Last weekend's Super Bowl LVII ended in a narrow victory for the Kansas City Chiefs over the Philadelphia Eagles. The historic match marked the first time two Black quarterbacks squared off in a Super Bowl. We looked into both players' ancestries in honor of the occasion. Read About Patrick Mahomes // Read About Jalen Hurts
Western Massachusetts Families in 1760
Volume 5 Now Available
In 1790, western Massachusetts was a crossroads for New England families heading west into New York or north into Vermont. The final volume of sketches produced for this study project contains details on 77 heads of household in what are now Berkshire, Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin Counties. Sketches were contributed by American Ancestors/NEHGS members and skillfully edited by the late Helen Schatvet Ullmann, CG, FASG. Purchase Now
Share your thoughts about the survey at weeklygenealogist@nehgs.org. Responses may be edited for clarity and length and featured in a future newsletter.
Last Week's Survey:
Family Stories About Extreme Weather
Total: 3,354 Responses
37%, Yes, I have at least one story of how extreme winter weather affected a previous generation.
11%, Yes, I have at least one story of how a tornado affected a previous generation.
18%, Yes, I have at least one story of how a flood affected a previous generation.
19%, Yes, I have at least one story of how a hurricane affected a previous generation.
8%, Yes, I have at least one story of how a drought affected a previous generation.
11%, Yes, I have at least one story of how extreme weather affected previous generation that doesn’t fit into any of the above categories.
40%, No, I have no stories of how extreme weather affected a previous generation.
Readers Respond
Dayna Palmer, Folsom, California: My great-great-great-grandmother, Mary Fried, was a young bride to rancher Frank “Laramie Bill” Fried in Camp Crook, South Dakota, in 1880. Mary wrote in her diary about what is now known as the Long Winter. Some of their horses and cattle froze to death and others starved. Mary and Frank came close to dying as well. Mary wrote about the bitter cold, the blizzards that seemed to never end, and the rising snowbanks that prevented supply deliveries, resulting in food scarcity. You would think Mary and Frank would have left after that experience, but they remained and ran a successful ranch for many years before retiring to California in the 1930s.
Cindy Schmechel, Hubertus, Wisconsin: In February of 1947, a two-day winter blizzard hit Milwaukee. My parents had to walk home from their jobs as no cars or buses were able to navigate the roads. The city basically shut down. It took days for people to dig out their vehicles, clear the sidewalks, and maneuver through the city again. Being off of work for a couple of days and being newlyweds, my parents spent their time at home, doing what newlyweds usually do. Nine months later, I was born!
Patty Vitale, Germantown, Maryland: My great-great-great-grandfather, Terence Duross, was an Irish immigrant to Boston. In the summer of 1862, Terence was working in a gravel pit in Somerville for the Middlesex Horse Railroad Company when a thunderstorm hit. He was struck by lightning and killed, just shy of his 37th birthday. He left a wife and three children. The recorded cause of death was "strike of lightning," leading me to a few short newspaper articles about him—not easy to find because his surname was misspelled as Durance.
Linda Bly, Rosharon, Texas: My great-grandmother, Kate Hatch, was 23 years old when a hurricane struck her home in Galveston, Texas, in 1900. Her husband, my great-grandfather Bradford Hatch, was away on a business trip. Kate was swept from the home along with her seven-year-old daughter, my grandmother Hattie Hatch. Throughout the long night as the storm raged, Kate swam and stayed afloat by hanging onto to debris with Hattie clinging to her back. When the storm abated, Bradford returned to find his family and move them inland to Houston. They had lost everything in the storm.
George Lasry of Israel, Norbert Biermann of Germany, and Satoshi Tomokiyo of Japan uncovered and deciphered more than 55 letters that Mary Stuart wrote during her years in captivity in England.
A Virus Crippled U.S. Cities 150 Years Ago. It Didn’t Infect Humans. “Known as the Great Epizootic, the outbreak of what was later determined to be the equine flu hit the vast majority of the country’s horses between October 1872 and March 1873, temporarily paralyzing cities.”
13 Tantalizing Facts About the Lost Colony of Roanoke This Mental Floss article provides information about the origins and demise of the Roanoke Island colony—and several theories about where its inhabitants may have gone.
Spotlight: Carnegie Public Library, Coahoma County, MS
by Valerie Beaudrault
Coahoma County, seated in Clarksdale, is located in northwestern Mississippi. The Carnegie Public Library has compiled an online community history archive which includes over 20 local newspapers, including Clarksdale Press Register (1949-2021), Clarksdale Daily Register (1917-1936), Clarksdale Register and Daily News (1937-1946), Clarksdale Daily Register and Daily News (1937-1949), and Daily Register (1915-1917). The archive also contains marriage records (1849-1915), death certificates (1912-1943), funeral home records, wills, and Board of Supervisors Minutes. Search by keyword across all titles or select a single item, and limit results by date range. Individual databases can also be browsed. Search Now
Upcoming Online Seminar
Basics of Early New England Research
This five-week online seminar will discuss the settlement of New England, how to locate and use relevant records, and strategies for breaking down brick walls. Live Broadcasts Wednesdays, March 1–29 at 6 p.m. (ET). Register Now
GEDmatch: Features Every Genealogist Needs to Understand and Use
Join Tim Janzen, expert genetic genealogist, for a survey of GEDmatch features which can help you further your genealogical research and break down brick walls.
We have recently added 348,886 new file papers to Suffolk County, MA: Probate File Papers, including wills, guardianships, administrations, and other types of probate records. This database was created using records contributed by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives. Search Now
Your Legacy. Your Peace of Mind. Your Free Will.
As a family historian, you know that wills are important in your research—but have you created a will for yourself? Free Will, an easy and free online will creation tool, will guide you step-by-step through identifying beneficiaries for your assets, supporting the causes that are important to you, and planning for the preservation of your research. Learn More
Join Us at RootsTech 2023
RootsTech is a yearly conference that explores new developments in the world of family history research. Join the experts from American Ancestors/NEHGS in-person in Salt Lake City, Utah, March 2-4 2023, or visit our virtual booth online for free. Learn More
