Posted in 8 Weeks to Better Rhode Island Genealogy, Rhode Island Stuff on July 4, 2017| 8 Comments »
Welcome to Eight Weeks to Better Rhode Island Genealogy Research.
Good luck with your Rhode Island research!
Posts are the property of One Rhode Island Family.
Posted in 8 Weeks to Better Rhode Island Genealogy, Genealogy on September 30, 2016| 11 Comments »
This is the page for all things that did not fit well in the other categories, but have been very helpful to me.
Archives & manuscripts
Portsmouth Free Public Library, Portsmouth, Rhode Island
Booksellers
Boston Transcript
Church Records
For information about Catholic churches: Catholicism In Rhode Island and the Diocese of Providence, 2 volumes by Robert Hayman. Published by Diocese of Providence, 1982.
First Baptist Church in America, Providence
City Directories
Court records
Geography
Immigration
Historical stuff
Journals
Laws and government
People of color in Rhode Island
Photography
Records of the poor
In closing
I will be updating this material from time to time. Thanks for your patience as I put these posts together. I wish you a lot of success with your Rhode Island research!
Slater Mill, first cotton mill in the United States, Pawtucket, R.I. Library of Congress LC-USZ62-116492
Find the rest of the 8 WEEKS TO BETTER RHODE ISLAND GENEALOGY RESEARCH series:
Posts are the property of One Rhode Island Family.
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Posted in 8 Weeks to Better Rhode Island Genealogy, Genealogy on August 25, 2016| 5 Comments »
If there’s one thing I’ve realized since I’ve started genealogy, it’s that once you get to military records, you find two wonderful things:
So our job as genealogists is to use all of this great work to give us clues about where to find records.
Rhode Island’s own General Nathanael Greene. His homestead is preserved, see http://www.nathanaelgreenehomestead.org. Copy of mezzotint by Valentine Greene, executed by J. Brown after Peale.
Finding pre-1875 military records for Rhode Island veterans
I am no expert in any of this so I will give some helpful links here and I hope they will be useful. One thing I should say is that for every war that ever affected Rhode Island, there are experts. They may sometimes be hobbyists and their information may be broadcast in unusual ways. Be on the lookout for blogs, particularly blogs written by small groups or organizations, and self-published books. You may find some good leads.
Finding your ancestor’s name may be fairly easy. Finding their story is going to take a lot of digging. Think also of archives, manuscripts, veterans groups, lineage societies, biographical works, and local historical societies.
Helpful tips:
Early wars
King Philip’s War, 1675-1678. Although initially hoping to avoid military engagements with the Narragansetts, Rhode Island did eventually become embroiled in King Philip’s War. Craig Anthony has written some books about Rhode Island’s (and the Tefft family in particular) involvement in a horrific assault that occurred in southern Rhode Island called “The Great Swamp Fight.” After the war, land in East Greenwich, Rhode Island was offered to a group of veterans (see the History of East Greenwich), and nearby Voluntown, Connecticut was founded to distribute land to veterans. I usually refer to Soldiers in King Philip’s War by George M. Bodge for information about the war itself, but no doubt better modern sources are available.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Painting in oils by W. Nowland Van Powell – Naval Historical Center Photo # NH 85201-KN
French and Indian Wars, 1754-1763. A List of Rhode Island Soldiers & Sailors in the Old French & Indian War, 1755-1762 by Howard Chapin contains some information and names.
Revolutionary War 1776-1783
Rhode Island sent many soldiers to the war. Newport was occupied by the British from late 1776 to 1779, resulting in a severe disruption to the rising importance of Newport, and the eventual emergence of Providence as the center of manufacturing, education and government, although that emergence grew slowly over the next hundred years.
A partial list of resources:
Slips in the Revolutionary War index file for my ancestor Richard Ballou.
War of 1812
A marriage record found in a pension file. From the War of 1812 pension file of Augustus Ballou, Fold3.com.
Mexican War 1846-1848
The most valuable pension record I have ever found for my family, a 96-page document that unlocked the secrets of my gg-grandmother’s birth, was from a Mexican War pension. I had to order it from the National Archives. Try starting on Fold3.com in the Mexican War section, to see if some record may exist. I have now found two Mexican War pensions that were very helpful.
Civil War 1861-1865
Like many Americans, I have relatives on both sides of this war thanks to my Yankee ancestor who got the bright idea to start a business in Alabama in 1852. That did not work out well, but his sons joined the Alabama militia in 1861.
