Archive For The “Uncategorized” Category

Database News: Enhanced Connecticut: Early Probate Records, 1635-1750

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Map of the colony of Connecticut circa. 1766, by Park, Moses Lansdowne, William Petty, Marquis of, 1737-1805. Public Domain courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

We have re-indexed the database Connecticut: Early Probate Records, 1635-1750. This database is now searchable by first name and last name, date, and location. All records are of type Probate Record.

Charles William Manwaring spent the last years of his life abstracting the early probate records of the Hartford, Connecticut, Probate District and publishing them in three volumes that are reflected in this database. For those that are interested in reading the original probate documents, the volume and page numbers are in the pages of this database and are displayed in the record details as Original Volume and Original Page.

Connecticut today is comprised of many different probate districts. But originally Connecticut Colony (as distinct from New Haven Colony) probate records were all kept by the colony as a whole. Then in 1666, after the union of the two colonies, probate matters were conducted by four newly formed counties, Hartford, New London, New Haven, and Fairfield. In May 1719 the colony began splitting towns off of the Hartford district to form new districts, first Windham, then Woodbury, and so on. Thus Charles W. Manwaring’s abstracts of Hartford District probates, which began in 1635, at first included the whole colony, but by 1750, when his third volume concludes, the district was considerably smaller.

This update is made possible by the efforts of our team our volunteers, specifically David Anderson. We genuinely appreciate the work of all our volunteers who make these databases possible. If you have some time and would like to get involved please contact Rachel Adams, Database Services Volunteer Coordinator via email at rachel.adams@nehgs.org.

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

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Archdiocese of Boston: St. Peter (Cambridge) now searchable

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Excerpt from a 1854 map of Cambridge by Henry Francis Walling showing the vicinity of St. Peter by http://maps.bpl.org [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]

Today we’ve added ten new volumes to Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900 from St. Peter in Cambridge. This update adds 28,628 records and 116,849 names to search.

St. Peter was established in 1848 as the Catholic population of Cambridge grew; it broke off from the parish of Sacred Heart of Jesus. At the beginning, this parish not only served Catholics of Cambridge, but also Catholics from many towns in northeast inland Massachusetts. The church is located in between Fresh Pond and Harvard Square.

We’d like to thank Sam Sturgis for his help making this parish available on our site.  The new volumes are listed below:

St. Peter (Cambridge) Baptisms, 1842-1862
St. Peter (Cambridge) Baptisms, 1862-1869
St. Peter (Cambridge) Baptisms, 1869-1871
St. Peter (Cambridge) Baptisms, 1872-1877
St. Peter (Cambridge) Baptisms, 1877-1890
St. Peter (Cambridge) Baptisms, 1890-1900
St. Peter (Cambridge) Marriages, 1843-1866
St. Peter (Cambridge) Marriages, 1866-1871
St. Peter (Cambridge) Marriages, 1872-1892
St. Peter (Cambridge) Marriages, 1893-1900

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

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New sketches in Western Massachusetts Families in 1790

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View of the Connecticut River and the Pioneer Valley looking East South East from Mt Sugarloaf in South Deerfield MA by Tom Walsh Tom Walsh [CC BY-SA 2.5 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)]

Today we’re announcing two new sketches in Western Massachusetts Families in 1790.  These new sketches focus on Justus Dwight from Belchertown and Obed Hawks from Deerfield.

Justus Dwight was born in 1739 and died in 1824. He married Sarah Lamb. Together the couple had eight children. Obed Hawks was born in 1750 and lived until 1816. He married Abigail Smith and they had four children.

This study project focuses on individual enumerated in the 1790 census in historic Berkshire and Hampshire counties, also including modern Franklin and Hampden counties.  Sketches for this project are submitted to editor Helen Schatvet Ullmann, CG, FASG by NEHGS members and other interested researchers.  If you are interested in submitting a sketch for Volume 5, please review our project home page.

We’d like to thank Sam Sturgis for his help making these updates possible.

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

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Archdiocese of Boston: new browsable records from Gloucester and Lawrence

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Gloucester Harbor, 1895 by Willard Metcalf [Public domain]

Today we’ve added fourteen new volumes to Massachusetts: (Image-Only) Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900 from St. Ann (Gloucester) and Immaculate Conception (Lawrence). This update adds over 2,600 new pages to browse and brings the total number of volumes in this collection to 750.

St. Ann in Gloucester began in 1855 when the old Baptist church was purchased and remodeled. The Catholics in Gloucester built a new, bigger church in 1881. Prior to 1855, Gloucester Catholics may have traveled to St. Mary (Salem) (which became Immaculate Conception) to worship.

