Experts at American Ancestors will provide an historical understanding of adoption in America, review record types, illustrate how to use DNA to find biological family, and demonstrate key research strategies.
Cost: $85. Live Sessions: October 14, 21, and 28; 6-7:30 p.m. (EDT); access through January 31, 2021. Learn more and register.
Database News by Molly Rogers, Database Coordinator
Our new searchable database, Boscawen, NH: Records of the First Congregational Church, 1790-1970, contains the church's general record books from 1781 to 1982 (covering births, baptisms, marriages, deaths, church admissions, church dismissals, and more), as well as Sunday School and Women’s Christian Temperance Union record books. More than 24,300 records and 24,500 names are available in this new database, which is made possible through our collaboration with the First Congregational Church and Ron Reed, Church Historian. Search Now.
Webinar: Using Bank Records in Family History Research
Genealogist Eileen Pironti will present a brief history of U.S. savings banks and discuss bank records and how to locate them.
Salem City is located in Utah County in north central Utah. The city, which owns and maintains Salem City Cemetery, has provided two cemetery databases.The links are located under the "Headstone Search" header on the left of the webpage.
The Cemetery Headstone Index provides photographs of all headstones in Salem City Cemetery. Downloadable section maps of the cemetery are also available. The cemetery directory provides information on the nearly 2,800 individuals buried at Salem City Cemetery. The data fields in the database are deceased last name, first name, birth date, death date, and grave location. Search Now.
Author event: Eleanor Roosevelt's life of transformation. Register Now
Learn about the Wabanaki Nations of Maine Visit site
Learn from our experts: What's new at AmericanAncestors.org Register Now
The Weekly Genealogist Survey
Last week's survey asked if your ancestors or relatives were connected to the legal or judicial systems. 3,176 responses were received. The results are:
46%, My ancestor or relative was a lawyer.
32%, My ancestor or relative was a judge.
67%, My ancestor or relative served on a jury.
19%, My ancestor or relative worked in the legal profession in another capacity.
44%, My ancestor or relative was a plaintiff in a court case.
47%, My ancestor or relative was a defendant in a court case.
14%, My ancestor or relative had some other connection to the legal profession not mentioned above.
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: Legal or Judicial Ties by Lynn Betlock, Editor
Last week's survey asked whether any of your ancestors or relatives were connected to the legal or judicial systems. Thank you to everyone who replied. Below is a selection of reader responses.
Anne Bent of Montague Center, Massachusetts: My great-great-grandfather, Griffen Benjamin Halsted, served on the jury for the scandalous adultery trial of the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher in 1875. Beecher, pastor of the Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, N.Y., was accused by his friend and fellow abolitionist, Theodore Tilton, of having an affair with Tilton’s wife. The story is long and involved, but it ended with a hung jury. According to family legend, Griffen Halsted was the foreman of that jury. I inherited his autograph book signed by jurors, judges, and the great Beecher himself, and recently donated it to Yale University, which holds a significant collection of Beecher materials.
Maria Burke of Kingston, Massachusetts: In March of 1954, my grandmother, Bertha Sullivan of Pembroke, Massachusetts, found a mouse in her milk. She had been drinking that milk when she felt “stuff" in her mouth and realized there was a “funny feeling” in the carton. She felt sick to her stomach and began to sweat. She could not make it to the phone and passed out at the table. She was awakened about four hours later by a phone call from her daughter, who immediately came over. My grandmother developed a rash over her body, itched, and suffered sweats for weeks afterwards. She sued the producer of the milk, H.P. Hood & Sons, Inc., as well as the local store that had sold her the milk. The case was tried in Superior Court. It was found that my grandmother had suffered severe emotional shock due to negligence on the part of H.P. Hood & Sons in the packaging of its milk. She was awarded $4,000.
Wendy Delery Hills of Mandeville, Louisiana: This week’s survey certainly applied to my family. My great-great-grandfather, great-grandfather, father, and two first cousins of my parents were judges. My great-uncle was a District Attorney. I am an attorney and so are my nephew and niece; she is also an assistant DA. Four of my first cousins are attorneys, as are at least four first cousins once removed and at least sixteen second cousins. This doesn’t include cousins by marriage! And my mother’s first cousin was an Ursuline nun and a canon lawyer.
Carole Badger of Fort Pierce, Florida: My relative Philander Deming (1829-1915) was the first official court reporter in the Albany, New York, area. He had taught himself shorthand as a child. In 1865, he demonstrated the value of verbatim reporting in a Albany courtroom. After that, he was made the official stenographer of the Supreme Court, 3rd Judicial District in N.Y. He graduated from Albany Law School in 1872 while continuing to work. In 1878-79 he was president of the N.Y. Law Stenographer's Association. He wrote a handbook on the craft and had several patents on improving existing typewriters for stenography work.
Kieron Punch of Coventry, England: My ancestor, Robert Xavier Murphy, was Chief Translator and Interpreter to the Bombay Supreme Court, translating legal documents from Marathi and Parsi/Farsi to English and vice-versa. His brother, Michael, was clerk to the bench of magistrates at the penal settlement of Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia, in the 1830s and he updated the legal handbook, The Australian Magistrate. Michael Murphy was eventually made Chief Police Magistrate at Wellington, New Zealand, where he was responsible for governmental and legal matters concerning the southern half of North Island and the whole of South Island.
This free online conference for educators will discuss creation histories, traditional life, colonization and its aftermath, and the resilience and lives of New England Natives today.
"Here it Began: 2020 Hindsight or Foresight," A Plymouth 400 Signature Event. Sponsored by Bridgewater State University, Plymouth 400, and the Wampanoag Advisory Council. October 3-November 22, 2020. Learn more and register.
Webinar: The First American Jewish Woman Novelist
Jonathan D. Sarna, Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University, will explore the life and work of Cora Wilburn, the first American Jewish woman novelist.
American Ancestors by New England Historic Genealogical Society
To advance the study of family history in America and beyond, NEHGS educates, inspires, and connects people through our scholarship, collections, and expertise.
