Category Archives: Research-methods

Changing my expectations, one search at a time

Expectations are tricky. As genealogists, we should always be on the look-out for new information, recognizing that the data sought may be in a different location, or format, or offer different content than we had expected.

Lately, as I’ve mentioned, I have been..

Continue reading

New York newspapers as a substitute for vital records

In the 22 January 2014 issue of NEHGS’ Weekly Genealogist, a ‘story of interest’ highlighted the sad plight of 17,000 square feet of old newspapers held by the New York State Library in Albany. Faced with the demand to archive an increasing amount of education..

Continue reading

Conserving an historic family tree

A representative family tree in its original frame, showing the piece, backing board, wooden panel, and glass and frame. Courtesy R. Stanton Avery Special Collections, NEHGS

NEHGS is always looking to acquire family trees to add to our collection. They come to us..

Continue reading

Ways to share your genealogical discoveries with others

The Early New England Families Study Project has been well received, and I have already had a number of offers from generous individuals who wish to share their research with the project.  I do appreciate the offers, really, but I have to politely decline.

Continue reading

A Research Getaway in Boston

David Dearborn (left) consults with a Research Getaway participant

Genealogy is often a solitary pursuit, and increasingly, one that is conducted primarily online. Last week, NEHGS welcomed 26 members and supporters to our research library in Boston for a program..

Continue reading

“Check or cash … gratefully received”

I am currently at work processing the Farley Family Papers, a large collection that includes hundreds of letters, photographs, estate records, and military records created by several generations of Farleys in Massachusetts. The wide variety of documents found in the..

Continue reading

Just how reliable is that source?

Records of the Reverend Thomas Cheever, 1697-1742, Mss C 1143, R. Stanton Avery Special Collections

Many of us have been betrayed, genealogically speaking, by a source that appears to be reliable but is not. Often the source is reliable for the most part. But that..

Continue reading

Clear cutting in the genealogical forest

When I was in school thirty plus years ago, there was a lot of discussion about the differences between history and genealogy – usually with genealogy getting the short end of the stick. The gap between historians and genealogists narrowed once we realized that we all..

Continue reading

Beautiful Detroit

Arthur Belforti is shown at left

A current research preoccupation of mine is a photo of my maternal grandfather, Arthur David Belforti (born Achille Alessio Riccardo Belforti, 1902-1996), which my mother recently gave me and which is pictured here. Having had a..

Continue reading

First steps in Western Massachusetts research

Although many Eastern Massachusetts colonial families have been well covered in print, the sons and daughters of those families who moved west are often lost to genealogists. The first stop on their migratory path was often in the woods of Western Massachusetts.

In..

Continue reading