Immaculate Conception (Lawrence) was the first Catholic church in Lawrence, established around 1846. In 1848, St. Mary (Lawrence) was established, which would become the dominant Lawrence parish. Throughout the late 1800s, the church administration changed a few times. In 1875, all North Lawrence churches except St. Ann were put under the charge of the Augustinian Order. In 1887, the Augustinians again reorganized, putting St. Mary’s at the center of their organization. So, despite the fact that Immaculate Conception began as an independent parish, it also has been a mission of St. Mary throughout the years.

Immaculate Conception (Lawrence) Index to Baptisms, 1851-1886 happens to pertain two four different volumes from three parishes in Lawrence. It is the index to Immaculate Conception (Lawrence) Baptisms 1851-1871,
Immaculate Conception (Lawrence) Baptisms 1871-1887 and Confirmations 1876-1900, St. Lawrence O’Toole (Lawrence) Baptisms 1875-1887 (forthcoming as of May 3, 2019) and St. Augustine (Lawrence) Baptisms, 1879-1886. It also has a very beautiful title page, illustrated by K.F. Gorman, displayed below.

Title Page for Immaculate Conception (Lawrence) Index to Baptisms 1851-1886

We’d like to thank the following volunteers for their help scanning these volumes: Bill Wolfendale, Eileen McCarthy, Angela Napolitano, and Francis Alix.

If you need help navigating this collection, please consult our how-to video.  The new volumes are listed below:

St. Ann (Gloucester) Baptisms and Marriages, 1855-1866
St. Ann (Gloucester) Baptisms and Marriages, 1866-1870
St. Ann (Gloucester) Baptisms, 1855-1863
St. Ann (Gloucester) Baptisms, 1863-1868
St. Ann (Gloucester) Baptisms, 1871-1879
St. Ann (Gloucester) Baptisms, 1879-1897
St. Ann (Gloucester) Marriages, 1857-1867
St. Ann (Gloucester) Marriages, 1868-1871
St. Ann (Gloucester) Marriages, 1872-1900

Immaculate Conception (Lawrence) Index to Baptisms, 1851-1886 Immaculate Conception (Lawrence) Baptisms 1851-1871
Immaculate Conception (Lawrence) Baptisms 1871-1887 and Confirmations 1876-1900
Immaculate Conception (Lawrence) Marriages, 1852-1872
Immaculate Conception (Lawrence) Marriages, 1872-1887

Please note: This database is available to all NEHGS members.  Learn more about becoming a NEHGS guest member (free).

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Archdiocese of Boston: New searchable records from Cambridge and Medford

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1879 Bird’s eye view of East Cambridge. Sacred Heart of Jesus is circled in red. Image by http://maps.bpl.org [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]

Today we’ve added four new volumes to
Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900 from Sacred Heart of Jesus in Cambridge and St. Joseph in Medford. This update adds 5,741 records and 24,532 names to search.

Sacred Heart of Jesus is located in East Cambridge. While we have already released most of this parish as part of this collection, these two volumes were later located and scanned.

In 1883 St. Joseph (Medford) became its own independent parish, previously being part of the church in Malden.

We’d like to thank Sam Sturgis for his help making this parish available on our site.  The new volumes are listed below:

Sacred Heart of Jesus (Cambridge) Baptisms 1899-1900
Sacred Heart of Jesus (Cambridge) Marriages, 1897-1900

St. Joseph (Medford) Baptisms, 1883-1900
St. Joseph (Medford) Marriages, 1883-1900

East Cambridge today, image from Google Maps. Sacred Heart of Jesus is circled in red, and the map is oriented in a similar direction as the 1879 bird’s eye view.

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

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Archdiocese of Boston: St. Augustine (Andover) now searchable

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The St. Augustine (Andover) church building that was built in 1879 and burned in 1894 from James Sullivan’s One Hundred Years of Progress, page 409.

Today we’ve added nine new volumes to Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900 from St. Augustine in Andover.
This update adds 9,178 records and 33,279 names to search.

St. Augustine was established in Andover in 1852 as an outgrowth of St. Mary’s in Lawrence. This parish includes five overlapping baptism volumes which were all included as none is an exact replica of another.  You may find duplicate records for a single event within these volumes. 

