Focus on New Hampshire Families in 1790 at NHSOG meeting

Our next New Hampshire Society of Genealogists meeting will feature presentations on the New Hampshire Families in 1790 project. Diane Gravel will lead two presentations on "Fleshing Out the Families of the1790 Census" and Carol Swaine-Kuzel will lead a presentation on "How to Use the NHSOG 1790 Families Blog." The meeting will begin at 10:00 A.M. at the Holiday Inn, 172 North Main Street in Concord, New Hampshire. The cost for the event is $15.00 for members and $20.00 for non-members. If you are planning to attend please email Hal Inglis at hal@inglis-unltd.com.

National Archives Virtual Genealogy Fair

For the first time the National Archives held their annual genealogy fair online. The event occurred live on September 3 and 4. Presentations and handouts for thirteen sessions are available for viewing at http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/know-your-records/genealogy-fair/. The topics highlight the treasure trove of holdings at the National Archives, including military records, alien registration files, and Native American records. I want to thank colleague John Allen for directing me to this wonderful online resource

Using Town and County Histories for 1790 Family Research

First, we must remember that most county histories are undocumented, so the information should be used as clues for finding more reliable original sources. That being said, county histories are often rich with tales and details about our ancestors and the communities in which they lived. Here’s an example from the Gazetteer of Grafton County.

Winthrop Bagley, of Taunton, was born in 1762, served in the Revolution, and at the close of the war, came to this town and settled upon the place now occupied by George H. Blasdell, on road 22. He run a tavern for several years, and the sign used is still in the family.¹

If you are a descendant of Winthrop Bagley, you can use this information to search for original records, perhaps beginning in Taunton, Massachusetts. You can also search for military records to verify his Revolutionary service. As of 1886 which the Gazetteer was published, Winthrop’s tavern sign was still in the possession of family members. I wonder if any of Winthrop’s descendants still live in the area and might still be holding on to that sign!

This is just a sample of the gems that lie in town and county histories. These publications often include transcribed town records and land ownership maps. Many are online, free of charge, at Google Books (www.books.google.com) or Archive.org (www.archive.org).  

Enjoy!

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[1] Hamilton Child, Gazetteer of Grafton County, N.H., 1709==1886 (Syracuse: The Syracuse Journal Company, 1886), p. 629; digital image at Google Books (www.books.google.com) : accessed 1 July 2013.

Revolutionary War Pension Files on Fold3.com

Revolutionary War pension files may provide extensive information for researching a 1790 U.S. Census head-of-household. The complete set of Revolutionary War pension files are available for searching and viewing on the subscription website Fold3.com. Alternately, one can request a print version of pension files from the National Archives (NARA). However, the printed copy from the National Archives may or may not be complete. In order to save time and expense in copying and shipping a complete copy NARA will copy selected pages from the pension file, and as a result significant information may be omitted. Access to the pension files on Fold3.com provides great benefit as these records contain the complete pension file.

Searching pension files on Fold3 can bear interesting and surprising results. Even if an ancestor did not apply for a Revolutionary War pension he may have provided written testimony about his service for another pension applicant. Some pension files may contain first-hand accounts of an ancestor’s service through letters or journals. The Revolutionary War journal of my fourth great-grandfather, Nathan Stickney, is included in his pension file. Nathan’s wife Mehitable (Burpee) Stickney submitted the journal as part of her application for his pension benefits after his death.

New Hampshire State Papers

The New Hampshire State Papers, also known as Documents and Records Relating to New Hampshire, 1623-1800, are the single most important collection of New Hampshire documents from its inception through 1800. Included in the collection are probate records, court records, town papers, town charters, Masonian papers, and Revolutionary War muster rolls. The entire forty-volume collection, including an index, is online in PDF format on the New Hampshire Archives website at http://www.sos.nh.gov/archives/nhstatepapers.html.

Brick Wall Solutions: Using Friends, Associates, and Neighbors

Brick Wall Solutions: Using Friends, Associates, and Neighbors

You’ve exhausted census, probate, land, and other traditional sources in search of your ancestors, but you’ve hit that proverbial brick wall, familiar to all genealogical researchers. If you’re ever to solve those problems, you must expand your search to include records of Friends, Associates, and Neighbors, a technique that Elizabeth Shown Mills has coined “The FAN Club.”

Identify neighbors through census and land records. Find friends and associates in deeds, wills, court records, and family papers. Explore your ancestors’ FAN Club with the same vigor and thoroughness applied to your own family. In many circumstances, you’ll find that they are your family! The results will astound you, particularly in the search for the identities of female ancestors! Maiden names often appear among the witnesses to deeds and wills, signed by fathers and brothers in an effort to protect the wife’s dower rights. Family papers often refer to relationships with friends and neighbors, describing in great detail significant events and shared experiences not recorded anywhere else.

Go through the documents you’ve collected to date, and make a list of the individuals with other surnames. You may want to keep a tally of how many times each person is mentioned, to help you prioritize the next steps in your search.

To access New Hampshire deeds online, go to our article on “Using Land Records” to learn how to search the deeds from the convenience of your own desktop. New Hampshire Probate Records are now online at the FamilySearch website. Just scroll down and click on “New Hampshire,” and you’re on your way! Although the probate records are not yet searchable, the card indexes are in alphabetical order, making it easy to find names and case numbers. Then, you can use the case number to browse the files, which are in numerical order. Finding the case file may take some time because the case numbers do not appear on every document. But keep going forward (or backward) until you find a page that contains the number, so you can get your bearings before continuing your search. Some case files contain only a few pages, while others may have 50 or more. The search is well worth the effort!

So have fun, and let us know if you have questions. We hope you will share your successes with us here on the 1790 New Hampshire Families Blog!

Abstract of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots

An invaluable source for locating the burial site of a Revolutionary War veteran is Patricia Law Hatcher's Abstracts of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots. This source documents the known burial locations of men who served in the American Revolution and is available for researchers at the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) in Boston and at the New Hampshire State Library in Concord.