Archive For The “Uncategorized” Category

Cathedral of the Holy Cross Records Now Searchable

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Image Credit: Stefan14776 (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

The records from the Cathedral of the Holy Cross are now available in Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900.  This update includes over 555,000 names searchable by first name, last name, parents’ names, spouses’ names, witnesses’ names, record type, year, and location.

We want to extend our vast gratitude to our volunteers who helped make this update possible–they have contributed hundreds of hours scanning the books, reading the pages, and proofreading spreadsheets.  We could not have done this without their help!

This update consists of the following volumes:

Holy Cross (Boston) Baptisms & Marriages V.1, 1789-1810
Holy Cross (Boston) Various V.2, 1810-1823
Holy Cross (Boston) Baptisms V.3, 1823-1830
Holy Cross (Boston) Baptisms V.4, 1831-1838
Holy Cross (Boston) Baptisms V.5, 1838-1844
Holy Cross (Boston) Baptisms V.6, 1844-1850
Holy Cross (Boston) Baptisms V.9, 1850-1853
Holy Cross (Boston) Baptisms V.10, 1853-1858
Holy Cross (Boston) Baptisms V.11, 1858-1868
Holy Cross (Boston) Baptisms V.12, 1868-1876
Holy Cross (Boston) Baptisms V.13, 1876-1888
Holy Cross (Boston) Baptisms V.14, 1889-1900
Holy Cross (Boston) Baptisms V.15, 1900-1900
Holy Cross (Boston) Marriages V.7, 1823-1844
Holy Cross (Boston) Marriages V.8, 1844-1856
Holy Cross (Boston) Marriages V.9, 1856-1876
Holy Cross (Boston) Marriages V.10, 1876-1897
Holy Cross (Boston) Marriages V.11, 1897-1900
Holy Cross Confirmations, 1864-1876
Holy Cross Confirmations, 1877-1895
Holy Cross Confirmations, 1895-1906

If you have found any interesting stories or important information about your ancestors within the Archdiocese of Boston records, we would love to hear from you!  Please email me (Molly Rogers) at webmaster@nehgs.org.

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

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Transcription Challenge #3 Results

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Thank you to everyone who participated in Transcription Challenge last week.  We had over 150 responses!  This week we have 8 more mystery names to decipher and we would love your help!  Visit our Transcription Challenge page to offer a suggestion.

Here are the chosen transcriptions from last week’s challenge:

  1. Kezia M. Ahern
  2. Timothy O’Driscoll
  3. Stephen Donovan
  4. Lenor, Serah Donovan
  5. Law., Lawrence Traynor
  6. Annie O’Toole
  7. James Keane
  8. Mary Gabily, Cahill

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Database Name Spring Cleaning

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Image Credit: Sally Wilson (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

We have been making some updates to better standardize our database names and make them more convenient for your research. Highlights include:

  • Location oriented databases – They are consistently prefixed. For the United States and Canada, they will start with the city and state or province code, followed by the description, and ended with the year range for that collection (when possible). For databases from other countries, they will start with the country name. Examples include:
    o Massachusetts: Jewish Cemeteries from American Jewish Historical Society, 1875-2012
    o New Castle, NH: Record Book, 1745-1937
    o Australia: Fortune Hunters, 1808-1857
  • Census – National census start with the country name then year and description, and local censuses have the city and state or provide code followed by the year. Examples include:
    o Norway: Census, 1875
    o Massachusetts: 1855 State Census
    o Framingham, MA: Census of the East Ward, 1837
  • Journals and Periodicals – These start with the name of the journal and periodical. If the database contains only extracted records and dates from the journal or periodical, a description and year range is included. Examples include:
    o Connecticut Nutmegger
    o Albany Argus: Records of Deaths and Marriages, 1826-1828
    o New Hampshire Gazette: Vital Records, 1756-1800

Of course, you can always browse the Database List A-Z to search the full range of databases if you don’t immediately find what you are looking for. And if you have bookmarked specific pages or saved search results in your trees – fear not, these references will be automatically redirected to use the new database names.

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Two new and two revised sketches in Early New England Families, 1641-1700

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Image Credit: Daderot (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Today we have two new sketches by Alicia Crane Williams: John Hollister of Wethersfield, CT (m. 1639, Joan/Joanna Treat); and Thomas Nichols of Hingham, MA, (m. 1638, Rebecca Joslin; m. 1681, Dorcas ___.)

Also, Alicia has revised the sketches of Joseph Andrews of Hingham., MA (m. 1621, w. unknown, m. 1632, Elizabeth ___); and Samuel Jenney of Plymouth, MA, Portsmouth, RI and Dartmouth, MA (m. 1646, Susannah Wood, m. 1654, Anne/Anna Lettice)

Click here to download a complete pdf list of all Early New England Families sketches with links to each sketch.

Click here to visit our bookstore to purchase a print compilation of the first 50 sketches in the series.

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Early Vermont Settlers to 1784: 5 Windsor County sketches

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Image Credit: Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), creator (Daderot) [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

We have 5 new sketches for Early Vermont Settlers to 1784.  This database focuses on families that lived in Vermont prior to the end of the Revolutionary War, as identified in Donald Alan Smith’s thesis “Legacy of Dissent: Religion and Politics in Revolutionary Vermont 1749 to 1784” (Clark U., Ph.D., 1980).

