The New England Historical and Genealogical Register: Volume 17

Jan 1863 · New England Historic Genealogical Society

About this ebook

Vols. 37-52 (1883-98) include section: Genealogical gleanings in England, by H. F. Waters.

Ratings and reviews

This is a large and quite comprehensive account of the main "hundred percenter" families that occupied New England during 17th Century. It is not always totally correct or accurate. However the extensive genealogical accounts are more typical of the American idiom. From early in 19th Century the founding of Historical society reflected the American desire to account for their long lost heritage and distant links to England and elsewhere in Europe. Their assiduous keenness towards detail and accuracy is a symptom of the almost obsessive record-keeping that characterised Western Bostonian society in post-colonial empire. Cumulative transcriptions have established an orthodoxy for the dates and people recorded. Names like Comstock, Smith, Adams, Winthrop, Barnes, Johnson, Warner, Parsons, and many others are a commonplace, but still may not all be included in the register. Since the Victorian period much of the detail will have been corrected for factual inaccuracy, nonetheless these books provide an invaluable resource to researchers when collating histories.