There are, of course, hundreds of possible sources. People are still working on this history and still publishing. Always check for new work. Just as one example, see this essay by Robert Grandchamp and also his book Rhode Island and the Civil War: Voices from the Ocean State and Frank Grzyb’s Hidden History of Rhode Island and the Civil War.
Soldiers and Sailors Memorial, Providence. Photo by Diane Boumenot.
For later wars, even more information should be available through Ancestry.com and Fold3.com. The digital availability of pension records expands all the time; check online first but then order the full record from the National Archives link near the top of this post.
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8 Weeks to Better Rhode Island Genealogy Research – Week 7 – Military and Pensions
Civil War artillery. From History of the Ninth and Tenth Regiments Rhode Island Volunteers, p. 117.
Posted in 8 Weeks to Better Rhode Island Genealogy, Genealogy, Rhode Island Stuff on July 11, 2016| 13 Comments »
Published compiled genealogies, whether they be books or journal articles, can move our genealogy forward by leaps and bounds. If the material is of poor quality, though, and if we accept it at face value and don’t pursue the research ourselves, it can jeopardize all our future work, sending us down the wrong roads and setting us up to build tree sections that are completely false. If you think about it, there is only one correct family tree for any of us; only one true sequence of events that led to the unique people we are. There is no “close” in genealogy. There is “correct” and “incorrect.” Which is not to say we should or could expect to ever know the full truth, going back a dozen or more generations; there are so many reasons why some “truth” just will not be found by us. But for the parts of the tree we are able to build, we as genealogists want them to be correct.
Published family genealogies – Books
I think one of the first things New England genealogists find are those family genealogies published in the late 1800’s. Googling the name, such as “Ballou genealogy” or “Ballou genealogy book” will usually pull up a pdf of the item, if it exists. My advice would be to download and save such books in folders on your computer, if they relate to your family, and always use the “Comments” feature in Acrobat Reader to mark each page that is significant to you. See more about searching for books on How to Build your Digital Library.
The quality of the genealogy in these books may be excellent, or very poor, and everything in between. My own judgment is that reported events and relationships that occurred within about 60 – 70 years of the publication date have a good chance of being true (or as true as the family wanted to put out there). Events farther back are often:
A good genealogist like Adin Ballou (An Elaborate History and Genealogy of the Ballou Family in America, 1888) may not have used proper footnotes (it was not the custom at the time) but he sprinkled every page with clues as to the sources of his information – deed books with page numbers, dates of probate documents, and many statements like “birth date not found.” If you use data from these books in your tree, always follow up by checking for the records used.
When using these books, always check around for supplements, addenda, and later corrections.
QUICK FACT – When approaching an indexed family genealogy for the first time, seeking information about a couple, a good shortcut is to search for the last name of the spouse instead of the person who holds the name featured in the book (there will be too many of those).
Wait, there are more books
Sadly, the search described above is where many genealogists leave off. Therefore, they miss the thousands of genealogy books, also of varied quality, published since 1923 and, in some cases, still under copyright. A book under copyright will seldom be found as a pdf online. It might be for sale somewhere, it might show up as a Google Book in which only a bit of searching is possible (no pdf available), or, more likely, it is sitting on a few library shelves here and there.
I’m not going to provide a master list of books on Rhode Island families, much as I would like to, and I may try that someday. But here is how I approach this problem.
To compile a list of books that have been published on your family names, try the googling mentioned above, then try these steps:
Searching for “Ballou family” in the Ocean State public library catalog. The entry will tell you which Rhode Island libraries that hold the book.
My best advice for finding ALL the genealogies published on a certain Rhode Island family is to consult this book:
Guide to Published Genealogies has a large alphabetical guide to family history books as well as a guide to town and local histories. Photo by Diane Boumenot.
Compiled genealogy sets covering many families
There are books which serve as guides to the literature of your family’s genealogy, or overviews of the genealogies of large areas.
The Bennett entry in Austin’s Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island. This is the way the book was printed. I know. It’s weird.
The Great Migration series and Directory. Photo by Diane Boumenot.
Journals and periodicals
Have you ever thought, I wish I could hire one of the country’s top experts to find that elusive ancestor for me? Have you ever considered that you could possibly get such work for free? Here’s how. Do a thorough search of all the genealogy journals that cover the area in question. You need to be sure that your important question has not already been researched by someone really competent, complete with reasoned arguments and footnotes. Even finding an article in a quality journal about the county or town you are researching can be a treasure-trove of sources and strategies. I always read the footnotes first.
Most organizations do not give their journal away online. You need to belong to that society, or subscribe to something that will offer access, or seek out a library with subscriptions. Likewise, just finding an index to each journal is not a trivial problem.