As NEHGS prepares to publish Scott Andrew Bartley’s first volume of these sketches, we welcome any corrections, especially regarding the children of the principal subjects of the sketches.  Send any potential revisions to webmaster@nehgs.org for review.

The latest new sketches are listed below:

John Amos (Windsor)

Andrew Blunt (Windsor)

Christopher Brackett (Weathersfield)

Thomas Cooper (Windsor)

Ebenezer Curtis (Windsor)

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St. Mary (Charlestown) Browsable Catholic Records

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We have a new addition to Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900: the records from St. Mary in Charlestown.  St. Mary’s was the first parish established as a separate parish from the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, in 1828.   The Boston Public Library has a Charlestown Flickr page with images of St. Mary’s interior, repairs to the roof, and a fire that happened in the building–scroll about three quarters of the way down the page to view these images.

This addition consists of 10 new volumes:

St. Mary (Charlestown) Baptisms 1829-1855

St. Mary (Charlestown) Baptisms 1856-1868

St. Mary (Charlestown) Baptisms 1869-1887

St. Mary (Charlestown) Baptisms 1887-1894

St. Mary (Charlestown) Baptisms 1894-1897

St. Mary (Charlestown) Baptisms 1897-1900

St. Mary (Charlestown) Deaths and Burials 1823-1831

St. Mary (Charlestown) Deaths and Burials 1830-1836

St. Mary (Charlestown) Marriages 1830-1868

St. Mary (Charlestown) Marriages 1869-1900

 

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New Transcription Challenge!

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Thank you to everyone who participated in our very first Transcription Challenge last week.  We had over 55 responses, giving us many helpful suggestions for the 8 names we needed to transcribe.  This week we have 8 more mystery names to decipher and we would love your help!  Visit our Transcription Challenge page to offer a suggestion.

Here are the chosen transcriptions from last week’s challenge:

  • Feely
  • Philip McDermott
  • Mary McDermott
  • Timothy Hannifier, Hennifin
  • Johanna Gallagher
  • Edna Furber
  • Divver
  • Keat, Kate

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Early Vermont Settlers to 1784: 30 new sketches!

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Image Credit: TrunkJunk (author) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

This week we’ve released 30 new sketches to Early Vermont Settlers to 1784.  This database focuses on families that lived in Vermont prior to the end of the Revolutionary War, as identified in Donald Alan Smith’s thesis “Legacy of Dissent: Religion and Politics in Revolutionary Vermont 1749 to 1784” (Clark U., Ph.D., 1980).

Explore the new sketches, listed below:

Isaac Baldwin (Strafford)

Aaron Bartlett (Windsor)

Asaph Butler (Windsor, Weathersfield, Waterbury)

William Chamberlain (Strafford)

Israel Curtis (Windsor)

Ebenezer Davis (Windsor)

William Dean (Windsor)

William Dean Jr. (Windsor)

Ebenezer Dike (Springfield, Hartland, Woodstock)

Solomon Emmons (Windsor)

Jacob Hastings (Windsor)

Elisha Hawley (Windsor)

William Heywood (Springfield)

Jonathan Holden (Windsor)

Ebenezer Howard (Windsor)

Enoch Judd (Windsor)

Joseph King (Windsor)

Elisha Lully (Windsor)

Barzillai Markham (Andover)

Simeon Mills (Windsor)

Andrew Norton (Windsor)

Isabella Patrick (Windsor)

Joseph Patterson (Windsor)

Aaron Pennock (Strafford)

James Powers Jr. (Windsor)

Samuel Sears (Windsor)

Elnathan Strong (Windsor)

Hezekiah Thompson (Windsor)

Benjamin Wait (Windsor)

Joseph Wait (Windsor)

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Enhanced Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to N.E. 1620-1633

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Great Migration Begins 3 volume set

We have greatly expanded the index to Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to N.E. 1620-1633, Vols. I-III. There are nearly 15,000 new birth, baptism, marriage, death and burial records that include the person’s full name and event date, as well as spouse and parent names where available. Searchable emigration and residence records for the featured persons in these volumes have also been added. For those people that may have saved URL’s from the original name-only index, these records are still available.

Search Tip: You can now try to include family members to help focus results. For example, a search for records on Priscilla Mullins that includes father of William returns the following:

Priscilla Mullins sample search

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

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Announcing Transcription Challenge!

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We’re offering a new challenge as part of Database News!  As we work on Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1798-1900, we occasionally run into some words or names that are very hard to decipher.  Our volunteers and proofreaders do their very best to turn these scribbles into viable names, but occasionally we all get stumped.  Sometimes if you stare at the name for a long enough time, you can figure out what name it’s supposed to be, so we’re enlisting your help.

Each week we will post some transcription challenges, with the problem names circled.  Each problem name will be numbered.  You can comment on the page with your idea of what the problem name should be, referencing the number of the problem name.

The Transcription Challenge page is accessible from Database News Home—you can find it on the right in the navigation bar (see the screenshot above).

 

Names: #1 (child and father’s last name), #2 (mother’s maiden name)

Here’s an example image with 2 names labelled #1 and #2 (the first name appears twice, hence the 3 circles).  I can click on the image to enlarge the page. I’ve looked at it for a while and I’ve come to think the circled names are McCarty and White.  I would comment the following, “#1: McCarty, #2: White.”

Thanks for any help, and happy puzzling!

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