Book Bonanza

The county has always been used as the basic Federal census unit. Genealogical research in the census, therefore, begins with identifying the correct county jurisdictions. This work shows all U.S. county boundaries from 1790 to 1920. On each of the nearly 400 maps the old county lines are superimposed over the modern ones to highlight the boundary changes at ten-year intervals. Also included are (1) a history of census growth; (2) the technical facts about each census; (3) a discussion of census accuracy; (4) an essay on available sources for each state's old county lines; and (5) a statement with each map indicating which county census lines exist and which are lost. Then there is an index listing all present-day counties, plus nearly all defunct counties or counties later re-named.

With each map there is data on boundary changes, notes about the census, and locality finding keys. There also are inset maps that clarify territorial lines, a state-by-state bibliography of sources, and an appendix outlining pitfalls in mapping county boundaries. The detail in this work is exhaustive and of such impeccable standards that there is little wonder why this award-winning publication is the number one tool in U.S. census research.

This monumental compilation contains the genealogical records of approximately 300 families of early Milford, Connecticut. The genealogies range from a single paragraph to a dozen pages or more, enumerating descents through several generations, and are arranged alphabetically by family name, under which may also be found the names and records of allied families.

The families traced here include those called Free Planters, who settled Milford in 1639, those who came soon afterward and who are called After Planters, and, in addition, those families who were in town at an early date and about whom there is a significant amount of information available. There are nearly 15,000 names in the index.

Mass immigration to the United States was nowhere more apparent than in the immigration of the Irish between 1815 and the failure of the potato crop in 1845/1846, during which time a million Irish men and women crossed the seas to take up permanent residence in America. Adams provides a detailed account of the economic, social, and political factors underlying the early migrations; an examination of the emigrant trade and its links with American shipping interests; and a history of government policy regarding assisted and unassisted emigration. An exhaustive and engaging book.

This remarkable book is nothing less than an alphabetical listing of nearly the entire adult male (and some of the female) population of Monmouth County during the American Revolution--some 6,000 Monmouth Countians between 1776 and 1783. For roughly half of the persons listed, we find one or two identifying pieces of information, such as militia service, date of death, signer of a petition, conviction of a misdemeanor, occupation, and so on. But in an equal number of cases we are presented with enough information to trace the allegiance or comings and goings of a Monmouth County resident over a number of years (e.g., Abiel Aiken: militia volunteer, 1776; signer of petition, 1777; coroner, 1778; justice of the peace, 1780-83; leased horses to Continental Army, 1781; and so on).

This work is a very helpful aid in the use of the indexes of immigrant passenger lists in the National Archives, for they are arranged in the chronological order of the ships' arrival dates, and thereunder by the names of the vessels or the passenger lines, and only then by passengers' surnames. This directory provides a ready means of ascertaining information that will be helpful, for it is arranged by year and steamship company, and thereunder by port of entry, the vessel name, its arrival date and port of embarkation.

This book includes a good deal more than a roster of Revolutionary soldiers, though indeed a not insignificant portion of the work is given over to a list of such soldiers taken from the Revolutionary Army Accounts of North Carolina in the State Archives at Raleigh, showing claims against North Carolina for service by men of the western-most counties of Washington and Sullivan, later Tennessee. There are also sections devoted to wills of Washington County, sections on marriages of Blount and Davidson counties, and a final section on Revolutionary grants in Davidson County.

The explorations of Virginia's colonial hinterland to its convergence with the Ohio River valley, undertaken by a group of intrepid 17th-century Virginia pioneers, are among the least understood accomplishments of our history. Within these pages are printed the sources of information concerning the western explorations of these Virginians, and they leave no doubt about the events. The leaders of these expeditions included Abraham Wood in the 1650s, the German physician John Lederer in the late 1660s, Thomas Batts and Robert Fallam in 1671, and James Needham and Gabriel Arthur in 1673. Authors Alvord and Bidgood recount the stories of the various expeditions, demonstrating how the interplay of economic motive and love of adventure conspired to lay the groundwork for colonial Virginia's claim on much of the Ohio territory.

In April 1719, a small band of Scotch-Irish settlers under the guiding spirit of Rev. James MacGregor founded the town of Londonderry in New Hampshire, which was destined to be an early Presbyterian stronghold in America. The keeping of vital records in Londonderry commenced almost at once. Years later, when the town voted to fund the printing of these vital records for the period from 1719 to 1910, there were approximately 25,000 records of births, marriages, marriage intentions and deaths.

Compiled by the former town clerk and tax collector, Daniel Annis, the records are given here in alphabetical order under those four main headings. Not all persons in these records are Scotch-Irish or of Scotch-Irish descent, but the historically significant Scotch-Irish element is traceable through all the nearly 200 years of records.

Ships of Our Ancestors is a compilation of photographs of the steamships that were employed in transporting immigrants to this country in the heyday of mass migration. These were the propeller-driven, steel-hulled leviathans of legend, owned and operated by such famous shipping lines as North German Lloyd, White Star, Cunard, Guion, Red Star, Inman, and Hamburg-American. Photos of nearly 900 ships are arranged here in alphabetical order, and each ship is further identified by date, shipping line, and source.

For genealogists the photographs represent a visual testimony of the great passenger ships that grew old in service and then passed from the scene without a trace. They are proof of a bygone time and our connection to it.

The work at hand contains probably the greatest single collection of records pertaining to the Delaware Indians assembled in one volume. Spanning the period 1857-1904 and touching on 20,000 individuals or households, these records, many of which establish relationships between family members, consist, in the main, of censuses or pay rolls, medical records, annuity payments, school attendance records, land improvement records, and abstracts based on the Final Rolls of Cherokees by Blood . . . of the Five Civilized Tribes. Among the most important of the lists are the following: a listing of the heads of families of the Delaware Tribe of Indians within Fort Leavenworth, with references to other family members by age and sex; Delaware land allotment records, showing the name of the land holder and the location of the land; names of Delaware Indians who variously elected to retain or dissolve their tribal relations under the Treaty of July 4, 1866, showing the name of the head of household and his minor children; and an extensive record of the Delaware Indians residing in the Cherokee Nation, showing the name of the property holder, his children and grandchildren, and the land under improvement.

This work delivers a rather more detailed treatment of Tennessee Revolutionary pensioners than did Miss Armstrong's Twenty-Four Hundred Tennessee Pensioners: Revolution [and] War of 1812, though, of course, it is confined solely to pensioners of the Revolutionary War. Based on the Invalid Lists of 1806 and the Pension Lists of 1818, 1832 and 1840, it supplies--in addition to name, age, service, residence, and source of information--the date of the pension application, date and place of birth, service record, names of all family members cited in the pension statement, and place or places of migration to, from, or within Tennessee. The 1840 Pension List is especially interesting to researchers, as it includes widows' applications. Widows were required to submit proof of marriage and children, and their applications, therefore, constitute a rich vein of genealogical source material. Altogether several hundred Revolutionary War veterans and several thousand related family members are documented.

The State of Tennessee was erected after the Revolution. All soldiers who lived in the Tennessee country during the Revolution are found on the North Carolina rolls. Pensioners who moved to the state later are credited to the states in which they lived and served.

An alphabetical list of 2,400 Tennessee pensioners, it was compiled from published government Pension Lists of 1816, 1818, 1828, 1832, and the U.S. Census of 1840. Included are name, age, service, residence, and the source of the data. Widows drawing on their husbands' claims are also listed. Since the sources are so varied, having them in a list such as this is a great convenience.

We pursue it as a hobby and search for it in the most out-of-the-way places, yet few of us actually know very much about kinship. For instance, do you know the degree of blood relationship between yourself and your first cousins? Between third cousins and second cousins once removed? Do you know anything at all about the removes? Do you understand the difference between a great-aunt and a grand-aunt? Or between a cousin-german and a cater cousin? And what about double first cousins? If you're a little vague about any of this, then this book is for you. It explains everything there is to know about kinship: about agnate and cognate kinship, collateral and fictive kinship, the kinship connection of orphans, foundlings, foster children, and adopted children. Everything!

The expanded second edition of Kinship already featured new chapters on the subjects of marriage, names, and wills, as well as an expanded treatment of subjects such as degrees of consanguinity and ways to calculate blood relationships; and it had a new glossary, bibliography, and an index.

Now we have a newer edition, with a unique chapter on the role of same-sex marriage as it impacts genealogy and family history, placing same-sex marriage in the context of history, law, religion, and the changing culture of the modern family. This is a timely and fascinating topic in itself, stirring passions on all sides by redefining the concept of family as we know it. And as public opinion hardens or changes, so, too, does the law, and perhaps the most impressive part of this new chapter is the state-by-state breakdown of current law pertaining to same-sex marriage. Now you can tell in an instant what the laws are in all fifty states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, with the understanding that such laws are constantly evolving.

