New Englanders in the 1600s

The “mass migration” of the Americas by Europeans began in the 1620’s. New England was the kicking off point, as it were, for many European immigrants. New Englanders in the 1600s: A Guide to Genealogical Research Published Between 1980 and 2010 is a source list of materials on over 3,600 families who immigrated in the earliest colonial period. This guide alphabetically lists the names of individuals born before 1700, who migrated to New England. These names are pulled entirely from works published between 1980 and 2010.

Resources listed include articles, single and multifamily genealogies, and a variety of scholarly works covering New England immigrants. In all, 111 primary sources are listed, covering hundreds of volumes. For example, work include:

  • MASSOG: A Genealogical Magazine for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, volumes 4-34
  • Search for the Passengers of the Mary & John 1630, volumes 1-27
  • The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, volumes 1-7
  • The New England Ancestry of Alice Evertt Johnson, 1899-1986, Memoirs and Bollenbach Genealogy

Individuals are listed alpahbetically by surname. Each is listed with available birth and death information along with the resources, including volume and page number, in which they were found. Many individuals are listed in multiple sources. Also indicated are which publications mention other family members, ties to royalty, full-family genealogies, and/or DNA studies. A list of abbreviations for cited works is found at the front of the book, making it easy to quickly review the full reference along with details, in many cases, on where to locate the actual materials. Here is a sample entry for an individual:

Mayhew, Thomas, b. 1593, d. Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., 25 March 1682. GMBII:1243-46; Thompson, pp. 42-43,92-93, et al.; TAG 76:94-98 (English ancestry of wife).

Conrad Edick Wright, Ford Editor of Publications, Massachusetts Historical Society, had this to say about the book:

“This book is a basic tool both for genealogists and for historians. Those whose work focuses on seventeenth-century New England will wonder how they managed without it.”

In Review, Robert Charles Anderson, FASG, Director, Great Migration Study Project, added this comment on the book:

“With so much new and important genealogical research buried in the leading journals and in all-my-ancestor compilations, one of our greatest needs is an up-to-date finding aid providing easy access to this literature. Hollick’s updated volume fills the need admirably”

The introduction provides a good synopsis of the book; including the scope and content, what’s new in this expanded edition, and other indexes—helpful to researchers beginning work on New England families. One important piece of information, or advice, pulled from the Introduction is the fact that scholarly works are typically provide numbered footnotes to cite primary sources. In other words, these 111 sources may represent thousands of primary sources of added information. The researcher finding a name to study may be led through the listed source to many other primary sources. A supplemental index at the back of the book provides a quick reference to all the listed names in just a few short pages.

Order a copy of New Englanders in the 1600s: A Guide to Genealogical Research Published Between 1980 and 2010 from Family Roots Publishing; Item #: NE15, Price: $21.51.

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