

Knapp, Jonas (Brattleboro)

King, Edward (Brattleboro)

The updated sketch is listed below:

Robinson, Isaac (Brattleboro)

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

Read more »

New Transcription Challenge!

By |

(Photo by Anna, CC BY 2.0 httpscreativecommons.orglicensesby2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

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!

Read more »

New database: Shaker Records of the Fruitlands Museum

By |

View of the Shaker Office at the Fruitlands Museum, Harvard, Massachusetts (Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons).

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.

Clara Endicott Sears with Shaker sisters at Fruitlands, 1915 (image courtesy of The Trustees of Reservations Archives and Research Center).

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.

Read more »

New volumes: Rhode Island Vital Records, 1636-1850

By |

Map of Rhode Island, depicting the boundaries of the state in 1660; published 1901 by Burrows Brothers Company (Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons).

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:

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. 

Read more »

New sketches: Boston Tea Party Participant Biographies

By |

A chromolithograph map with view of Boston Harbor from Boston to Provincetown, with Boston Harbor Islands and steamboat routes noted, c. 1890. (Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

We’re excited to announce 12 new sketches to our Boston Tea Party Participant Biographies database, in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. We have also updated all sketch titles to reflect participation status in the Tea Party, as either a participant, an eyewitness, or an individual whose participation has been disproved.

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:

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.

Read more »

New database: On the Battlefield: Records of Soldiers, Veterans and Refugees

By |

Unidentified African American Union soldier pictured with his wife and two daughters, c. 1865. Note: this ambrotype was discovered in Cecil County, Maryland, making it possible that he served with one of the seven U.S.C.T. Regiments raised in Maryland during the Civil War. (This image is freely available through the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog, digital id ppmsca 36454).

We are very excited to announce a new database: On the Battlefield: Records of Soldiers, Veterans and Refugees.

This database provides lists of soldiers of color and accompanying genealogical information. This database is presented as a part of the 10 Million Names project. For more information about the 10 Million Names project see the full website here.

This database is organized into volumes, with each volume currently representing a list of names for regiments that served in the Civil War. Each record includes regimental information, noted service records (including enlistment date, company, rank at enlistment, separation date and reason, as well as any casualty information). Residence, occupation, age and physical descriptions at the time of enlistment are also included. Pension information may be available as well, including soldier, widow, and minor/child pension application and certificate numbers.

In the future, new volumes will be released to reflect individuals who served in colonial wars (1609-1720), the Revolutionary War (1775-1783), and the War of 1812 (1812–1815). Later, free Black soldiers—most of whom were descended from enslaved people—participated in the Spanish-American War (1898) and the Philippine Insurrection (1899–1902). This project will rely not just on the rich records created for soldiers, but also for veterans and wartime refugees. This project is planned to expand well beyond Massachusetts and New England.

This database currently contains the following volumes:

The data for this database was compiled by NEHGS researcher Jonathan Hill, using Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers who Served with the United States Colored Troops (available through the National Archives), and Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors and Marines in the Civil War, volumes 1-9.

Currently, the Black Loyalist Directory, 1783-1788 is it’s own database. This includes lists of formerly enslaved soldiers and refugees who served with the British during the American Revolution. This database can be accessed here.

Please note: This database is available to all NEHGS members, including Guest Members, at no cost, as part of 10 Million Names

Read more »

New Transcription Challenge!

By |

(Photo by Anna, CC BY 2.0 httpscreativecommons.orglicensesby2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Thank you to everyone who participated in the last Transcription Challenge! Everyone provided helpful feedback and suggestions! Please check out our new set of challenges 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. Brander

2. MacGloclin

3. Winterson

4a. Trainor

4b. Loofy

5. McGun

We appreciate everyone’s help and are excited to see the suggestions for the next set of challenges!

Read more »

New Database: Black Loyalist Directory, 1783-1788 

By |

The earliest known image of a Black Nova Scotian, in British Canada, in 1788. “A Black Wood Cutter at Shelburne, Nova Scotia.”
Captain William Booth, 1788, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

We are very excited to announce a new database: Black Loyalist Directory, 1783-1788. 

This database was created from The Book of Negroes: African Americans in Exile After the American Revolution, edited by Graham Russell, Gao Hodges, and Alan Edward Brown, which contains transcriptions of Brigadier General Samuel Birch’s inspection roll of black and mixed-race Loyalists who emigrated to Canada, the UK, the West Indies, and Germany at the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783. 

In 1775, the British issued a formal proclamation promising freedom to any enslaved blacks who chose to bear arms with the king’s military forces. Four years later, a second proclamation was issued to include any male or female enslaved person who could support the British military in other roles, such as servants, cooks, nurses, laborers, and laundresses. As a result, tens of thousands of enslaved people fled from their owners to join the British.  

General Birch’s ledger of about 3,000 Black Loyalists was originally created to tally the cost of the United States’ lost property for future compensation; therefore, it includes details such as first and last names, ages, physical descriptions, former owners, former residences, freedom status, military certificates (recorded as GBC or GMC), birth records, ship destinations, and ship captains. There are also the names of those who departed with their British enslavers because the proclamations did not include the enslaved people of Loyalists.  

Most of the information that we captured for this database are emigration records, but we were also able to include military records for anyone with General Birch’s certificate, as well as some birth and manumission records, and records of others who were present. 

This database is presented as part of 10 Million Names, a project which aims to recover names and restore information to families of the estimated 10 million women, men, and children of African descent who were enslaved in the U.S. until emancipation through a collaborative network of expert genealogists, historians, cultural institutions, and descendant communities. This project seeks to amplify the voices of people who have been telling their family stories for centuries, connect researchers and data partners with people seeking answers to their family history questions, and expand access to data, resources, and information about enslaved African Americans. 

To learn more about the 10 Million Names project, please visit the full website, To learn more about the 10 Million Names project, please visit the full website, here

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

Note: This database is available to all members, including Guest Members, as part of 10 Million Names. 

Read more »