EDITORIAL REVIEWS OF AN EARLIER EDITION

"The book is well-organized. The text is chatty, appealing to beginners, and even flippant."--THE AMERICAN GENEALOGIST, Vol. 69, No. 4 (October 1994), pp. 255-256

"...one of the best sources for explaining all of the various familial and in-law relationships, degrees of consanguinity (blood relationships), and all that stuff about cousins (first cousins share a grandparent, second cousins share a great grandparent, etc.), once removed or otherwise. Kinship is just right for library reference shelves."--LIBRARY JOURNAL (June 15, 1990)

One of the oldest surviving documents of Washington County, Rhode Island, the so-called Fones Record commences with a 1659 land grant from Coginaquond, Sachem of the Narragansetts, to a group of proprietors consisting of prominent New England officials. Contains the records of organization and every deed and land transaction consummated by the proprietors until 1686.

This original Clearfield publication is a faithful transcription of the birth, marriage, and death records of the town of Kingston, New Hampshire. Commencing with the oldest extant records in 1694 and continuing up to the present, Mrs. Arseneault's new book refers to a staggering 25,000 persons who were born, married, or died in Kingston.

The book is divided into two parts: vital records from 1694 through 1900, which were abstracted from the original records, and vital records from 1901 through 1994, which are based on Kingston Town Reports for those years. Within each half of the book, births are followed by marriages, which are, in turn, followed by deaths. The births and marriages are arranged alphabetically according to the name of the father or husband, while the deaths are arranged alphabetically by the name of the deceased.

The following is typical of the kind of information that can be found in the Kingston volume. Birth records, which are arranged in family units, give the names of the parents, names and dates of birth of their children, and frequently the parents' places of birth or residence (other than Kingston) at the time of record. The marriage records furnish the full names of the bride and groom, their places of birth or residence, and the date of the marriage. The death records identify the deceased by name, date of death, and age at death or date of birth, and frequently include the names of the deceased's parent(s), and, in the case of later records, the place of death. While all male Kingstonians are readily found in one of the six alphabetical sub-sections in the book, Mrs. Arseneault's 12,000-name index to females makes it easy to locate mothers and daughters scattered in the text.

All in all, this is an extraordinary transcription and, without question, the starting point for Kingston, New Hampshire family history.

Note: A new release of the print version of this publication is now available 

This legendary work consists of alphabetically arranged genealogical tables of approximately 500 Rhode Island families, representing thousands of descendants of pre-1690 settlers, all carried to the third generation, and some--about 100 families-- carried to the fourth. The majority of the entries contain records of births and, in all but the last generation, marriages, deaths, and places of residence, with excerpts from wills and deeds and other court records.

Our reprint contains the following added material: (1) additions and corrections consisting of 104 pages by G. Andrews Moriarty; (2) manuscript notations and marginalia in various hands, including cross-references to material in The American Genealogist; and (3) a Foreword by Albert T. Klyberg, director of the Rhode Island Historical Society.

This work is an exhaustive study of 160 families. For each family covered, a skeletal genealogy is given, showing births, marriages, and deaths in successive generations of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. This is then followed by a narrative detailing the known facts about each person and family according to existing records. The narratives commence with the first member of the family to come to New England, identifying his place of origin and occupation, the date and place of his arrival in New England, and his residence--all information that was accumulated from the author's extensive research in wills, inventories, deeds, land records, and church records. The narratives then turn to the children of the original settler, treating them in like manner, and to their children, and so on until the genealogy is fully developed.

Although the families treated are of New England provenance, the majority migrated to Rhode Island, so these family histories also deal in detail with the Rhode Island stocks. The following is a somewhat abbreviated list of the families covered: Adams, Aldborough, Aldrich, Allen, Andrews, Arnold, Austin, Banbesey, Barker, Bartholomew, Batchelder, Beane, Bernington, Botts, Brackett, Briggs, Buffum, Bugby, Bunker, Burr, Burton, Busecot, Butler, Card, Carpenter, Chamberlain, Clarke, Cleeves, Coffin, Comb, Congdon, Cook, Crandall, Crowell, Daniels, Denslow, Derby, Dungan, Eddy, Eldred, Ewer, Fairbanks, Fish, Follett, Fosten, Foster, Frier, Gamage, Gardner, Gifford, Godfrey, Gorham, Gorton, Gould, Grover, Gully, Hacker, Hall, Hanson, Harris, Harvey, Haskett, Hayward, Herrige, Hodges, Holbrook, Holliman, Hopcot, Howell, Howes, Howland, Hoxie, Humphrey, Hussey, Ives, Jacob, Jeffrey, Johnson, Kellett, Kelly, Knowles, Lambert, Latham, Lawton, Learned, Lewkenor, Lockwood, Macy, Marble, Meacham, Meader, Melward, Mitton, Munn, Osborne, Otis, Owen, Oxston, Paddock, Paine, Peak, Peckham, Penbridge, Phillips, Pierce, Porter, Potter, Pratt, Presbury, Prince, Putnam, Reynolds, Seale, Sears, Severance, Shattuck, Simonds, Sisson, Smith, Southwick, Spooner, Stafford, Starbuck, Stevens, Stone, Stoughton, Swain, Taft, Tallman, Tew, Thatcher, Thayer, Thember, Thompson, Tilley, Trask, Tripp, Tuttle, Utter, Warner, Warnestead, Weeden, Westcott, Wheeler, Whipple, Whitaker, White, Wing, Witter, Wood, Wyer, and Young.

An extensive work, this is based on original records, mainly of the Congregational and Episcopal churches of the period 1651-1800. About 30,000 marriages are recorded, arranged by town and thereunder by church, and they give the full names of the brides and grooms, and the marriage dates. Each of the seven volumes is indexed.

This is the most complete collection of early Massachusetts marriages ever published, containing over 20,000 entries for the period 1643-1800. The marriages derive from records kept by the various county, city, and court clerks in compliance with Massachusetts law, and give the full name of the bride and groom and date and place of marriage. The book is divided into four sections covering: Worcester County; Plymouth County; Middlesex, Hampshire, Berkshire, and Bristol counties; and Plymouth County again, as transcribed from the first volume of the records of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas and an unnumbered volume of the records of the Court of General Sessions. This last section contains over 1,000 additional entries. Each section of the book is separately paginated and indexed, except for the last, which is arranged in chronological order.

This is the standard work on the Huguenot immigration to America. Baird's work is so thorough that there are few Huguenot names for which some new fact or illustration is not supplied. The bulk of the work is devoted to the important emigration of French Protestants (via the Netherlands and Great Britain) in the last quarter of the 17th century to the time of the Revolutionary War. Throughout the text, in both narratives and records, there is a profusion of genealogical detail on the early Huguenot families of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Virginia, later families having dispersed to Pennsylvania and other states. In addition, extensive genealogical notices are given in footnotes, with references to sources, thus serving as a guide to further information.

The "Flying Camp" is a vaguely understood episode of the American Revolution. In May 1776 the Continental Congress authorized the formation of a force of 10,000 militia, conceived by General George Washington as a "mobile reserve" that would both defend the army's garrisons in the Middle States and spread alarm amongst the British. Most, but not all, of the putative organization was to come from the states of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland. In point of fact, the Flying Camp as an idea and actuality barely survived the year. In the wake of the New York and New Jersey campaigns of 1776 it became abundantly clear that what Washington needed was a reliable and substantial Continental Army, not short-term, undersubscribed militia haphazardly organized under the chimera of a "Flying Camp." Despite its unsustainability as a military concept, the officers and noncommissioned members of the various elements of the Flying Camp rendered important service to the Nation in the campaigns of Long Island, Trenton, and Princeton, among others. The full story of Washington's Flying Camp is told for the first time in Richard Lee Baker's new book, "Villainy and Maddness" Washington's Flying Camp. Drawing on original sources, particularly the correspondence of the Continental Congress, state committees of safety, the George Washington papers, and more, Baker fills in the gaps in the history of the Flying Camp that have eluded historians until now. In his able hands, we trace the Flying Camp from its beginnings in Washington's imagination, to the dispatches of the new Congress enjoining the Middle States to commit specified numbers of militiamen to this important cause, to the logistical difficulties in achieving the objectives in General Washington's master plan, and to the actual service of Flying Camp militia in the campaigns of 1776.

The author devotes a separate chapter to Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, delineating each state's response to the call for a Flying Camp contingent, difficulties in assembling the forces on a timely basis, and the unending problem of militiamen returning home to tend to their crops following their abbreviated terms of service. At the same time, however, Baker sheds light on the valuable service rendered by Flying Camp members on the battlefield as well as in their capacities as engineers, physicians, and artillerymen.

Genealogists will appreciate the many references to actual members of the Flying Camp throughout the narrative, including General Hugh Mercer, one of Washington's best generals and a fatality at the Battle of Princeton. The work concludes with a list of Flying Camp commanders and officers, a comprehensive bibliography, and a full-name index.

Colonial Families of Martha's Vineyard is Clearfield's adaptation of Charles Bank's three-volume history of that historic Massachusetts island settlement. In the compiler's estimation the work consists of the "complete genealogies of every family resident of Martha's Vineyard (Duke's County) from 1641 through the beginning of the 19th century, transient and permanent residents inclusive." In the compilation of these genealogies, Banks relied heavily upon the official records of births, marriages, and deaths on deposit at the three Martha's Vineyard towns founded before 1700--Chillmark, Tisbury, and Edgartown; church records for their references to baptisms, marriages, and deaths; probate records; and so forth. The author credits 19th-century compiler Richard L. Pease's collection of genealogical manuscripts as his richest and most valuable source. Banks also traveled to England from 1922 to 1924 in order to compile additional information on the ancestral homes of Vineyard patriarchs.

