JSTOR.org

In days of yore, when I was in college, locating published articles on historical topics required hours sifting through library stacks and individual journal indexes, then laboriously photocopying each page of each article. Thankfully, in today’s digital world, we have JSTOR.org, with instant access to full indexes of every journal in their collection (not limited to historical titles) and the ability to download PDF files of the articles to our desktop and print at home.

“JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. The JSTOR archival collections contain the back issues of more than 2,000 scholarly journals across 50 disciplines that span 500 years.”

JSTOR provides free access to its collections through libraries and schools. Individuals may also purchase a JPASS ($199/year or $19.50/month) with unlimited reading privileges at home and the ability to download up to 10 articles for a month’s subscription, or 120 for an annual subscription. (NEHGS Research and Contributing Members receive a $50 discount on a yearly JPASS subscription to JSTOR. Please contact NEHGS Member Services staff at membership@nehgs.org for information on how to obtain this discount.)

Searching for “Hingham, Massachusetts,” for example, brings up a few chuckles with hits such as “Notes on the plants of Hingham, Massachusetts,” from the periodical Rhodora of September 1924. Others definitely have more appeal to the genealogist/historian:

“Hingham, Massachusetts, 1631-1661: An East Anglian Oligarchy in the New World,” by John J. Waters, Journal of Social History (1968).

“Parental Power and Marriage Patterns: An Analysis of Historical Trends in Hingham, Massachusetts,” by Daniel Scott Smith, Journal of Marriage and Family (1973).

“Underregistration and Bias in Probate Records: An Analysis of Data from Eighteenth-Century Hingham, Massachusetts,” by Daniel Scott Smith, The William and Mary Quarterly (1975).

“Child-Naming Practices, Kinship Ties, and Change in Family Attitudes in Hingham, Massachusetts, 1641 to 1880,” by Daniel Scott Smith, Journal of Social History (1985).

Odd as it sounds, The William and Mary Quarterly has published many articles relevant to New England history and genealogy.

These hits will lead you to others in searches for articles by the same authors and in just browsing through the journals themselves, many of them with titles you have probably never thought of reading. Odd as it sounds, The William and Mary Quarterly[1] has published (1892–2017) many articles relevant to New England history and genealogy. In the January 2017 issue, for example, is the article “Elizabeth Hooton and the Lived Politics of Toleration in Massachusetts Bay,” by Adrian Chastain Weimer. A few others include:

“Family Structure in Seventeenth-Century Andover, Massachusetts,” by Philip J. Greven, Jr. (1966).

“Self-Sufficiency and the Agricultural Economy of Eighteenth-Century Massachusetts,” by Bettye Hobbs Pruitt (1984).

And the irresistible:

“’Pale Blewish Lights’ and a Dead Man’s Groan: Tales of the Supernatural from Eighteenth-Century Plymouth, Massachusetts,” by Douglas L. Winiarski (1998).

I highly recommend exploring this world outside of regular genealogical journals. You’ll have fun.

Note

[1] Originally published by the College of William and Mary, now published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture in Williamsburg, Virginia.