These last two episodes of Genealogy Roadshow brought us to two New England cities, Boston MA and Providence, RI. Both episodes offered a lot of discussion on the history of New England, helping to put the lives of the guests’ ancestors into context. Here are just a few of the subjects and resources I took away from the episode:
- Great Boston Fire of 1872
- Gallops Island and Boston's Smallpox Epidemic
- The History of New-England, containing an impartial account of the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of the country, to the year of Our Lord, 1700 by Daniel Neal
- New Bedford Whaling Museum Archives
- Providence Public Library
- Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Archives Division (they have a great guide for searching records generated by state government, including vital records.)
There were also some New York related topics mentioned!
- National Orphan Train Complex
- Surrogate Court records for NY
- NYG&B members have access to our research guide “New York Probate Records Before 1787” and “New York Probate Records Since 1787”
- New York Juvenile Asylum records (Children's Village), 1853-1954
- Ellis Island Passenger Search
- All Faiths Lutheran Cemetery
- NYG&B members have access to our research guide “A Selected Bibliography for New York State Cemetery Research”
During the first segment in Boston, Josh revealed that his guest has many famous and influential cousins; even Josh himself was related to the guest – they are actually 13th cousins once removed! When thinking about my distant relatives, sometimes I find it difficult to understand who the common ancestor is. I find it helpful to look at the chart of consanguinity to try to conceptualize how we’re actually related - see "Consanguinity” by John Reynolds Totten, NYG&B Record, vol. 63, no. 2 (1932) for a great chart.
Good luck with your research!
Heather Hoffman (Manager, Digital Collections and Online Services at the NYG&B)