Suggestion 1: If you want to try ONE thing with the biggest chance for success, go to the New England Historic Genealogical Society’s website AmericanAncestors.org and use Search — Databases — Category: Journals & Periodicals. You will need to establish a free guest user account; for some of these, you will need to be an NEHGS member, or find a library with a subscription. This allows you to search the following journals, among others (in many cases, only issues more than five years old are included, and many do not go as far back as the earliest issues.)
Of those, of course, Rhode Island Roots is the most important for Rhode Island research, however, there are some outstanding genealogists producing articles for all the prestigious journals concerning Rhode Island topics. For additional journal suggestions, see this article.
Quality journals.
Suggestion 2: The second easy way to access some quality pre-1990 articles is to locate in a library the four volumes of articles published by the Genealogical Publishing Company, below. Each set contains a thorough index.
The two sets of Genealogies of Rhode Island Families. Note there is a substantial index at the back of each.
Additional sources
My favorite 10 Rhode Island family genealogies
Of all the genealogies that actually have helped me, these are the ones I recommend most highly. If I had different ancestors, the list would be different. These selections make it clear that helpful genealogies are not always online, and are not always found in book form.
Should you find a book that you would like to purchase, I usually try Higginson Books, Genealogical Publishing, and Heritage Books for reprints. I also look on eBay.com and Amazon.com, although lately I find older books on Amazon to be overpriced, sometimes ridiculously so (often a more thorough search online for the tiny publisher’s website brings up a much more attractive price than anything you will find on Amazon.com.) In a pinch, my best advice for a local Rhode Island used bookstore is Allison B. Goodsell, Rare Books, also called the Kingston Hill Store.
In closing
Be sure to check out the post about sources of local town records since some of those offer genealogical information about specific families.
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A Providence Door-yard. From Sketches of Early American Architecture by O.R. Eggers, 1922.
Posted in 8 Weeks to Better Rhode Island Genealogy, Rhode Island Stuff on June 18, 2016| 8 Comments »
Welcome to 8 Weeks to Better Rhode Island Genealogy Research Week 5 – Town Records, Histories and Newspapers. This covers location-specific books, town records, and newspapers.
Town records
Town records, published histories, and local newspapers are where the stories of our ancestors may be hiding. To know that our ancestors spent one or more generations in a town, and yet know very little about that town, or even worse, to assume we know enough without research, is to ignore our role as family story-finders.
10 things you can find in town records (often called “Council Minutes” or “Town Council Records”)
Always check Rhode Island Roots for various town records and lists transcribed there, and Rhode Island History, published by the Rhode Island Historical Society. Check the card catalog and manuscript finding aids at the Rhode Island Historical Society. A call to the town library with specific content-related questions (e.g., do you know of any local shipbuilding records? Do you have any diaries or old documents from a certain neighborhood?) as well as a search for a local historical house or society is always worth doing. And lastly, the Narragansett Historical Register should be searched.
The major state histories usually describe the development of each early town and the subsequent spun-off towns. These books contain some great illustrations, that might work well in your own family history book if they are no longer under copyright.
MANY original town record books are now included in the new Ancestry.com probate record set for Rhode Island, but it will not be obvious how to find them and they are not likely to be indexed. For a guide and key to navigating those record sets, visit the post on probate records.
Town records and published histories, by town
This map of 1820 East Greenwich is provided as evidence that King Street, leading down to the bay, was the main thoroughfare of East Greenwich, not Main Street, where my ancestor had a house. That goes a long way to explain how my ancestor could afford such a classy address in 1800 — maybe it wasn’t. Partial snapshot from The History of East Greenwich by McPartland, p. 51.
They just don’t make book titles like they used to. Wickford is a village in North Kingstown.
South Kingston, Rhode Island Tax Lists, 1730-1799. Photo by Diane Boumenot.
You can always join the Rhode Island Genealogical Society and let the experts transcribe and index those town council records for you. One volume per year!
Omitted from the above lists: Architectural and archaeological surveys, church histories, and books about single families. The Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission has issued Preliminary Survey Reports on the archaeology and historic sites of most or all Rhode Island towns. Always check out local historical societies. Some local libraries in Rhode Island also have local history collections. This post on Rhode Island church records will show you the specific church-related vital records that were compiled by James Arnold. And RIAMCO helps you find manuscript materials in Rhode Island repositories.
My favorite two bibliographies of Rhode Island historical materials are:
Columbian Phenix, Providence, Saturday, December 1, 1810. I purchased this on eBay recently. What surprised me about holding the newspaper in my hand was how thick the paper was – just like book paper.