The volume commences with a learned Introduction that discusses the author's methodology, the venerable families of the Vineyard and migration patterns to the mainland, and it concludes with an every-name index exceeding 12,000 persons. What follows is a list of the most frequently cited surnames in that index: Adams, Allen, Arey, Athearn, Baker, Bartlett, Bassett, Baxter, Beetle, Benson, Bourne, Bradford, Bradley, Brown, Burgess, Butler, Case, Cathcart, Chase, Claghorn, Clark, Cleveland, Clifford, Coffin, Coleman, Cooke, Cottle, Covell, Crosby, Crowell, Daggett, Davis, Dean, Dexter, Dunham, Eddy, Fisher, Flanders, Folger, Foster, Gardiner, Gifford, Gould, Gray, Hammett, Hancock, Harding, Harper, Hatch, Hathaway, Hillman, Holley, Huxford, Jenkins, Jernegan, Johnson, Jones, Kelley, King, Lambert, Lewis, Long, Look, Luce, Manchester, Manter, Marchant, Mayhew, Merry, Morse, Nash, Nickerson, Norton, Nye, Osborn, Parker, Pease, Pope, Pratt, Presbury, Reynolds, Ripley, Robinson, Rogers, Rotch, Russell, Sears, Sherman, Skiff, Smith, Snow, Sprague, Starbuck, Stewart, Strong, Swain, Swasey, Tabor, Taylor, Thaxter, Tilton, Tobey, Torrey, Trapp, Vincent, Vinson, Waldron, Wass, Webster, Weeks, West, Wheldon, White, Williams, Wing, Winslow, Worth, and Young.

Scrupulous in every detail, this work contains the names of 3,600 passengers on the ninety-six ships which brought them to New England between 1620 and 1640. Working with the same records employed by Savage, Drake, and Hotten, and with records unknown or inaccessible to them, Col. Banks here pulls the several classes of records together to form the most complete and authoritative collection of passenger lists for the period ever published. In addition to the names of passengers and ships, places of origin, and places of residence in America, the book includes indexes to surnames, ships, English parishes, and New England towns.

This "Dictionary" includes genealogical records of nearly 3,000 emigrants, giving their English homes, names of ships in which they sailed, towns in which they settled in New England, and references to the printed or manuscript sources from which the information derived. In collecting data for this work, Col. Banks made seven visits to England, searching the records of nearly 2,000 parishes in order to connect the New England immigrants with their native parishes. Additional information is provided in a series of indexes: Index to Emigrants to New England; Index of the Wives and Children of the Emigrants; Index of Parishes; Index of Ships; and Index of Towns in New England.

This critically acclaimed work has biographical sketches of 112 passengers who sailed on the first four ships to New England. Along with data on the passengers' origins, family connections and later histories, it substitutes proof for guess-work and blows holes in many cherished traditions. The author gives first the historical evidence, then follows a list of the passengers on the Mayflower, Fortune, Anne, and Little James. These are dealt with, one by one, and the little known facts about their place of residence in England and their parentage and ancestry are given.

This is an authoritative list of the 700 passengers who are believed to have come to New England with John Winthrop in 1630. Based on research undertaken in England and America, it provides as much data as could be verified on each passenger--name, place of departure, places of residence in England and America, occupation, church affiliation, dates of birth, marriage, and death, and relationships to other passengers. It also has indexes of names, places, and subjects as well as appendices listing the passengers on the Mary and John and the Lyon, which sailed contemporaneously with the Winthrop Fleet.

In this book, Mr. Barber has prepared historical sketches, of varying length, of over 300 Massachusetts towns from Abington to Yarmouth. In most cases we learn something of the town's origins, the derivation of its name, date of founding, topography, population in 1837, principal industries, churches and ministers, and, depending on the length, colonial conflicts with the Indian population, the town's role in the American Revolution, or other historical episodes for which the town became celebrated.

This remarkable work contains the genealogical records of over 950 families of early Hartford, Connecticut. The records are arranged alphabetically by family name, under which may also be found the names and records of allied families. The births, marriages, and deaths in successive generations are marshalled in a tight, skillfully worked progression of statistics, and additional insights are afforded by the ready accumulation of biographical and historical detail. Based on the available records for the period 1645 to 1825, this collection of genealogies goes a considerable way in making good the deficiencies of the public record.

Families of Early Hartford is one of a number of versions on which Mr. Barbour worked. His own family tree included many of these lines, and his work in the preservation and care of old records and improved methods of record keeping reinforced his interest in helping other genealogists. From notes which he originally called "Families of Hartford and Vicinity," he worked and re-worked the compilation--mainly from church records, sextons' records, and probate records--but his work lay unpublished until the Connecticut Society of Genealogists exhumed the manuscript, typed it, and indexed it for publication. We are indeed greatly indebted to them, for without this book the genealogical continuity of Hartford and vicinity would be beyond discovery.

The Family History Library of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints contains the world's largest collection of genealogical materials, and it is a natural magnet for researchers the world over. The library's print and electronic collections are renowned for their breadth and are so vast they require the pinpoint guidance that only a Genealogy at a Glance research guide can provide. Here are just a few statistics to illustrate the scope of this extraordinary library:

• The Family History Library collection includes over 2.4 million rolls of microfilm and 727,000 microfiche, 356,000 books and serials, over 4,500 periodicals, and 3,725 databases.
• Records have been filmed in over 110 countries, territories, and possessions.
• Researchers in the library have access to 475 computers, 408 microfilm readers, 36 microfiche readers, and 27 microform copiers.
• The library has enough tables to accommodate 375 researchers.
• Service is provided by 100 full-time and part-time professional staff, supported by 700 trained volunteers.

The library is located in a 142,000 square-foot building in Salt Lake City, and anyone tracing his or her ancestors will want to make use of the collections, which fall into four broad categories: (1) those dealing with the U.S. at the state or county level; (2) those dealing with the U.S. at the national or regional level; (3) international records; and (4) family histories. One of the main purposes of this Genealogy at a Glance publication is to assist you with strategies for researching in any of the major collections, strategies that you'll find not only helpful but indispensable. 

Like other publications in the Genealogy at a Glance series, this one takes a large subject and narrows it down to its essential elements, covering the basics of research in an amazing four pages. But this piece is just a little different; besides pointing out the best and most helpful websites, listing the most useful books and articles, and providing tips for further research, it also tells you how to prepare for a research trip to Salt Lake City and suggests things to do in the city when you take a break from your research. It even offers suggestions for dining and accommodation!

Baltimore County originally embraced all or parts of present-day Anne Arundel, Carroll, Harford, and Cecil counties, and here for the first time is a book that provides comprehensive genealogical data on the hundreds of families and thousands of individuals who settled in the parent county during the first hundred years of its existence.

Because of the vast number of families included in the work--most of them were either migrants from Southern Maryland, Virginia's Eastern Shore, and Pennsylvania or immigrants from the British Isles whose ranks included servants, convicts, and Jacobite rebels--it was not possible to carry any family much later than 1759. Parish registers, administration bonds and accounts, wills, and inventories were abstracted and used as the nucleus for each family group, while court records and deeds were combed for supplementary data. In addition, family histories have been constructed from a series of family groups starting with the earliest known progenitor, followed by his children, his grandchildren, and, in some cases, his great-grandchildren.

All in all, this is a stellar work on Baltimore County families prepared by the leading authority on the subject.

This book from the dean of Baltimore genealogists, Robert Barnes, is a snapshot of the people and daily life in the Monumental City in the years between the conclusion of the War of 1812 and the onset of the Panic of 1819. Mr. Barnes, who began accumulating the data for this volume many years ago when he compiled Marriages and Deaths from Baltimore Newspapers, 1796-1816, has expanded his scope to include all biographical references found in newspapers and related sources for these three years. Besides newspaper notices of birth, marriage, or death, the compiler includes references to personal estates, servants, apprentices, wives, and soldiers found in publications like the Baltimore American and Commercial Daily Advertiser, Baltimore Patriot and Mercantile Advertiser, Federal Gazette and Baltimore Advertiser, Maryland Gazette, and more. The nearly 3,000 entries collected by Robert Barnes vary in content according to the life events they describe; however, they invariably provide three or more details about each subject, along with a source citation. Here are a few examples:

Aisquith, Robert C., merchant, was m. last Thurs. by Rev. Mr. Henshaw, to Miss Eleanor Elizabeth Warfield, all of Baltimore (BA 29 Sep 1817).

Dare, E. dec.; recently occupied a tailor's shop on Pratt St., near the water J. D. Richardson, at 84 Bowly's Wharf, advertises that the premises are to let (BPAT 20 March 1819).

Hammond, Rezin, late of Anne Arundel Co., dec., made a will on May 10, 1808 manumitting a number of his Negroes, including a Negro named Allen. John Gassaway, Register of Wills, certified on 2 Oct 1817, that the said Allen was raised at Elk Ridge, Anne Arundel Co., was f 5 tall, and had a scar on his right cheekbone near his eye. Andrew Warfield, at one time an acting Justice of the Peace in Anne Arundel Co., refutes the Ôilliberal handbill' of George Howard [long notice giving details of the case] (BPAT 29 July 1819). (For the will of Rezin Hammond, filed in 1809, see AAWB JG#2: 513.)

