Finding information about New York state ancestors can be tricky. This online course will guide you through the maze of genealogical pitfalls, and to the bright spots in New York research. NOTE: This course does not include New York City research or resources. October 6, 13, 20, and 27. Register Now
D. Brenton Simons Receives First-Ever John Adams Medal
From the Sons of the Revolution in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
We are pleased to announce that our President and CEO Brenton Simons has received the first John Adams Medal for Outstanding Merit in the Study of History and Lifetime Achievement in Institutional Leadership. The new award was presented to Simons by Brent J. Andersen, President of the Massachusetts Society of the Sons of the Revolution, during the General Society of the Revolution’s triennial gala. Learn More
Free Webinar in Partnership with Historic New England
This Must Be the Place: Preservation and Resilient Communities in New England
Join Vin Cipolla, president and CEO of Historic New England, for a look at how preservation can help build resilient communities, culturally, economically and environmentally, and how Historic New England is working to create a more inclusive approach to the interpretation of our region’s history. Thursday, October 7 at 4 p.m. ET. Register Now
American Inspiration Author Event—Last Chance!
Armando Lucas Correa with In Search of Emma: How We Created Our Family
As family trees increasingly reflect untraditional families and advances in fertility change our options and timeframes, there is much to learn from the account of this best-selling author and magazine editor. Learnhow Correa created his family on October 12 at 6 p.m. ET. Register Now
Spotlight: Cemeteries of Jefferson County, Texas
by Valerie Beaudrault
Jefferson County is located on the Gulf of Mexico in southeastern Texas. Beaumont is the county seat. The Jefferson County Historical Commission has made three volumes of indexes to gravestones in the county’s 74 plus cemeteries available on its website. Each volume has a key for abbreviations used in the records. In addition to the gravestone listings, the volumes contain basic descriptions of the cemeteries, including their locations and histories. In many cases cemetery maps have been included. Please note that records for Magnolia and Forest Lawn Cemeteries in Beaumont and Greenlawn, and Johnson Cemetery in Port Arthur, have not been included, as their records are available on the cemeteries’ websites. Search Now
Salt Lake City
Research Tour
Navigate the world’s largest genealogy library with help from our experts.
Last week's survey asked if you have any German ancestry. We received 3,463 responses. The results are:
70%, Yes
24%, No
6%, I am not sure.
This week's survey asks if you have any naming traditions in your family. 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.
Last week's survey asked if you have German ancestry. Thank you to everyone who replied. Below is a selection of reader responses.
Mary Boehnlein, Independence, Ohio: I grew up during World War II, and because of the stigma associated with Germany I was instructed by my parents to tell people I was Irish (like my father). I didn’t know I had German ancestry on my mother’s side until I was 20 years old. My mother’s family arrived in the United States in the early 1700s, and she spoke and wrote German fluently—which I discovered when she met my husband's parents and they spoke to each other in German. Researching my German ancestry has been a wonderful learning experience—but how I wish my mother had told me more about her family history, and how I wish I had asked her more before she died.
Kathryn Lockhard, Bridgewater, Massachusetts: My 3rd-great-grandfather, Mathias Roesch, brought his family from Germany to America in 1857. Four of his sons fought in the Civil War. I was so intrigued that I wrote a book about this line of my family, including my mother, the first Roesch female. Recently I made contact with a cousin who lives in the Black Forest, where Mathias lived. He has graciously shared pictures of the homeland that brought my book and history into clearer view for me.
Linda Bernin, Minneapolis, Minnesota: In 1980, I airmailed an inquiry to a random German archive listed in the book Finding Your Roots. I knew only that my maternal grandfather came from Bavaria. In return, I received a packet of information on my Keller history dating back to the late 1600s. The person who answered my request was related to me, as were most people in their town of Leimersheim on the Rhine River, where the family had lived for centuries. Since then, I’ve found several branches of German Palatine immigrants in the 1700s, and German Bohemians and Pomeranian Germans in the 1800s. Of course none of these later discoveries came as easy as that first one!
Lynn Gaulin, North Attleboro, Massachusetts: If you had asked this question a year ago, I would have answered “yes, my great-grandfather came from Bavaria.” But at age 83, I learned from DNA results that my father was from Chile, and had no German ancestry!
Database News
New volumes for Massachusetts: (Image-Only) Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920
This week we’re announcing 60 new volumes and 20 updated volumes in Massachusetts: (Image Only) Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920. These new volumes come from 15 parishes: St. John the Evangelist (Canton), Our Lady of the Assumption (Chelsea), St. Rose of Lima (Chelsea), St. Stanislaus (Chelsea), St. Stephen (Framingham), St. Ann (Gloucester), Sacred Heart (Groton), Sacred Hearts (Haverhill), St. James (Haverhill), St. Joseph (Haverhill), St. Michael the Archangel (Haverhill), St. Rita (Haverhill), St. John the Evangelist (Hopkinton), Sacred Heart (Ipswich), and St. John the Evangelist (Winthrop). Search Now
Catching up with Vita Brevis
Alicia Crane Williams resolved a complicated identification for a woman known variously as Mary, Marcy, or Mercy; Pamela Athearn Filbert reported on an intriguing group of miners from Coos County, Oregon (including links to a rock icon); Rhonda McClure compared the vagaries of nineteenth-century immigration to the U.S. with a 2021 visit to Japan to report on the Olympics; Pam Holland used a variety of databases to place her great-great-grandmother in Hesse-Cassel; Jeff Record contemplated a collateral relative whose instinct for survival took him to surprising lengths; and Christopher C. Child lost (and found) relatives in the Blood family, wrote about African American Civil War soldiers in the 29th Connecticut Infantry, and then looked at descendants of Mayflower passengers and Wampanoag tribe members from Mashpee, Massachusetts who served in the Civil War.