Newspapers
6 things to know about historic Rhode Island newspapers:
See the other 8 Weeks to Better Rhode Island Genealogy posts by clicking the tab at the top of the page.
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A card from the Rhode Island index, Providence Public Library. Photo by Diane Boumenot.
Posted in 8 Weeks to Better Rhode Island Genealogy, Rhode Island Stuff on May 1, 2016| 1 Comment »
Property records and the maps that help us understand our ancestor’s location contain some very helpful clues. Even for ancestors whose background we know, maps and deeds can fill in fascinating parts of the story.
Maps
So let me just say right off, even after years in genealogy, I still tend to look at maps too late in the process of research. Maps should be almost the first thing we turn to. Was the village close to the state line, meaning our ancestors’ records may be recorded in another state? Have we checked all neighboring towns for records? Looking at our ancestor’s street on an old map, is it clear which nearby town would have been easiest to walk to, and possibly find a wife in? What was the nearest church? What nearby waterways provided easy transportation or employment?
More and more old maps are coming online. Even if they are for sale, they are often viewable online. Although not listed below, Ancestry.com has also added some of these same maps in the Maps, Atlases and Gazetteers section.
This 1795 Harris map shows the northeast corner of the state where my ancestors lived. I find that by matching landmarks in the old maps (for instance, Abbots Run along the east border) with information in my ancestors’ deeds, I can often come close to knowing the location of their property.
My top 8 online map finds
I was underwhelmed with the selection of digital maps available online, the same few over and over, and lots of state maps showing the names of the towns. I wish more specific content was available for each city and town. Here are the major collections and some of my favorites.
The Georeferencer screen for plate 38 of the 1875 Providence atlas on David Rumsey Maps. It show my ggg-grandfather’s rented home adjacent to Silver Lake Basin, a former body of water that is now a large parking lot with a flea market building (white streets are the current streets). The old map and the new Google map matched together instantly when I pressed the button. Fascinating to see the streets/features that are still the same and the ones that have changed.
Paper maps
Obviously, there are historical maps in paper collections that could be very helpful. The Rhode Island Historical Society has a wide collection.
To buy wall maps, Rhode Island’s own Map Center located on North Main Street, Providence, will sell you reasonably priced maps. Many time over the years, I have purchased CD’s and a few paper maps from the Rhode Island collection at Old Maps including the 1831 & 1855 maps on CD, and the 1870 Atlas on CD. This lets me keep them permanently on my computer, and open them to whatever size I want.
Place names
A guide to Providence County place names is here, mostly pulled from 1600’s records. I will add more sources as I find them.
Deeds and land records
Deeds treat us to a glimpse of our ancestor’s financial and home life. Was it a big farm? Did they have a mortgage? Did they keep the land their parents had, or strike out on their own? Did they lose their property at some point, and why? And most of all, where was this homestead? Does knowing the “abutters” or neighbors clarify a genealogical detail for us? Did your ancestor buy an extremely expensive house in 1798 which he could never, possibly have afforded, lose it in 1800, and then lived the rest of his life in poverty and you cannot figure out how that happened and it keeps you up at night? (but I digress. On with the deeds).
In Rhode Island, deeds are kept in the town that the transaction occurred in. As new towns split over time, deeds tended to remain in the original town, although there are exceptions to that so always check the town website to see what deeds they hold.
VERY few deeds are online at this point, as you will see, below. So it’s important to get out to the town halls or keep checking Familysearch.org for microfilm rolls which have come online. They have most pre-1900 deeds on film, and promise to get those films online within the next couple of years. To find those deeds go to http://www.familysearch.org, use the Search — Catalog menu item and then “Search by” place, pulling up the exact town, which will look something like this: “United States, Rhode Island, Kent, Coventry.” Familysearch files all deed records under the term “Land and property.”
Finding microfilm listings for Smithfield, Rhode Island, prior to ordering them.
Online deeds
It may not be widely known that slowly, some Rhode Island towns are moving their deeds online and in a few cases, that includes historical deeds. Check this site for the town you are interested in, although you may also need to consult the town/city web page to find out which years are in that system.
I am finding no deeds on Ancestry.com, however, a few deeds drifted into the “probate” category – look over at the Week 3 post on Probate, and follow instructions there to pull up the record set.
A few towns have a few deeds on FamilySearch.org:
Lydia Lamphere signed a deed of sale (with her mark) because she was required to give up her right of dower in the property that she and her husband sold.
Some additional helpful sources:
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East Greenwich deed index, town hall.
Comments are always welcome!
One Rhode Island Family 