In all, Biographical Data From Baltimore Newspapers, 1817-1819 refers to more than 7,000 inhabitants whose whereabouts, falling as they do in non-census years, would continue to elude researchers for some time to come.

In this comprehensive collection of genealogies, noted Maryland genealogist Robert Barnes has put together the most authoritative account of the British origins of Maryland families ever published. Families included in this groundbreaking work were chosen by Mr. Barnes based on the following criteria: (a) there was some reason to believe that the families' home parish in Britain had been identified; (b) the families had taken root and left descendants in the New World; and (c) most had arrived before the year 1800. Source materials on which these genealogies are based derive from a combination of Mr. Barnes's own extensive research over the past thirty years and the pioneering work on the origins of Maryland families made by earlier researchers such as Henry F. Waters, Lothrop Withington, Harry Wright Newman, Jack and Marion Kaminkow, and, more recently, Peter Wilson Coldham.

Some British sources used by Mr. Barnes include printed and manuscript genealogies, county histories and heraldic visitations, works on the peerage and landed gentry, and distinguished periodicals such as The Genealogist, Harleian Society Parish Register Series, and Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica. Clues in Maryland source records were discovered in land records, county and provincial court records, parish registers, probate records, printed and manuscript family histories, and in dozens of well-known periodicals specializing in genealogy and family history. The result is a world-class combination of genealogical source materials that extends the reach of Maryland genealogy well beyond what has been known up until this point.

Altogether this work contains information on nearly 500 individuals and families whose descendants came to Maryland. Many of the families, such as the Frowicks, Lewkenors, and Wroths, did not come to Maryland themselves but were ancestors through the marriage of daughters of those who did. Some families, such as the Blakistons, Towneleys, and Keenes, sent more than one individual to Maryland. One hundred and nineteen of the arrivals (24.1%) had a right to bear a coat of arms; 58 families (11.7%) had a well-proven royal descent, while another 73 (14.6%) had a professional, clerical, or mercantile background. The remaining families comprised indentured servants, convicts (only 6), and a number of individuals of undetermined status. More than half of all settlers came from London and the Home Counties and the northern counties of England.

In general, families are traced back two or more generations in England and brought forward two or more generations in Maryland. A clear, well-formatted text of more than 500 pages is followed by a 140-page index containing the names of 20,000 individuals--remarkable in themselves in that they can be said to have seeded the population of early Maryland.

British Roots II is the culmination of research that was undertaken after the publication in 1999 of British Roots of Maryland Families, the groundbreaking work that identified 500 individuals and families who seeded the early population of Maryland. Using the same format as the parent volume, British Roots II discusses the British origins of an additional 203 Maryland settlers and establishes connections to 120 settlers in other colonies. Its publication was necessitated by information that came to light after the publication of the first volume, important clues that enabled the compiler to extend his research in Britain and provide genealogical evidence relating to hundreds more families.

The families included in this work were chosen because (a) their home parish in Britain was identified, (b) the families had taken root and left descendants in Maryland, and (c) most had arrived well before the year 1800. Source materials on which the family histories are based derive from a combination of Mr. Barnes's own extensive research over the past thirty years and the pioneering work on the origins of Maryland families made by earlier generations of researchers. In addition, Mr. Barnes has profited by the work made available to him by several distinguished contemporaries.

In general, families are traced back two or more generations in Britain and are brought forward two or more generations in Maryland. The specific British sources used by Mr. Barnes include printed and manuscript genealogies, county histories and heraldic visitations, works on the peerage and landed gentry, and, most importantly, marriage bonds and allegations published as part of the Harleian Society Visitation series. Clues in Maryland source records were discovered in land records, county and provincial court records, parish registers, probate records, and in printed and manuscript family histories.

What actually became of the indentured servants and bonded immigrants who arrived in America during the colonial period? Were they able to cast off the shackles that had brought them here in the first place, and how long did it take? For this book genealogist Robert Barnes traces the fortunes of more than 500 Maryland debtors. His findings will interest genealogists and historians alike.

The main purpose of this work is to chronicle and categorize the life experiences of 519 persons who entered Maryland as indentured servants or, to a lesser extent, as convicts forcibly transported. Mr. Barnes, who is more familiar than anyone else with the families of 17th- and 18th-century Marylanders, describes his objectives this way: "One of the major areas of interest was what happened to these servants after they arrived. I tabulated how many: 192 men and 2 women could be located in a specific county; I found 144 men and 11 women who were married; 142 men and seven women had children (in or out of wedlock); 60 of the men and one woman were creditors to someone else, which meant that they had reached a degree of financial stability enabling them to loan money. One man was found to have served as a vestryman, and eight men held civil office. Three served in the military. Fifty-eight men and two women performed some neighborly service, such as witnessing a will or serving as guardian to minor children; 38 men performed some community service, such as signing a petition or appraising estates; 49 men and seven women were summoned to civil or criminal court; 108 of the men left an estate at death, and eight moved to another state."

Lest genealogists conclude that this work is a mere recitation of statistics, we hasten to add that the text itself comprises solidly researched sketches of Maryland servants and convicts and their descendants, including 102 that are traced to the third generation or beyond. If your Maryland ancestor is among the following, rest assured that you will be working from the most we know about them to date:

ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY: Abbot, Simon; Crandall, Francis; Dowling, Emm; James, Richard; Knighton, Thomas; Maynard, Lawrence; Scrivener, Benjamin; Snowden, Richard

BALTIMORE COUNTY: Ady, Jonathan; Allen, William; Bacon, Martin; Barton, Lewis; Bell, William; Chamness, Anthony; Constable, Thomas; Cox, Christopher; Curtis, Daniel; Durham, John; Ellis, Peter; Guishard, Samuel; Guyton, John; Hissey, Charles; Isgrig, William; Jarrett, Abraham; Jessop, William; Knightsmith, Thomas; Lego, Benjamin; Lofton, William; Love, Robert; Majors, Mary Slider; Mallonee, Peter; Manley, Dorothy; Mead, William; Motherby, Charles; Mumford, Edward; Pearle, William; Pearson, Simon; Peregoy, Joseph; Phelps, Thomas; Pilgrim, Amos; Royston, John; Seabrook, William; Sindall, Philip; Wiesenthal, Charles Frederick

CALVERT COUNTY: Armstrong, Edward; Beckwith, George; Bigger, John; Broome, John; Cleverly, Thomas; Fry, Joseph; Gantt, Thomas; Hulse, Meverell; Ireland, Joseph; Kirshaw, James; Mackall, John

CECIL COUNTY: Atkins, John; Boyer, John; Freeman, William; Pullen, Richard

CHARLES COUNTY: Adams, Francis; Edgar, Richard; Farnandis, Peter; Garland, Randolph; Hardy, William; Martin, Michael; Philpott, Edward; Scroggin, George; Wathen, John

DORCHESTER COUNTY: MacNamara, Timothy

FREDERICK COUNTY: Adamson, John; Beeding, Henry

HARFORD COUNTY: Baker, Nicholas; Bull, John

KENT COUNTY: Angier, John; Atchison, Vincent; Benton, Mark; Henley, Christopher; Knock, Mary Boyer; Peale, Charles

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY: Clarvo, Francis; Lakin, Abraham; Monk, Renaldo; Pottenger, John; Simmons, Jonathan

QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY: Arlot, Francis

SOMERSET COUNTY: Boardman, Francis; Boyer, Robert

ST. MARY'S COUNTY: Dunbar, John; Fenwick, Cuthbert; Forrest, Patrick; French, James; Kirby, William; Meakin, William; Sturman, Thomas

TALBOT COUNTY: Austin, William; Dammes, John; Gregory, Anthony; Lurkey, Nicholas; Roe, Thomas; Start, John; Tomlinson, John; Valiant, John

No less than seventeen Baltimore newspapers were drawn on in the making of this compilation. The book began as a compilation of marriages and deaths from Baltimore's Federal Gazette, published in an unbroken run from its inception in 1796 through the year 1816. Recognizing that deaths and marriages reported in one newspaper did not always appear in other newspapers and seeking comprehensiveness, Mr. Barnes ultimately decided to include vital records from all Baltimore newspapers for this period--seventeen in all.

The text consists of some 7,500 abstracts, identifying, at the very least, an additional 5,000 persons, mainly brides, parents, and relatives. These relationships lend an enriching dimension to the abstracts and elevate them from the humdrum of genealogical records. Entries throughout are arranged in alphabetical order by the name of the deceased or the bridegroom, and there is a surname index to brides and others mentioned in the entry. Each entry is keyed to a specific source, a code for which may be found at the beginning of the volume. Since it is doubtful that the newspapers consulted for this work can be found in a single repository outside of Maryland, the researcher now has access to a range of fugitive material previously out of his reach.

The Maryland Gazette was published in Annapolis between the years 1727 and 1839. From its infancy it carried occasional references to marriages and deaths of Maryland citizens. Drawing on this unique resource, the text of Mr. Barnes' book consists of abstracts of approximately 3,000 marriages and deaths of Marylanders--not only from the Annapolis area but from the entire state. A surname index to brides, ministers, and others, including parents and relatives, serves as a guide to an additional 2,000 persons.