We’d like to thank Sam Sturgis for his help making this parish available on our site.  The new volumes are listed below:

St. Augustine (Andover) Baptisms and Confirmations, 1862-1892
St. Augustine (Andover) Baptisms, 1862-1894
St. Augustine (Andover) Baptisms, 1885-1900
St. Augustine (Andover) Baptisms, 1892-1895
St. Augustine (Andover) Baptisms, 1894-1900
St. Augustine (Andover) Confirmations, 1894-1900
St. Augustine (Andover) First Communions, 1895-1900
St. Augustine (Andover) Marriages, 1862-1892
St. Augustine (Andover) Marriages, 1892-1900

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

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Archdiocese of Boston: St. James (Salem) now searchable

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Stereoscopic view of Salem Neck by New York Public Library [Public domain]

Today we’ve added five new volumes to Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900 from St. James in Salem. This update adds over 33,000 new records and over 267,000 new names to search.

St. James (Salem) was established in 1850 when St. Mary (which became Immaculate Conception) was becoming more and more crowded.

The new volumes included in this update are listed below:

St. James (Salem) Baptisms, 1851-1864
St. James (Salem) Baptisms, 1857-1861
St. James (Salem) Baptisms, 1865-1891
St. James (Salem) Baptisms, 1891-1900
St. James (Salem) Marriages, 1851-1900

St. James Church in Salem from One Hundred Years of Progress by James Sullivan p.461

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

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Sketches added to New England study projects

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1930 Historical Map of Watertown by Mary B. Holtz, thanks to the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the BPL [Public domain]

Today we’ve added new sketches to both Western Massachusetts Families in 1790 and Early New England Families, 1641-1700.

We added three new sketches to Western Massachusetts Families in 1790 focusing on Jonathan Bassett (Dalton), Nathan Bassett (Windsor), and William Basset (Windsor).
This study project focuses on individual enumerated in the 1790 census in historic Berkshire and Hampshire counties, also including modern Franklin and Hampden counties. Helen Schatvet Ullmann, CG, FASG is the editor of this project.

We added one new sketch to Early New England Families, 1641-1700 featuring John Bigelow (m. 1642, 1694) who lived in Watertown, MA. This study project is written by Alicia Crane Williams and highlights heads of families mentioned in Torrey’s New England Marriages to 1700.

We’d like to thank Sam Sturgis for his help adding these sketches to our database.

Please note: These databases are available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.

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Archdiocese of Boston: new browsable records from Arlington and Brockton

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St. Agnes (Arlington) Image from Google Maps

Today we’ve added eight new volumes to Massachusetts: (Image-Only) Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900 from St. Agnes (Arlington) and Sacred Heart (Brockton). This update adds over 1,300 new pages to browse.

Prior to the establishment of St. Malachi’s in Arlington, Arlington Catholics had to travel to St. Peter’s in Cambridge. When the parish began, St. Malachi’s also included Belmont and Lexington (which later became their own parishes). Sometime around the 1920s, St. Malachi’s was renamed to honor St. Agnes.

Sacred Heart (Brockton) was the second parish in Brockton, split from St. Patrick’s. The first Mass was said in the new church in 1892. This was the French parish in Brockton.

We’d like to thank the following volunteers for their help scanning these volumes: Bill Wolfendale, Eileen McCarthy, Angela Napolitano, and Ross Weaver.

If you need help navigating this collection, please consult our how-to video.  The new volumes are listed below:

Sacred Heart (Brockton) Baptisms, 1891-1900
Sacred Heart (Brockton) Confirmations, 1893, 1898
Sacred Heart (Brockton) Marriages, 1891-1900

St. Agnes (Arlington) Baptisms, 1873-1884
St. Agnes (Arlington) Baptisms, 1884-1894
St. Agnes (Arlington) Baptisms, 1894-1900
St. Agnes (Arlington) Marriages, 1873-1899
St. Agnes (Arlington) Marriages, 1898-1900

Please note: This database is available to all NEHGS members.  Learn more about becoming a NEHGS guest member (free).

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4 new sketches in Early New England Families, 1641-1700

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Outer Light, Old Saybrook, CT by Tichnor Brothers, Publisher [Public domain]

Today we’ve updated Early New England Families, 1641-1700, adding four new sketches.

The new sketches include:

John Browne, Jr. (m. 1650, 1660)

Thomas Dunk (m. 1668, 1677, 1678)

William Lord (m. 1642, 1664)

Lydia (Buckland)(Brown)(Lord)(Dunk) Post (m. 1660-1683)

The three men featured in these sketches were the first three husbands of Lydia (Buckland)(Brown)(Lord)(Dunk) Post.

Early New England Families, 1641-1700 is written by Alicia Crane Williams. This study project highlights heads of families mentioned in Torrey’s New England Marriages to 1700.  To learn more about the status of this project, you may be interested in Alicia Crane Williams’ latest Vita Brevis post on the subject.

We’d like to thank Sam Sturgis for his help adding these sketches to our database.

Please note: These databases are available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.

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