Changes at NEHGS over the past decade.

Since I joined NEHGS a few years ago I have been enjoying the magazine American Ancestors.  Unknown to me however is that the magazine had a predecessors for it the" New England Ancestors".

I was flipping through a pile given to me recently of New England Ancestors.  I chuckled to my self of how times have changed so quickly.  There is a full page ad for the NEHGS Circulating Library.  It has the offer for you to borrow and research in your own home.

Now here in 2012 we can turn on the computer use the internet to research our ancestors.

Lucky Us.  Do you wonder what could be next in genealogy research ?

From NEHGS Newton Free Library Collection. Do you Have Folks from Newton or the area?

In this post I have added in a interesting piece from the NEHGS NEWSLETTER  


Since I found out I have ancestors that bore the name * Newton* I have wondered if there is any connecting with the city of Newton, Massachusetts & my family?






Spotlight: Digital Newton, Newton Free Library, Massachusetts
by Valerie Beaudrault, Assistant Editor
Digital Newton, Newton Free Library, Massachusetts

The City of Newton is located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, just west of Boston. The Newton Free Library has made a number of historical resources available on its website through Digital Newton. The materials in the collection “reflect the civic life of and provide insight into Newton from the 19th through the early 20th century, a time when Newton was transforming from agriculture to industry and becoming a suburban Boston residential community.” The collection is a work in progress. More images will be added as funding allows. To view the resources, click on the menu bar tabs. Resources include:

Assessed Polls, Blue Books, and City Directories
This section contains three image collections which list the names and addresses of Newton’s citizens and businesses. The first consists of published lists of registered voters and their polling districts for most years between 1884 and 1942. The second collection comprises the Blue Books, lists “of the leading residents, societies, etc. with street directory and new map” for most years between 1892 and 1927. The third collection contains digitized Newton city directories for many years between 1868 and 1934.

Images of Historic Newton
To view photographs, click on the Images of Historic Newton tab and select a collection from the drop-down list. Sixteen image collections have been digitized and uploaded to the site. Subjects include various Newton villages (Waban, Auburndale, Newton Corner/Nonantum, etc), family albums, glass negative collections, and more.

Early Books
In the Early Book Collection you will find digitized offerings from the library’s manuscript collection. Among the items are the diary of twelve-year Esmond Rice; the journal of Edward Jackson, who traveled to California during the Gold Rush; the manuscript eventually published as The History of Newton, 1630-1880 by Samuel Francis Smith; a history of the Newton Fire Department; and the 1906–07 diary of Newton Mayor Edgar W. Warren; and others.

High School Year Books
This collection contains Newton High School yearbook photographs for 1885, 1890, 1895, and 1900. Names are not recorded for the 1885 and 1890 images, but do appear with the 1895 photographs. In addition to photographs of individual students graduating in 1900, there are also “group photographs, autobiographical questionnaires, letters and telegrams addressed to the class at the time of their 25th reunion.”

Historic Maps
The Historic Maps collection consists of six maps of Newton. There are maps of the city from 1908, 1912, 1913, and 1918, an 1878 map of Newton Centre, and a map of Newton Corner likely drawn up by Thomas B. Proctor around 1869."

ReSearch Tips

So just when you think you can't find anything else out about what seems like the most Elusive Ancestor.
My suggestion  Read Re-read re-read one at a time the documents, forum post, messages from others interested in the same ancestor.  It all about gleaning that one clue stuck in that place which you may have missed more then once.  Cause if your anything like me.  It only pops out as important after you found that other piece of info first.  Then the Light goes off "thats It". 

  Then there are libraries that actually have Diaries or Journals that might have one snippet of info about that Ancestor.  I still have not found such a Help for myself.  But I just feel it that someone in the Little Village of Garden, Michigan had wriiten a little somthing about when Martha showed up.  My search ( & my sis GeGe) to find out the Parentage of our 2nd great Grandmother Martha Gray has been very elusive.  I gained the help of a Historical Society member who did everything possible to help me.  The one thing I did find out was that a notation in a Typed out genealogy on the Gray Family was penciled the word ADOPTED above her name.

Since this Village is small & a good distance from the County Seat understandable that there are No Adoption Records.  her husband Daniel Kelly did leave a Will,  I was able to obtain a copy.  But no family other then know decendants are listed in the will.  It was a good exercise to seek out the Will through Probate.   The one place I have found differing information is on her 2 childrens death certificate.  On My 1st Grandmothers her Mothers last name is Gray -the adopted family.  But now on her sons Death cert.  Her last name is Strong.

 Most intriguing is that death cert are only as good as the person suppling the info. It on their knowledge that its filled out.  Kinda like the census could be correct but then maybe not so correct.

So my search continues for Martha & parents.  If I could just accept her Adopted family that would be so easy.  Since they are the Gray & Truebloods.