Most collections of marriage records derive from church records or marriage licenses, but not all early marriages were recorded in the traditional manner and not all records of marriage have survived. The gaps in the historical record, therefore, can be a huge obstacle in genealogical research.

Maryland Marriages, 1634-1777, published by Robert Barnes in 1975, is a compilation of all the marriages in existing church records and is a great example of a marriage collection deriving from traditional sources, but it is neither infallible nor comprehensive. What about marriages that do not appear in church records or church records that no longer exist? Where can we find evidence of these marriages?

These are questions Mr. Barnes posed when he set out to compile this complement to Maryland Marriages.. Maryland Marriage Evidences, 1634-1718 is a collection of 6,500 marriage records found in sources other than church records, closing the gap in the historical record and providing a clear alternative to traditional genealogical sources.

The records in this work are based on both direct and indirect references, and in the Introduction Mr. Barnes explains how they were found: "Direct records of marriage may be found in parish registers and administrative records of some denominations, in marriage licenses and allegations, in banns posted in the county court, and in pastoral registers. Indirect references to marriages can be found in land records, probate and court records, marriage contracts, Maryland state papers, and court reports. Marriages and marriage references may also be found in private records such as newspapers, diaries, letters, and family Bibles."

With a bibliography and a full-name index of brides and others mentioned in the text, along with additions and corrections to Maryland Marriages, this work completes the tableau of sources available to the researcher in the area of colonial Maryland genealogy--the final installment of a resource that began to prove its usefulness thirty years ago.

This is a compilation of all marriages recorded from 1634 to 1777 in church records and other documents that are on deposit at the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore or the Hall of Records in Annapolis. The marriage records were extracted from parish records, ministers' returns of licenses, and printed sources, including the Maryland Historical Magazine and the Archives of Maryland, and refer to some 24,000 persons. All marriages are arranged alphabetically by the name of the groom, following which are the date of marriage and the bride's name.

Maryland Marriages, 1778-1800 is a compilation of some 16,000 marriages recorded from 1778 to 1800 in the church records on deposit at the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore or the Hall of Records in Annapolis. Also included are a number of extant marriage license returns filed annually by ministers, showing which marriages they had performed by virtue of a license issued by the county clerks. In addition, this work includes the marriage licenses on file at certain county courts, especially Harford, Dorchester, and Allegany counties.

This third volume of Maryland marriage records was compiled primarily from church records on deposit at the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore and the Maryland State Archives (Hall of Records) in Annapolis. Also included are marriages recorded in the registers of certain individual ministers that are not housed in either repository. As in the preceding volumes of Maryland Marriages, covering 1634-1777 and 1778-1800 respectively, marriages are arranged alphabetically by the name of the groom, followed by the date of the marriage and the bride's name. In addition, information found in the records pertaining to place of origin, parentage, or previous marital status is also given. In all, approximately 12,500 marriage records are included in this volume, bringing the total number of marriages recorded in the three volumes of Maryland Marriages to 40,000! Family historians at all levels of proficiency will definitely want to start their Maryland research here.

Researchers on the trail of elusive ancestors sometimes turn to 18th- and early 19th-century newspapers after exhausting the first tier of genealogical sources (i.e., census records, wills, deeds, marriages, etc.). Generally speaking, early newspapers are not indexed, so they require investigators to comb through them, looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

With this book Robert Barnes has made one aspect of the aforementioned chore much easier. This remarkable book contains advertisements for missing relatives and lost friends from scores of newspapers published in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia, as well as a few from New York and the District of Columbia. The newspaper issues begin in 1719 (when the American Weekly Mercury began publication in Philadelphia) and run into the early 1800s. The author's comprehensive bibliography, in the Introduction to the work, lists all the newspapers and other sources he examined in preparing the book. The volume references 1,325 notices that chronicle the appearance or disappearance of 1,566 persons.

The notices are arranged alphabetically by the surname of the missing person. The majority of the notices mention a place of birth, date and last place of residence, and relationship, if any, to the person who posted the notice. Some go quite a bit further, citing the names and ages of family members, occupation, military service, and so forth. Many contain the reference, "to his/her advantage," suggesting that something of monetary value was waiting for the missing person. In a number of instances, Mr. Barnes was able to enhance the original notices with additional information on the sought-after individuals. This work references about 5,000 persons, everyone of whom is named in the index at the back of the volume.

NB. Missing Relatives and Lost Friends contains no notices pertaining to runaway wives, servants, or slaves, as these were so numerous as to fill another volume.

Pre-dating the first federal census by almost a full generation, this is the most extensive list of early Connecticut inhabitants on record. It was first published in 1858, with an index compiled separately in 1954. Both are included in this reprint. In all, 9,450 heads of household are listed in the census, and they are arranged by town and thereunder in approximate alphabetical order. Figures are provided for each household on the number of males and females above and below the age of sixteen, and the number of Indian and black inhabitants.

These two volumes constitute as complete a record as we are ever likely to have of the Connecticut colonists who took part in the French and Indian War, as they contain references to upwards of 17,000 Connecticut men who took part in that conflict, as well as an additional 300 who participated in a 1764 campaign against the Indians that was spawned by the war. The rolls are arranged in chronological order (i.e., by campaign) and thereunder by regiment and company. In almost every case, a soldier is identified by name, date enlisted, and date discharged or died in battle. Each volume features an informative Introduction by Mr. Bates and two indexes: a complete name index and another to company commanders.

Whether you conduct your research in person or by mail, this celebrated manual--now in its Fourth Edition--will guide you in finding your ancestors in Britain or Ireland. Noted genealogist Angus Baxter provides detailed instructions for locating records abroad and shows how easy it is to do it by mail--or on a vacation trip!

He begins with step-by-step instructions on drawing up a family tree, and explains how to use sources close at hand. The search continues by correspondence with family history societies, record offices, and other organizations listed here, before concluding with a possible--but not essential--trip to the source, Britain or Ireland.

The Fourth Edition of this classic work includes discussions of the following topics:

* The transfer of important genealogical records from Chancery Lane and St. Catherine's House to the Family Records Centre in London--most notably, civil registration records, census returns, and records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury

* The 1986, 1996, and 1998 reorganization of counties in England and Wales and the latest information on where to find local records. Where available, URLs are given for county record offices (CROs), as well as for major repositories. Phone and fax numbers, if available, are also given for CROs and other archives

* The British Library transfer of many of its collections from the Great Russell Street location (inside the British Museum) to a new facility at St. Pancras, London

* The establishment of the Irish Genealogical Project

* The 1998 amalgamation of the Public Record Office and State Paper Office into the National Archives of Ireland

In the end, Baxter demonstrates how the threads of fact can be woven into a rich and detailed family history, the ultimate goal of every searcher determined to find his family roots.

This is the new 3rd edition of Angus Baxter's classic In Search of Your Canadian Roots, now brought up to date with revised listings of finding-aids, record repositories, and e-mail and website addresses. It first discusses the great migrations of Scots, Irish, English, Germans, Huguenots, Ukrainians, and Jews to Canada; describes the national archives in Ottawa, with its holdings of censuses, parish registers, naturalization records, land and homestead records, military records, and passenger lists; summarizes the holdings of the LDS Church relating to Canada; and explores the vast nationwide record sources such as census records and church registers.

Next it provides a province-by-province survey of genealogical sources--in effect, a step-by-step guide to the records and record repositories in each of the ten provinces and the Yukon and Northwest territories. This core section gives a detailed breakdown--by province and territory--of vital records, wills, land records, censuses, church records, newspapers, and books, then lists libraries, societies, and archives and their major holdings and ongoing projects.

For both beginners and experienced researchers alike, the 3rd edition of In Search of Your Canadian Roots gives common-sense tips on where to begin your research, how to work backward in time from the known to the unknown, how to test your facts and avoid common mistakes, and, ultimately, how to create a family tree. Whether your family has been in Canada for centuries or only several generations, this superb book will show you how to trace your Canadian roots and have fun doing it.

Reviews of the prior editions:

"Solid, comprehensive and informative--touching on every conceivable subject."--Southam News Service

"Excellent standard work on Canadian and other areas. Basic guide book."--P. William Filby, American & British Genealogy & Heraldry

". . . this is the best reference book available for anyone approaching family history work in the Canadian provinces."--Forum

"As so many Americans have Canadian ancestors or relatives, U.S. libraries should find this useful to have on hand."--New York Genealogical and Biographical Record

"Recommended for genealogists and genealogical collections with an interest in Canada."--American Reference Books Annual

"This book is an excellent source of information for the researcher delving into Canadian ancestral roots. . . . even experienced researchers will find this compendium of data useful."--Western New York Genealogical Society Journal

"Anyone with relatives in Canada . . . will find assistance in these fact-filled pages."--Virginia Genealogist

This edition of In Search of Your German Roots is designed to help you trace your German ancestry, not only in Germany but in all the German-speaking areas of Europe, from the Baltic to the Crimea, from the Czech Republic to Belgium. It shows you how to conduct your research from your own home--at your computer, using a variety of online resourcesÑand also points you to the most useful repositories of records abroad.

