Is your closet full of boxes of old family photographs? Is your basement bursting with letters, diaries, and other documents from your family history research? Do you have family memorabilia that you want to make sure is around for generations to come? This virtual preservation roadshow will teach you best practices for surveying, handling, and storing family materials and provide you with expert advice on how to care for items in your collection.
Subscribe now to get both the winter and summer issues of Mayflower Descendant delivered to your mailbox as soon as they are released.Mayflower Descendant has long been a highly regarded source of scholarship relating to Mayflower families and related genealogies, their origins in England, and their lives and places of residence in America, from the earliest settlements to their migrations north and westward.
The American Genealogist (TAG), published quarterly since 1922, is an important body of scholarly research covering the breadth of the United States, with an early preference for New England. We are pleased to offer this journal as a fully searchable online database. The current TAG database covers volumes 9–86. Volumes 1–8, covering the years 1922–1932, are already available online under the name Families of Ancient New Haven. Become a member of American Ancestors to access this database and more!
Interview with D. Brenton Simons, Christian Di Spigna, and J. L. Bell
Historians Christian Di Spigna and J. L. Bell of the Dr. John Warren Historical Society interview D. Brenton Simons, President and CEO of American Ancestors and New England Historic Genealogical Society, about his book "Witches, Rakes, and Rogues," the collections at NEHGS, and trends in genealogical research.
The Archive Department of the Archdiocese of Boston has announced a new tool which can help researchers determine which parish their ancestors attended. The Boston Catholic Parish Map depicts the Archdiocese of Boston ca.1955, when a concerted effort was made to document the boundaries of each parish, and reflects the height of the Archdiocese in terms of number of parishes.
This new map is intended to be used in conjunction with the Historic Catholic Records Online project hosted at AmericanAncestors.org. This week we’re announcing 29 new volumes and 26 updated volumes in Massachusetts: (Image Only) Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920. Search Now
Special Event: New York and London in the Gilded Age
Spotlight: City Cemeteries of Platteville, Wisconsin
by Valerie Beaudrault
The city of Platteville is located in Grant County in southwestern Wisconsin. The city has made burials databases available for the two cemeteries that it maintains—Greenwood and Hillside. Click the ‘Storymap’ link on the homepage to learn about the history of Platteville and its cemeteries.
Scroll to the end of the City Cemeteries homepage to begin your search. Click the button for the cemetery you would like to search. The resources on the search pages for both cemeteries are the same. There are two burials indexes. One database has been organized alphabetically by surname of the deceased. The other has been organized by cemetery section or block. The data fields in both indexes are similar and include: last name, first name, middle initial, age, date the lot was purchased, date died, date buried, grave location information, and comments. Cemetery maps in PDF file format have been provided. In addition, you will find links to interactive maps for each cemetery.
Woman Discovers Shocking Truth of Maternity Home Where She Gave Birth In 1961, 16-year-old Margaret Erle was sent to the Lakeview Maternity Home in Staten Island. In the post-war years, maternity homes sprang up across the country to hide young pregnant women and facilitate adoptions.
Last week's survey asked about reuniting family history objects, photos, and documents with a descendant or relative of the original owner. We received 2,585 responses. The results are:
30%, I successfully gave a family history item to a descendant or relative of an original owner.
23%, I successfully gave two to nine family history items to descendants or relatives of original owners.
7%, I successfully gave ten or more family history items to descendants or relatives of original owners.
11%, I tried to give a family history item to a descendant or relative of an original owner but did not succeed.
15%, I have never tried to give a family history item to a descendant or relative of an original owner.
23%, I intend to give a family history item to a descendant or relative of an original owner.
66%, A family history item was given to me because I am a descendant or relative of the original owner.
14%, I have never received a family history item due to being a descendant or relative of an original owner.
This week's question asks about ancestors who returned to their country of origin. Take the survey now
Want to share your thoughts on the survey with us? We are always happy to hear from our readers. Email us at weeklygenealogist@nehgs.org. Responses may be edited for clarity and length and featured in a future newsletter.
Readers Respond: Returning Family Heirlooms by Jean Powers
Last week's survey asked about reuniting family history objects, photos, and documents with a descendant or relative of the original owner. Thank you to everyone who replied. Below is a selection of reader responses.
Martha Wiggin Rheaume, Franklin, New Hampshire: When my uncle, who had no children, passed in 2013, I undertook the task of organizing and scanning his photos. Whenever the subjects were identifiable, I tried to find their living relatives in order to share the photos with them. My most satisfying moment was when I was able to hand-deliver a black-and-white photo of a young woman holding her infant son. I traced the son to a local real estate office; when I asked there for Mr. Currier I was told that he was not in the office, but his wife was. I handed the photo to Mrs. Currier, and her face lit up. She exclaimed, "My beautiful mother-in-law!" She was genuinely appreciative, and excited to show the photo to her husband.
Ann Reed, Mulberry, Florida: My father-in-law was a contractor in the St. Louis area in the early 1920s. While replacing a window in an old home, he found a walking stick embedded in the insulation behind the wall. The stick was carved with a Civil War soldier’s name and unit, and a year; it was in almost perfect condition. My husband inherited the stick upon his father’s death. With the help of a genealogical website, my husband and I identified the man who had carved the walking stick. He had no children, and we did not know how to find his family members. We put an announcement on the same genealogical website and one of the man’s nephews located us—four years later! He told us that his family was having a reunion soon, so we decided to send him the stick to share at the event. Unfortunately, we did not hear from him after he acknowledged receipt of the item. I do wish he would have told us the reaction of the family when they saw it.
Alice Blakely Marsh, Jericho, Vermont: I was given a family Bible from 1812 that once belonged to my ancestors in Connecticut. A man found it in the parking lot of a Lowe's Home Improvement store in Brooklyn, New York. His brother searched for descendants and finally found me. I submitted the story to Vermont Genealogy, and it was published in the Spring 2020 issue.
Kathy Ripke, Minneapolis, Minnesota: Several years ago, I made a family research trip to Salt Lake City, Utah. While in the LDS library, I paged through a history book on a county in Ohio where I suspected my ancestors had lived in the 1830s and 1840s. I turned a page to discover a photo, from a young girl’s memory book circa 1840, of seven locks of hair with the names of my 3rd-great-grandparent’s family members written below each lock! I almost passed out with excitement. I wrote to the woman who contributed the photo, explaining my connection to the family, and my husband and I arranged to meet her later that same year. We had a wonderful visit and were able to photograph all the pages of the book. A few months later, I received an envelope in the mail. The owner of the memory book had sent me the page containing the locks of hair belonging to my family. I was delighted and honored. It is one of my most treasured possessions.
Author Talks on Hurricane History, Families and Identity
Tonight! Don’t miss hearing from the bestselling historian Eric Jay Dolin and his illustrated talk about A Furious Sky The Five-Hundred-Year History of America's Hurricanes. On Tuesday, January 19 author Nadia Owusu will discuss her enthralling memoir Aftershocks with the New York Times best-selling author Jessica Shattuck. The pair will look at issues of identity, their understanding and integration of their surprising family history.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., half-length portrait, facing front. Dick DeMarsico, photographer, 1964. New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection. Prints & Photographs Division.
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