Keeping to the New England theme we started with our review of Finding Your Mayflower Ancestors, we review another book this week for those seeking a connection to early New England. Researching Your Colonial New England Ancestors is made easier through Patricia Law Hatchers’ book, written for the genealogists.
Hatcher’s book examines life in the colonies. From the earliest settlements through colonial times, this book looks at education, transportation, religion, slavery, and the many other areas that had a major effect on life in early America. With an understanding of colonial life and the records kept during that period, this guidebook shares and describes resources for researching vital and other records available from this time period. Take a look at the complete table of contents listed below to see the resources covered by the author.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Background
- Profile of Immigrants
- Plymouth Colony
- Massachusetts Bay Colony
- Expanding Settlement
- Planting Towns and Settling the Frontier
- Connecticut and New Haven Colonies
- Rhode Island
- Early Northern New England
- New Hampshire
- Maine
- Vermont
- The New England Confederation
- The Andros Regime
- Late-Colonial Settlements
- Migration, Boundaries, and Land Claims
- What It Means to be Colonized
- English Wars and American Conflicts
- Demographics
- Religion
- Witchcraft
- The Great Awakening
- Denominations
- Commerce, Trade, and Occupations
- Transportation
- Ethnicity, Servitude, and Slavery
- Relationships with the Native Population
- Newspapers and Broadsides
- Mail and the Post Office
- Education
- Literacy
- The Calendar Charge of 1752
- Date Formats
- The Ecclesiastical Calendar
- Currency
- Given Names
- Notes
Finding Information on Your Colonial Ancestors
- You Don’t Have to Start from Scratch
- Genealogical Compilations
- Local Histories
- Periodicals
- Finding What You Want in Periodicals
- Microfilmed Material
- On-Site Research
- Manuscript Collections of Original Records
- Hints for Reading Colonial Documents
- Notes
Colonial Records
- Format and Organization
- Access
- Records of the Colonial Courts and Governments
- Towns and Town Records
- Counties
- Natualizations
- Vital Records
- Probate and Inheritance
- Death, Preparedness, and Participation
- Taxation
- Private Papers
- Finding Private Papers
- Notes
Expanding Your Research
- Historical Sites and Museums
Chronology
- English rules of America
Resources
- Resources, Reference, History, and Context
- Dictionaries, Handwriting, and Law
- Connecticut and New Haven
- Maine
- Massachusetts
- New Hampshire
- Plymouth Colony
- Rhode Island
- Periodicals
- Archives, Libraries, Historical Sites, and Societies
Index
About the Author
To order a copy, of Researching Your Colonial New England Ancestors, please contact Family Roots Publishing; Item #TP997.