--- title: In praise of dissertations description: In a previous Vita Brevis post, I sang the praises of tax lists as useful sources of information for family history research. Today’s post focuses attention on another valuable but underutilized resea image: https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Harvard-Widener-300x225-1.jpeg --- # [Vita Brevis A resource for family history from AmericanAncestors.org](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/) This is a search field with an auto-suggest feature attached. - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. # In praise of dissertations [May 14, 2020](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2020/05/in-praise-of-dissertations) [Critical Analysis](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/critical-analysis), [Genealogical Writing](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/genealogical-writing), [American History](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/american-history), [Research Methods](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/research-methods), [Research tips](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/research-tips), [Family stories](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/family-stories), [Road Trips](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/road-trips) [Michael Grow](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/author/mgrow) [![](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Harvard-Widener-300x225-1.jpeg?width=300&height=225&name=Harvard-Widener-300x225-1.jpeg)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Harvard-Widener-1.jpeg) Harvard's Widener Library. Courtesy of Harvard Magazine In a previous [*Vita Brevis *post](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2020/05/in-praise-of-tax-lists/), I sang the praises of tax lists as useful sources of information for family history research. Today’s post focuses attention on another valuable but underutilized research resource: unpublished doctoral dissertations. Since the 1960s, Ph.D. candidates at U.S. universities have written a surprisingly large number of dissertations on the histories of individual American towns, ranging from the early settlements of colonial New England and other regions to nineteenth-century midwestern farming communities. Invariably based on exhaustive research in primary historical records, these in-depth “community studies” usually include large quantities of detailed statistical and descriptive information about the local inhabitants – their economic activities, landholding patterns, ethnic and religious compositions, social structures, and more. Some include a biographical list of early town residents, with male residents identified by occupation. In addition, every dissertation has an extensive bibliography listing additional sources of historical scholarship about the community. ### [These] in-depth “community studies” usually include large quantities of detailed statistical and descriptive information about the local inhabitants... In researching the lives of the first two generations of my family in America for a recent family-history book project, I drew heavily from unpublished dissertations on the early Massachusetts Bay towns of Ipswich and Andover.[[1]](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2020/05/in-praise-of-dissertations#_ftn1) The massive amounts of quantitative and descriptive data contained within them enabled me to place my ancestors in a social and economic context – as artisans, as “commoners,” as landowners, as members of extended “middling”-level family networks, etc. – that proved to be much more detailed and historically nuanced than would have been possible using only published sources. In the end, the dissertations were so valuable to my research that in one chapter alone I cited them in nearly half of the 107 endnotes. A keyword search of town names in the “ProQuest Theses & Dissertations” database (proquest.com) – the most comprehensive online catalog of U.S. doctoral dissertations – may prove equally worthwhile for other family history projects. Full-text electronic copies of most dissertations can be obtained directly from ProQuest or through a nearby university research library. ### Note [[1]](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2020/05/in-praise-of-dissertations#_ftnref1) Edward Perzel, “The First Generation of Settlement in Colonial Ipswich, Massachusetts, 1633-1660” (Ph.D. dissertation, Rutgers University, 1967); Alison Vannah, “‘Crochets of Division’: Ipswich in New England, 1633-1679” (Ph.D. dissertation, Brandeis University, 1999); Philip J. Greven, Jr., “Four Generations: A Study of Family Structure, Inheritance, and Mobility in Andover, Massachusetts, 1630-1750” (Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1964). A small percentage of dissertations – including the Greven dissertation cited above -- have been published as monographs. Almost inevitably, however, substantial portions of their quantitative data fell victim to the editor’s red pencil, so that the original dissertation version remains well worth reading. ### Share this: - [mailto:?body=https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2020/05/in-praise-of-dissertations](mailto:?body=https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2020/05/in-praise-of-dissertations) - - - More - - ![Michael Grow](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/hubfs/Imported%20images/Michael-Grow.jpg) ## About Michael Grow Michael Grow, a retired history professor at Ohio University and a longtime NEHGS member, is the author of John Grow of Ipswich, Massachusetts and Some of His Descendants: A Middle-Class Family in Social and Economic Context From the 17th Century to the Present (Amherst, Mass.: Genealogy House, 2020).[View all posts by Michael Grow →](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/author/mgrow) [← A family treasure](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2020/05/a-family-treasure) [The better part of valor →](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2020/05/the-better-part-of-valor) This is a search field with an auto-suggest feature attached. - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. ### Recent Posts [Sailor Bill and His Forgotten Wife](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/sailor-bill-and-his-forgotten-wife) [Professor X](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/professor-x) [Part I: Malaga Island, Maine](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/part-i-malaga-island-maine) [The Norwegian folge](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/the-norwegian-folge) [Research…in a Miniskirt? A ‘Style Guide’ to a Genealogist’s Wardrobe](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/research-in-a-miniskirt-a-style-guide-to-a-genealogists-wardrobe) ### Archives - [October 2014 (27)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/10) - [December 2015 (24)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/12) - [July 2020 (24)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2020/07) - [April 2014 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/04) - [July 2014 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/07) - [December 2014 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/12) - [July 2015 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/07) - [March 2017 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/03) - [May 2017 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/05) - [August 2017 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/08) - [January 2018 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2018/01) - [March 2014 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/03) - [August 2014 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/08) - [April 2015 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/04) - [September 2015 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/09) - [October 2015 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/10) - [March 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/03) - [June 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/06) - [August 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/08) - [September 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/09) - [November 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/11) - [December 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/12) - [January 2017 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/01) - [June 2017 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/06) - [November 2017 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/11) ### Categories - [Family stories (1260)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/family-stories) - [American History (1137)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/american-history) - [Critical Analysis (1126)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/critical-analysis) - [Research Methods (881)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/research-methods) - [Brick Walls (674)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/brick-walls) - [Object Lessons (617)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/object-lessons) - [Spotlight (617)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/spotlight) - [Genealogical Writing (554)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/genealogical-writing) - [Research tips (510)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/research-tips) - [Serendipity (479)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/serendipity) - [Road Trips (393)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/tag/road-trips) ### Recent Posts [Sailor Bill and His Forgotten Wife](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/sailor-bill-and-his-forgotten-wife) [Professor X](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/professor-x) [Part I: Malaga Island, Maine](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/part-i-malaga-island-maine) [The Norwegian folge](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/the-norwegian-folge) [Research…in a Miniskirt? A ‘Style Guide’ to a Genealogist’s Wardrobe](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/research-in-a-miniskirt-a-style-guide-to-a-genealogists-wardrobe) ### Meta - [Log in](https://vita-brevis.org/wp-login.php) - [Entries RSS](https://vita-brevis.org/feed/) - [Comments RSS](https://vita-brevis.org/comments/feed/) - [WordPress.org](https://wordpress.org/) ### Subscribe to Blog via Email Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. ### Archives - [October 2014 (27)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/10) - [December 2015 (24)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/12) - [July 2020 (24)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2020/07) - [April 2014 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/04) - [July 2014 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/07) - [December 2014 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/12) - [July 2015 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/07) - [March 2017 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/03) - [May 2017 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/05) - [August 2017 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/08) - [January 2018 (23)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2018/01) - [March 2014 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/03) - [August 2014 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2014/08) - [April 2015 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/04) - [September 2015 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/09) - [October 2015 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2015/10) - [March 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/03) - [June 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/06) - [August 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/08) - [September 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/09) - [November 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/11) - [December 2016 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2016/12) - [January 2017 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/01) - [June 2017 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/06) - [November 2017 (22)](https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/archive/2017/11)