Archive For The “Uncategorized” Category
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.
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:
- Edward Compton Howe (1742-1821) [Participant]
- Edward Proctor (1733-1811) [Participant]
- Gilbert Colesworthy (1744-1784) [Participant]
- Henry Bass (1740-1813) [Participant]
- James Foster Condy (1746-1809) [Participant]
- James Mills (1749-1790) [Eyewitness]
- John Prince (1751-1836) [Eyewitness]
- John Spurr (1749-1822) [Participant]
- Joseph Payson (1741-1801) [Participant]
- Lendall Pitts (1747-1787) [Participant]
- Nathaniel Wills (1755-1831) [Participant]
- Samuel Pitts (1745-1805) [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.
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:
- Massachusetts 5th Calvary Regimental Information (Index-Only)
- Massachusetts 54h Regimental Information (Index-Only)
- Massachusetts 55th Regimental Information (Index-Only)
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.
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!
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.
We’re excited to announce 1 new sketch and 1 updated sketch to our Boston Tea Party Participant Biographies, in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.
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 sketches of participant biographies for the following individuals:
The following sketch has been updated in our database:
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
Today we’ve added 3 new sketches to 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:
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! 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:
- Touhey
- Hurlburt
- Solivowo, Solivoda
We appreciate everyone’s help and are excited to see the suggestions for the next set of challenges!
Today we’ve added 10 new sketches and 1 updated sketch to Early Vermont Settlers, 1700-1784. The people profiled in the new and updated sketches lived in Brattleboro, Fort Dummer and Rockingham.
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:
Gorton, Benjamin (Brattleboro)
Hadley, Ebenezer (Brattleboro)
Moore, Fairbanks Jr. (Rockingham)
Nichols, William (Brattleboro)
Paddleford, Phillip (Brattleboro)
The updated sketch is listed below:
Willard, Josiah, Col. (Ft. Dummer)
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.
Today we’ve updated Early New England Families, 1641-1700, adding one new sketch. This new sketch features Edward Jackson and his family. Edward lived in Whitechapel Parish, London, England, before relocating to New England with his wife and young children about 1642. He settled in what is present-day Newton, Massachusetts.
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, focusing on individuals who immigrated from 1641 through 1700, grouped by year of marriage.
Interested researchers should also read Alicia’s recent Vita Brevis post, “Genealogical Clusters”, which discusses her research process and interesting discoveries while preparing this specific sketch.
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.