One Rhode Island Family

Don’t miss these very helpful Rhode Island record sets accessible [by subscription] on Ancestry.com (and, often, elsewhere):

1. Index to The Early Records of the Town of Providence, volumes I- XXI.  Beginning in 1633, these are early town records of Providence for roughly the first hundred years, containing many names.  Once a citation is found in the overall index, the volumes are found here.

2. Genealogies of Rhode Island Families, from the New England Historic and Genealogical Register, vol. 1 Alden – Mowry  and vol. 2 Niles – Wilson, plus source records. To see a pdf of index pages, go here.  These are articles that originally appeared in the Register.  Don’t forget to consult AmericanAncestors.org to search lots of additional journals.
3. Rhode Island Census, 1774 and R.I. Military Census, 1777.

4. Rhode Island Colonial War Servicemen, 1740-62

5. E. Richardson’s 1876 History of Woonsocket is an important book for tracing northern Providence County families. While the book is available elsewhere, it’s nice to have a user-friendly index. The same goes for Westerly and Its Witnesses about the southern Rhode Island town of Westerly.  Ancestry also holds the content of many other standard old genealogy books for individual Rhode Island families or localities.
   

   a detail from the genealogical section of History of Woonsocket, p. 217.

6. You can search a number of Rhode Island City Directories at once.

7. Rhode Island, Indexes to Naturalization Records, 1890-1992.

8. Rhode Island Pensioners, 1835 details recipients of certain military pensions, living in Rhode Island.

9. Did you know you could access the Great Migration Begins articles and Index on Ancestry, from the NEHGS 3-volume set?
10. Some issues of the Newport Daily News as early as 1846, also The Newport Mercury, and The Newport Mercury and Weekly News.
    

    Granite Mills, Pascoag, R.I., from The History of Providence County, v.2, p. 582.

11. Savage’s Genealogical Dictionary of New England Settlers is available elsewhere, of course, but nicely searchable here.

12. Official Gazetteer of Rhode Island, 1932, helps you find every geographic name from Abbott’s Run to Yorker Hill (amusingly to Rhode Islanders, we are warned it’s NOT “Yawker Hill”.  Hey we can’t help it.  That’s how we tawk.)

13. Various church record books are indexed, for instance:  Pawcatuck Seventh Day Baptist Church, Westerly, and Annals of Trinity Church (Newport).
    

    Seventh Day Baptist Church, Westerly, taken from Picturesque Rhode Island by Wilfred Munro, 1881, p. 271.

14. You could either search, or page through Civil War Draft Registration Records (to browse, choose Rhode Island from the pull down menu).

15. Bicknell’s History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations is indexed or browsable.

16. I found it easy to search the 1891 History of Providence County, Rhode Island.

17. Early New England marriages are searchable in Torrey’s New England Marriages prior to 1700.  What makes Torrey such a treasure are the sources; he guides you through older sources for your particular couple – I’m not seeing those sources easily through this site, but you could note entries and find the sources using a more modern Torrey in a library.

18. William Richard Cutter’s New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial presents some genealogical information, particularly about New England families that had become prominent in the early 20th century.  While not sourced properly, Cutter’s conversational tone is easy to read and if your ancestors are in there, these volumes will lead you to some ideas that you can follow up on.

    

    Bryn Mawr, residence of Hon. F. C. Sayles, Pawtucket, R.I., from History of Providence County, v. 2, p. 139

19. There are many vital records on Ancestry.com for Rhode Island, although usually indices only.  Births, Deaths, and Marriages are available.

20. And finally, if you’re researching in Rhode Island, you’ll want to know if you are descended from Providence founder Roger Williams.  Bertha Williams Anthony’s 1959 Roger Williams of Providence purports to help you find your ancestors among those Williams descendants.  Yours truly is not a descendant, that I know of.  Sigh.

The post you are reading is located at:  http://http://onerhodeislandfamily.com/2013/01/15/20-rhode-island-resources-on-ancestry-com/

The Roger Williams Monument, Providence, from Picturesque Rhode Island by Wilfred Munro, 1881, p. 194

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The black and white  pictures, below, are taken from “Providence”, published for the Shepard Company, Providence, R.I. 1908.  The color pictures are from my early postcard collection.

The Old State House between Benefit and North Main Street looks much the same now as it did 100 years ago.  I knew the new State House was completed in the early 1900′s, but it never really occurred to me that  General Assembly sessions were held here until 1901.  This looks so compact and colonial, I guess I assumed there was another mid-sized building in use at that time.

The Arcade is known as America’s oldest indoor mall.  It was in use for that purpose as recently as 10 or 15 years ago; I’ve been in there many times.  On each side as you pass the columns, there is a large open air stairwell.  The two upper levels are built on balconies.

The First Baptist Church in America, on North Main Street facing downtown, looks much the same today.  The 1908 Providence book describes it as “designed by Providence architects to resemble Saint Martin-in-the-Fields, London.  The great bell of the church is still rung for the curfew at nine o-clock every evening.”

A view of a snow-dusted Providence from a court house roof near the church in the previous picture.  Note, near the bottom of the picture, the recessed area where the Providence River flows, and then is covered over by the street.  Later, that river would be completely covered, and more recently, uncovered again.

Westminster Street in the heart of downtown, looking north from Dorrance Street.  A lot of shops and retail establishments, and the trolley came right down the middle of the busy street.