When the first edition of this book was published in 1987, searching for German ancestors was a more cumbersome and likely more expensive proposition. A lot of legwork was required in order to pinpoint what records were available in Germany and where they were housed, letters had to be written and fees paid, followed up by weeks of waiting for responses. Today, all of the major archives and many of the smaller ones, as well as church parishes, have websites containing contact information and information on their holdings; many have put digitized images of their records online. Correspondence can usually now be handled more quickly and less expensively via e-mail. An ever increasing number of searchable databases with information relevant to German ancestor-huntersÑpassenger lists, vital records, censuses, cemetery records, surname directories, etc.Ñhas greatly improved opportunities for research.

The fifth edition of the book highlights all of the recent developments--new facilities, new websites, newly available records--that have made German family history research immeasurably easier. Completely revised and updated, this edition of In Search of Your German Roots is now the most current and comprehensive guide to German roots available.

Many youngsters are curious about their heritage. They know their parents, and if they are lucky they know--maybe even live with--one or more grandparents. But the average elementary school boy or girl (in the fourth through sixth grades, say) only knows about living relatives. This book will help them learn more, to dig more deeply, to understand how to do the research necessary to create a simple family tree. It will give them both the tools and the appetite to learn more about their roots, to uncover the stories and events that make them and their families unique.

Roots for Kids is based on a twelve-week course the author developed for her fourth grade class. Each chapter is based on a forty-five minute classroom session. While the book is suitable for teachers seeking to supplement their social studies curriculum with material on family history, it will be used principally by a whole range of young people in their first attempt at genealogical research.

The book is written at a level appropriate to its audience. The author moves slowly and carefully as she takes the young readers through an introduction to genealogy, then to discussions of their families and their parents' families, teaching them how to ask questions, how to organize their materials, and how to use the Internet to conduct research in local, state, and national records. This second edition, moreover, explains how easy it is for these youngsters to explore genealogy databases and to tap into the online resources of libraries and historical societies without leaving home.

A native of Burlington, Vermont, Susan Beller has been involved in genealogical research for more than three decades. In addition to her teaching experience with young people, she has taught advanced genealogy courses to adult education classes.


EDITORIAL REVIEWS

" . . . The strength of Roots for Kids is its practical step-by-step lesson plan . . . timeless, well-organized approach . . . Conveys much excitement and motivation. Roots for Kids is a great contribution to the field of genealogical education for young people."--Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly, Vol. XII, No. 2 (June 1997), p. 71.

The best history ever written on this little-known chapter of the Revolutionary War, it also features biographical/genealogical sketches of sixty-four Swedish officers, and still other Americans of Swedish descent, who fought for American Independence. The work concludes with a detailed bibliography and a full-name index.

The County Courthouse Book is a concise guide to county courthouses and courthouse records. It is an important book because the genealogical researcher needs a reliable guide to American county courthouses, the main repositories of county records. To proceed in his investigations, the researcher needs addresses and phone numbers; information about the coverage and availability of key courthouse records such as probate, land, naturalization, and vital records; and timely advice on the whole range of services available at the courthouse.

Researchers will also need to know whether search services are provided, the fees involved, and whether there are alternative locations for the records. And if he's a diligent researcher, he'll need to know something about the origins of the county itself--names of parent counties, dates of formation, former names, etc.

Such is the kind of guidebook required, and such is Elizabeth P. Bentley's County Courthouse Book, now in its third edition. Besides its obvious genealogical uses, the County Courthouse Book can also be used for land title searches, legal investigations, questions of property rights and inheritance, and indeed personal searches and investigations of all kinds. But it is the genealogist who stands to benefit most from the book because it offers a concise guide to the county courthouses and courthouse records that are the main focus of his research.

The Genealogist's Address Book is the answer to the perennial question, "What's out there in the world of genealogy?" What organizations, institutions, special resources, and websites can help me? Where do I write or phone or send e-mail? Once again, Elizabeth Bentley's Address Book answers these questions and more.

Now in its 6th edition, The Genealogist's Address Book gives you access to all the key sources of genealogical information, providing names, addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers, e-mail addresses, websites, names of contact persons, and other pertinent information for more than 27,000 organizations, including libraries, archives, societies, government agencies, vital records offices, professional bodies, publications, research centers, and special interest groups.

Salem, Massachusetts, famous for its witchcraft trials of the late 17th century, is situated about 30 miles northeast of Boston. The work at hand, compiled by William Bentley, is a transcription of the death entries found in the parish records of the East Church of Salem, of which Mr. Bentley was the pastor. The book was edited for publication by Ira J. Patch and was originally published in 1882 as part of the Historical Collections of the Essex Institute. The abstracts themselves, over 1,200 in all, are arranged in chronological order, and they are among the most complete death notices we have seen. Typically, the notice's include the decedent's name and his/her age and the cause of death; his/her place of birth; the names of parents and/or surviving family members; and something about the decedent's life or character. In all, these handy notices refer to nearly 2,500 early inhabitants of Salem, each of whom may be found in the complete name index at the back of the volume.

Our Quaker Ancestors sets out to acquaint the researcher with the types of Quaker records that are available, the location of the records, and the proper and effective use of those records, guiding him through the pyramidal "meeting" structure to the records of birth, marriage, death, disownment, and removal awaiting him in record repositories across the country.

The work begins with a short but essential history of the Quaker movement and a discussion of its organization and structure, particularly as it affects genealogical research. Later chapters describe Quaker migrations to and within America, the special types of records available for research, and the Berrys' very own methods for locating and using those records. In addition, there are chapters on record repositories and libraries with Quaker source material, non-Quaker repositories, and Quaker sources and repositories outside the U.S., together with a bibliography, maps of selected meeting locations, and a glossary of terms peculiar to the Society of Friends.

This is indispensable for anyone tracing ancestors who were either birthright members of the Society or who became members through "convincement" or marriage.

Persons searching for Bahamian ancestors will want to study the various lists of names which appear throughout this work, including the census of inhabitants for New Providence in 1671, a mid-17th-century list of the first settlers of Eleuthra, a list of some 800 Loyalists who fled to the Bahamas from East Florida in 1784, a 1791 census of lot owners on Harbour Island, and various lists of Bahamian officials. Also includes biographical sketches of descent of more than 200 contemporary Bahamians of distinction.

We start with a couple of interesting facts: 8.3 million Americans (3% of the total population) claimed French ancestry in the 2000 U.S. census, and 2.4 million Americans (0.9% of the population) claimed French-Canadian ancestry. Thus, with over 10 million Americans of French origin, this research guide was almost inevitable, and in true Genealogy at a Glance fashion, it lays out the basic elements of French research in just four pages, boiling the subject down to its essence and allowing you to grasp the fundamentals of French genealogical research at a glance.

Consisting of Huguenots, Acadian refugees, and political exiles, the French contingent in America has always been viewed as a distinct element in the population, concentrated for the most part in Louisiana, New England, and the Midwest. Connecting these individuals to France and tracing them back through the earliest records, is the particular challenge of this research guide.

French research, we learn, starts with the vital records of birth, marriage, and death. These records fall into two categories: parish registers before 1792 and civil registrations after 1792. Because most records used initially in French research were created at the town level, identifying an ancestor's town of origin is critical. Once determined (with tips given here to make it easier), research is generally conducted in the rich collections of departmental archives, including notarial records and censuses that are gradually being digitized and placed online. Municipal archives and libraries are rapidly digitizing their records as well, and the final section of this paper concludes with a list of helpful websites. The four specially laminated pages of this work are designed to provide as much useful information in the space allotted as you'll ever need. No research tool in French genealogy is as effortless and as convenient.

From Nova Scotia south to Florida, the British Crown awarded land to approximately 6,500 soldiers and sailors for service in the various colonial wars. Grants of land were generally made on the basis of rank, with veterans from colonies with no vacant lands sometimes taking up land in other colonies; certain Massachusetts soldiers receiving grants of land in Virginia, for example; or Virginia militiamen drawing land in Kentucky. Land grants provide the clues for such migrations, while other grants sometimes reveal group migrations from coastal settlements into the interior of the country.

All 6,500 soldiers known to have received land grants for their participation in the numerous conflicts with the French and their Indian allies, as well as in various colonial insurrections, are listed here with details of their place and dates of service, rank, military campaigns, location of bounty land grants and donation land grants, acreage, and, most importantly, assignment of title to heirs, relatives, and friends.

Generally speaking, bounty land grants were offered as an inducement to perform military service while donation land grants were awarded to a veteran or his heirs as a reward for service once the conflict was over. Not always altruistic, grants of land were sometimes made to establish buffers on the frontier between Indians and European settlers or to alleviate population pressures on coastal settlements.

The question of citizenship became an important issue early in the American colonial experience. The colonies needed settlers for military security, economic prosperity, and population growth. Since not enough English colonists were available to fulfill these demands, the colonies invited foreigners to do so. Many of these non-English settlers sought citizenship before leaving for America. Still others sought an English grant after their arrival. They could follow two main avenues to British citizenship--one was naturalization, the other denization. Initially, during the 17th century and first decade of the 18th century, French Huguenots accounted for the majority of non-English stock seeking citizenship. German colonists, however, surpassed their number thereafter. While Germans accounted for the largest number of alien colonists to gain British citizenship between 1607 and 1776, other settlers seeking citizenship were from Bohemia, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Jamaica, Luxembourg, Norway, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Unfortunately, colonial denization and naturalization records can be difficult to find, since their location varies from one colony to another. They may be found at the local jurisdictional level as well as the colonial level, in court minutes, government records, deed books, legislative journals, statutes, private papers of proprietors such as William Penn, and land patents. Now, with this work by Lloyd Bockstruck, the task of locating information about those who were granted British naturalization or denization in the American colonies between 1607 and 1775 has become much less daunting! Bockstruck compiled this comprehensive register of denization and naturalization records from a large body of published literature, then expanded and improved on the information by examining original source material not previously available to scholars.

For the more than 13,000 persons listed in this invaluable work, some or all of the following information is given: place and date of naturalization or denization; names of spouse and children, as well as where or when they were naturalized or endenized; country of origin; religion; length of time in the colony; location of current residence; occupation; and any alternate names found in the records. Primary surnames are arranged alphabetically for easy reference, while a separate index itemizes spouses, children, and other parties mentioned in the records. Included also is an Appendix listing more than 1,000 naturalizations granted by the French in Quebec, most of which involved individuals from the English colonies.

Beginning in 1800, pensions for U.S. naval personnel were awarded on the basis of death or disability during active service. Under various acts of Congress, the number of pensions awarded between 1800 and 1851 grew from 22 in 1802 to 1,228 in 1851. Taking its cue from the ever- increasing number of applicants, this work presents information on some 3,000 seamen and sailors who were awarded pensions in accordance with the various acts of Congress and special acts of the Senate or House of Representatives.

Gleaned for the most part from annual Congressional reports, this new work contains the names of the veteran, his widow, his children and heirs, and sometimes other family members, identifying altogether some 5,000 or more individuals, most of whom, it should be pointed out, appear in no other federal pension records, not even in the Old Wars pension index where they might otherwise be expected to be found. As a point of interest, the majority of naval pensioners were from the states of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York.

The text is arranged alphabetically by the name of the pensioner followed by his state of residence and naval rank. The amount of the pension, either per month or per annum, follows along with the years in which there are entries for the pensioner in the reports to Congress. Additional data such as the nature of the disability, date of death, name of vessel on which the pensioner served, and biographical details follow. The fact that this list of pensioners is unique marks this as a major contribtion to the existing literature.

After the Revolutionary War, the federal government awarded bounty lands to citizens and soldiers for services rendered. In its simplest form, this involved the exchange of free land for military service. Federal records of these Revolutionary War bounty land awards are well known and readily accessible to genealogists. But the federal government was not alone in rewarding its citizens and soldiers with bounty lands. Nine state governments adopted similar policies, generating even more records. Unlike the federal bounty land records, however, these state records are not centralized; instead, they are found in the various states in the form of manuscript records and printed books and are all but inaccessible to the researcher.

Until now, that is! Because with this work by Lloyd Bockstruck we now have a master index to state bounty land records--a Revolutionary War resource unparalleled for freshness, originality, and research potential.

The nine states that awarded bounty lands in their western reserves or on their western borders (directly affecting the future states of Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Ohio, and Tennessee) are Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia. (The basis for the Connecticut and Georgia awards, by the way, differ from the norm.)

The nine state governments created a patchwork of records, and it was therefore no easy task to create a master index. Typically, however, each entry in this index contains the name of the claimant, who is usually the veteran, the state of service, the rank held, the date of the record, and the acreage. Altogether about 35,000 names appear in the index, including duplicates. While the arrangement of matter is strictly alphabetical, there is also a separate index to heirs, representatives, and other assignees mentioned in the records.

This book brings together for the first time all the data from federal and state sources used to reconstruct Revolutionary War pension records. A long-sought goal of genealogists, this immense reconstruction was tackled skillfully here by Revolutionary War expert Lloyd Bockstruck.

The background and the aim of the book may be stated simply: It is an attempt to identify and recreate the Revolutionary War pension files generated prior to the disastrous fire in the War Department on 8 November 1800, which destroyed nearly a quarter-century of records. Despite the best efforts of the War and Treasury Departments to reconstruct the files, a second and even more disastrous fire occurred during the War of 1812 on 24 August 1814 with the British invasion of Washington. The second fire effectively destroyed all the pension files from 1776 to 1814. Despite the tragic loss of nearly four decades of pension records at the national level, it has been possible not only to identify many of those pensioners whose files are commonly believed to have been lost but also to reconstitute in varying degrees their contents. Thus, more than 16,500 pensioners are featured in this work.

Among the many sources used to reconstruct these records, two in particular stand out: (1) pension records generated by the governments of each of the original thirteen states (state governments had their own programs and in varying degrees preserved many of their pension files); and (2) acts of Congress that created reports of pensioners receiving pay for service or disability, or widows and orphans receiving benefits, mostly issued as government publications between 1792 and 1840.

In addition, the microfilm records of the Continental Congress were searched, as were the standard printed works on the subject such as the Journals of the Continental Congress. Supplementing these traditional sources is the online database Papers of the War Department, 1784-1800, created at George Mason University. Individual state pension records were carefully examined, of course, and each state's record sources are exhaustively described.

In the end we have an alphabetical list of over 16,000 pensioners with an index containing the names of a further 15,000 individuals mentioned in the text. Each entry contains the name of the pensioner, his state of service and place of residence, details of his service such as dates and places of engagements and wounds received, date of death, and names and relationships of surviving family members, especially widows.

Weighing in at over 1,000 pages, and with nothing to compare with it, this is a monumental work in every sense of the term.

Names, like people, have lives of their own, which is why Lloyd Bockstruck's book about the serendipity and life's choices that can alter our family names is must-reading for every researcher. Mr. Bockstruck, one of America's foremost genealogists and the former genealogy librarian at the Dallas Public Library, has distilled the wisdom of a lifetime about the vagaries of names into this work. Eminently readable, The Name IS the Game is a collection of illustrations and cautionary tales that can help family historians surmount the obstacles or avert the pitfalls associated with naming practices throughout the centuries.

The book is divided into five chapters, and it engages the reader at the get-go. For instance, in the introductory first chapter Bockstruck relates a number of firsthand accounts that fostered his early fascination with names, such as his initial failure to find the tombstone of German great-aunt Barbara Baker (born Barbara Becker). The introduction's high point is the incredible story of the peregrinating Scots colonist Ian Ferguson, whose name was recorded as Johann Feuerstein when he was among the Pennsylvania Palatine immigrants, and was later recorded as John Flint when he moved to Philadelphia. Two generations later, one of his grandsons, Peter Flint, moved to Louisiana, where he was recorded as Pierre a Fusil, only to end up as Peter Gunn when he settled in Texas after the Civil War.

"Chapter 2: Forenames" discusses the ancestral clues that are inherent in names. Did you know, for example, that the German forenames Franz and Xavier were predominantly used by Roman Catholics? Similarly, if the father of an unborn child died before the baby's birth, the child might have been named Ichabod. And Doctor was often used as a nickname for the seventh son in a family because it was believed that a seventh son had an intuitive knowledge of the use of herbs.

The "Surname" section of the book (Chapter 3) is the longest, and it covers lots of territory. Topics include maiden names, spelling, surname misinterpretation, aliases, military influences, changes in language, dialects, surname abbreviations, and much more. Among the lessons learned by Mr. Bockstruck: (1) Database indexers have transformed the names Farmer into Turner, Martin into Mortin, and Warren into Warner, among others. (2) In Virginia records, the actual William Hastin has appeared as William Heaston and William Hasting; in New England, the Andros family is also recorded as Andrews; and runaway servant William Wyatt, after fleeing from Virginia to North Carolina, used the name John Murphey. (3) Interesting things happen when individuals shorten their names--John DeLong might later show up as John D. Long; William Arrowsmith might have become William A. Smith; and John Essman might have reverted to John S. Mann. The examples abound!

By the time the reader has consumed the two short final chapters, covering toponyms (place names) and change of name statutes respectively, he/she will be much more cognizant that a name change may be the actual cause of an ancestor's "disappearance," and, best of all, will possess the tools for finding the missing antecedent.

American military history began with the establishment of the Virginia colonial militia in the seventeenth century. Although ill-trained, it was the colony's only defense against Indian attacks and invasion by hostile powers. The records left are fragmentary and scattered, and it has always been hard to locate them and make them accessible.

With the publication of this work that problem is now behind us. From research based on county court minutes and orders, bounty land applications and warrants, records of courts martial, county militia rosters, Hening's Statutes at Large, the Draper manuscripts, and manuscripts in the Public Record Office in London, we now have an authoritative register of Virginia's colonial soldiers. And it is not merely a dry catalog of names and dates, for included are the military's "size" rolls which routinely give the soldier's place of birth, age, residence, occupation, and physical description. And sometimes this was made even more informative when the enlisting officer recorded his impressions of the soldier.

Little is known of the ordinary people of colonial Virginia for they left no diaries or journals, but now we have the rare privilege of coming almost face-to-face with them in this remarkable book.