A little farther south, this is a view of upper South Providence where most of my mother’s family lived in 1908.  The street in front might be Allens Avenue.  The dark building with the green arrow is the original Rhode Island Hospital, on the same site as the current, much larger hospital campus.  The blue arrow shows the Point Street Grammar School, where my grandmother would graduate in 1912.  That spot is now, I think, a highway overpass.

Beneficent Church, near the present corner of Weybosset and Empire Streets downtown, is no longer white, but red.  The dome and columns are still there.

The two pictures above make one panoramic view of the Union Station area.  It looks as if the trollies would run right underneath the station, dropping you near the tracks.  The road area in front of the station is a small park today.  The tracks and sheds in the back are now a parking lot.  Although the station is used for offices now, my Uncle Ken remembers going alone on a train from that station when he was very young, to visit an aunt.  I think the smokestacks in the background give the best idea of the 1908 Providence which surrounded downtown – it was filled with manufacturing.  The State House, new then, is perched proudly in the background.

Since the Providence book was published by the Shepard Company, it is no surprise that Shepard’s, “in every detail the leading retail establishment of Providence” is the only store noted in the book.  How well I remember that store, the wooden floors, the Tea Room in back, the famous clock by the street.  When you walked in that grand entrance, the first floor was filled with old fashioned wooden counters and cases.  The Outlet, a much bigger store, was located about two blocks away.  The narrow streets between Weybosset and Westminster Streets were still filled with small shops in the 1960′s: peanuts, tailors, candy, fabric, stationery, cigars, shoes.

This TUCK’S Post Card from my collection best exemplifies the stately colonial elegance and Victorian detail of the Brown University campus.

The Providence City Hall was about 30 years old in 1908.  The Providence Biltmore Hotel had not yet been built next door.

The Union Trust Company occupied the tallest building in Providence in 1908.  It was 12 stories tall, in the French Renaissance style, and featured “the costliest and most richly ornate banking room in the country,” which most recently has been used as a restaurant.

This intersection of Weybosset and Westminster streets, and the statue, are a good example of a scene that no longer exists.  The statue is gone, and the tall rounded Turks Head Building has dominated the intersection since 1913.

This is the picture from the Providence book that surprised me the most.  The Providence River forms the intersection of downtown on the left and the uphill sweep to the East Side on the right. It disappears under the roads as it approaches the city.  The Baptist church spire from the earlier picture shows in the distance.  What surprises me is the amazing array of boats in the foreground.  You would never see a boat that big there now, although there are a few docks for small boats here and there.  Going up the river, from the bay, one would no longer see this display.  But it sort of makes you realize where we came from.
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One of my favorite things to do at a local library is to use the index books of Providence Births, Marriages and Deaths that span the period 1850 – 1935+.   The indices give a volume and page number for the entry in the Providence city records.  If the record is from before 1900, I am usually able to find the record on microfilm at the historical society.  If not, it would have to be obtained directly from the city of Providence.

Lately I have been finding some of these volumes online as pdf’s.  I have not found them all but I thought they might be useful, in some cases, anyway.

The title is usually given as:

Alphabetical Index of the Births, Marriages and Deaths Recorded in Providence

• [Vol. 1 Births, Marriages, Deaths 1636-1850]
• Vol. 2  Marriages  1851-1870
• Vol. 3  Deaths      1851-1870
• Vol. 4  Births    1851-1870
• [Marriages    1871-1880]
• [Deaths      1871-1880]
• Births   1871-1880
• [Marriages     1881-1890]
• Deaths   1881-1890
• Vol. 10  Births  1881-1890
• Vol. 11  Births  1891-1900
• Vol. 12  Deaths  1891-1900
• Vol. 13  Marriages  1891-1900
• Vol. 14-1  Births  1901-1910   Part 1 A – Koulil
• Vol. 14-2  Births  1901-1910   Part 2 Kourhi – Z
• Vol. 15-1  Deaths  1901-1910  Part 1  A – Labrie
• Vol. 15-2  Deaths  1901-1910  Part 2  Labrie – Z
• [Vol. 16-1  Marriages  1901-1910  Part 1  A - Kingsley]
• Vol. 16-2   Marriages  1901-1910  Part 2  Kingsley – Z
• Vol. 17-1  Births 1911-1920  Part 1  A – Kotuski
• Vol. 17-2  Births 1911-1920  Part 2  Kouffman – Z
• [Vol. 18-1  Deaths 1911-1920  Part 1]
• [Vol. 18-2  Deaths 1911-1920  Part 2]
• [Vol. 19-1  Marriages  1911-1920 Part 1]
• [Vol. 19-2  Marriages 1911-1920  Part 2]
• [Vol. 20-1  Births  1921-1930  Part 1 A - Kopit]
• Vol. 20-2  Births  1921-1930  Part 2 Kopit – Z
• Vol. 21-1  Deaths  1921-1930  Part 1  A – LaMothe
• Vol. 21-2  Deaths  1921-1930  Part 2  LaMothe – Z
• Vol. 22-1  Marriages  1921-1930  Part 1  A – Kelly
• Vol. 22-2  Marriages  1921-1930  Part 2  Kelly – Z
• Vol. 23  Births  1931-1935
• [Vol. 24  Deaths  1931-1935]
• Vol. 25  Marriages  1931-1935

Records for years prior to 1850 can also be found in Arnold’s Vital Records of Rhode Island.

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