This is a collection of genealogical data from important name lists for Colonial Surry, which once encompassed almost the entire southern part of the state of Virginia (i.e., fourteen present-day Virginia counties). Noteworthy lists include Surry land grants, 1624-1740, and various Surry and Sussex censuses and marriage bonds.

This is a comprehensive study of the early history and inhabitants of Isle of Wight County. It begins with a graphic description of the early settlers--including accounts of Quakers and Cavaliers--and is followed by detailed histories of the various Isle of Wight families. Nearly 200 pages of this voluminous work are devoted to abstracts of deeds, land records, and quit rents. Besides a place and subject index, the work further includes a 38-page name index of several thousand entries.

This is the definitive study of the Indian war of New England known as "King Philip's War" (1675-1677), with muster and payrolls of colonial soldiers, both regular and militia, and biographical and genealogical sketches integrated throughout the narrative. Also included are lists of grantees and claimants of the Narragansett townships of Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. The work as a whole is ably researched, intelligently written, well illustrated, and fully indexed, the index of persons alone bearing more than 5,000 references.

"The standard work on its subject."--The New England Historical and Genealogical Register

This is a study of the emigration from Northern Ireland of persons of Scottish and English descent. Chapters are devoted to the Scotch-Irish settlements in Pennsylvania, Maryland, South Carolina, and Massachusetts and include valuable lists of early pioneers. In addition, considerable space is devoted to the redoubtable settlers of Londonderry, New Hampshire.

The book's extensive appendixes contain lists of great genealogical importance, including (1) petitioners for transport from Northern Ireland (1718); (2) hometowns of Ulster families, with names of the Scotch-Irish in New England from presbytery and synod records (1691-1718); (3) members of the Charitable Irish Society in Boston (1737-1743); (4) names of fathers in the Presbyterian baptismal records in Boston (1730-1736); and (5) names of ships carrying passengers from Ireland to New England (1714-1720). Biographical information, which is to be met with throughout the volume, is rendered instantly accessible by reference to the formidable index.

Mr. Bolton shows us that there were planters and settlers, fishermen and traders all along the New England coast years before the landing of the Mayflower. Genealogists will want to pore over Bolton's treatment of the intriguing Popham Colony of 1608 and the valuable appendices to the work, which identify hundreds of lesser-known early New Englanders.

Arranged in alphabetical order, this work cross-references over 5,000 names of brides and grooms, the information being from the Massachusetts Centinel and the Columbian Centinel. While primarily New England marriages, there are entries from all of the original colonies and Ohio. The data includes age, occupation, notation of a previous marriage, and the name of the minister.

Listed in Harold Lancour's Bibliography of Ship Passenger Lists, this work consists of an alphabetical list of 2,250 immigrants to New England during the period 1700 to 1775. Entries contain important information such as place of origin and place of settlement, dates of departure and arrival, name of wife, date of marriage, and names of children. The data derives from a variety of printed sources (town records, family compendia, genealogies, local histories, etc.), and in each instance the exact source of information is cited, thus serving as a guide to further research. An eleven-page index contains the names of brides and others mentioned in the entries.

This work, which was originally published as an appendix to Sylvester Judd's flawless History of Hadley, contains several hundred genealogies arranged alphabetically by the surname of the founder of the Hadley line. Every person mentioned in the genealogies is cited in the index, which contains 7,500 references.

The Mayflower Reader consists of a comprehensive selection of articles from the first seven volumes of The Mayflower Descendant, an authoritative journal devoted to Pilgrim genealogy and history, discontinued in 1937 and now quite scarce. The seventy-eight articles selected for inclusion are of special significance to the descendants of the early Plymouth and Cape Cod settlers, now numbering in the hundreds of thousands and scattered to all points of the compass. They include transcriptions of wills, inventories, passenger lists, and memoirs, as well as a fair number of genealogies and historical sketches.

One expert estimates that as many as 25 percent of the men who enlisted in the cause of American Independence ultimately deserted the ranks. As Joseph Lee Boyle explains in the trenchant Introduction to his two-volume work "He Loves a Good Deal of Rum," a number of factors coalesced to foster this problem. Short-term enlistments were the norm, causing some soldiers to take a casual attitude about remaining in the ranks for their full term. Others fled the service in response to harsh punishments meted out for relatively minor crimes. "Hardships due to poor or non-existent food and clothing, infrequent paydays and those in the face of rampant inflation, fear of combat, homesickness, family problems, crowded unsanitary life in camp, and rampant disease were all contributing factors to soldiers refusing to join or abruptly leaving military life."

Soldiers deserted from all theaters of the Revolution, although roughly as many deserted during the first two years of the war as in the period after June 1777, as the Patriot army became more professionalized. When soldiers ran away, a designated officer placed an advertisement in the local newspaper describing the deserter in considerable detail and offering a reward for his capture. Those advertisements comprise the basis for Mr.Boyle's two-volume series, which is nothing less than a complete transcription of all the desertion notices found in 38 newspapers published from Massachusetts to North Carolina from 1775 to 1783.

Each notice in "He Loves a Good Deal of Rum" describes the individual by physical features, his place of birth or last residence, occupation, company served in, date missing, and other characteristics. The index at the back of each volume lists every full name given in the notices, or roughly 7,500 names in all. Following is a notice that may be considered representative for the work as a whole:

"Deserted from my company, in Col. Craft's battalion of colony train of artillery, Michael Carrick, 31 years of age, about 5 foot 8 inches high, with a cut over his right eye brow, well set, black hair, and buck skin breeches. He had on a grey out side jacket and striped waist coat, a new cotton shirt, and carried away with him a French musket and bayonet.ÐAny person who shall stop said deserter and thief, shall have a reward of FOUR DOLLARS, and all charges paid by JOSEPH BALCH." The Boston Gazette and Country Journal, July 22, 1776; July 29, 1776.

One expert estimates that as many as 25 percent of the men who enlisted in the cause of American Independence ultimately deserted the ranks. As Joseph Lee Boyle explains in the trenchant Introduction to his two-volume work "He Loves a Good Deal of Rum" a number of factors coalesced to foster this problem. Short-term enlistments were the norm, causing some soldiers to take a casual attitude about remaining in the ranks for their full term. Others fled the service in response to harsh punishments meted out for relatively minor crimes. "Hardships due to poor or non-existent food and clothing, infrequent paydays and those in the face of rampant inflation, fear of combat, homesickness, family problems, crowded unsanitary life in camp, and rampant disease were all contributing factors to soldiers refusing to join or abruptly leaving military life."

Soldiers deserted from all theaters of the Revolution, although roughly as many deserted during the first two years of the war as in the period after June 1777, as the Patriot army became more professionalized. When soldiers ran away, a designated officer placed an advertisement in the local newspaper describing the deserter in considerable detail and offering a reward for his capture. Those advertisements comprise the basis for Mr.Boyle's new two-volume series, which is nothing less than a complete transcription of all the desertion notices found in 38 newspapers published from Massachusetts to North Carolina from 1775 to 1783.

Each notice in "He Loves a Good Deal of Rum" describes the individual by physical features, his place of birth or last residence, occupation, company served in, date missing, and other characteristics. The index at the back of each volume lists every full name given in the notices, or roughly 7,500 names in all. Following is a notice that may be considered representative for the work as a whole:

"Deserted from my company, in Col. Craft's battalion of colony train of artillery, Michael Carrick, 31 years of age, about 5 foot 8 inches high, with a cut over his right eye brow, well set, black hair, and buck skin breeches. He had on a grey out side jacket and striped waist coat, a new cotton shirt, and carried away with him a French musket and bayonet.–Any person who shall stop said deserter and thief, shall have a reward of FOUR DOLLARS, and all charges paid by JOSEPH BALCH."  The Boston Gazette and Country Journal, July 22, 1776; July 29, 1776.

"While the six-month encampment of the Continental Army at Valley Forge in 1777-1778 has been part of America's folklore for generations," author Joseph Boyle writes in his Introduction, "most of the men who served there have remained anonymous. The names of over 30,000 men of all ranks appear on the surviving monthly muster and payroll records. This compilation is the initial effort to recognize some of these heroes of the Revolutionary War."

We are pleased to report that Mr. Boyle has been more than up to the task he has set for himself, for, in a carefully constructed Introduction, he strips away legend from fact in recounting the dreadful encampment of Washington's army at Valley Forge that began in December 1777 and ended in June of the following year. It is here that we learn how fate conspired to move a number of Connecticut regiments from the Hudson Highlands of New York to the environs of Philadelphia, as well as what would become of them after Valley Forge. The heart of the volume, of course, consists of an alphabetical list of some 4,000 Connecticut soldiers abstracted from Revolutionary War muster and pay rolls at the National Archives. Each patriot is identified by name, rank, date and term of enlistment or commission, name of regiment and company, and a variety of supporting details, such as date of furlough or discharge, when wounded, when and where promoted, etc. In support of the abstracts the author has prepared a detailed glossary of terms found in the rosters, an explanatory list of locations referred to in the entries, and a lengthy, up-to-date bibliography on the topic.

Fire Cake and Water promises to add immeasurably to our understanding of one of the most fateful moments in U.S. history.