Methodology Monday (NEHGR): Connecting across the Atlantic in the 1600s

In colonial New England, the classic genealogy dilemma -- "Where did they come from?" -- takes on a standard form: "Where in England?" Christopher Robbins and other researchers had Nicholas Robbins's 1650/1 will, a 1635 ship list that was a close match, and a tall brick wall across the ocean, consisting of far too many local English parish records to go through one at a time.

Technology came to the rescue, allowing him to search consolidated on-line indexes. The resulting parish registers in Kent matched the family almost perfectly. The author sought local help and was amply rewarded by an unpublished Ph.D. thesis with additional material on the family. Read the whole thing in the October NEHGR -- either on line if you're a HisGen member, or in any good genealogy library's collection.

But technology is not a cure-all. Without careful correlation between records, bigger and better indexes just offer ways to make bigger mistakes. Correlation is more fruitful when we have a family unit (or a group of associates). One match could well be a coincidence. Two or three are much more likely to be a breakthrough.



Christopher Robbins, "New Evidence for the English Origins of Nicholas Robbins," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 167 (October 2013):245-50.

Harold Henderson, "Methdology Monday (NEHGR): Connecting across the Atlantic in the 1600s," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 24 February 2014 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : viewed [date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Indiana Genealogist for March 2009

An absorbing and diverse mix of articles in this quarter's Indiana Genealogist, as well as a timely reminder to would-be contributors that there could be something in it for them to contribute an article to the quarterly. The 2008 Elaine Spires Smith Family History Writing Award ($500) will be given to the best article over 1000 words received for the magazine in 2008 that wasn't a transcription or abstract. Fourteen are in the running; the IGS publication committee will judge.

Why don't more state and regional publications try something like this? It's a low-cost incentive to get us out of our databases and onto our word processors!

March's contents include:

Ron Darrah, "Indiana World War II Genealogy Can Be Tricky," a quick and informative trip around the difficulties of tracking the Greatest Generation. The Indiana legislature made it considerably harder in 2007 by closing off most access to AGO Form 53 certificates from the WW2 Bonus Act.

Robert de Berardinis, "Four French Naval Infantrymen at Fort Vincennes Who Wanted to Become Settlers."* The author has so much to say about the intricacies of eighteenth-century French records on both sides of the Atlantic that it's possible to lose sight of the infantrymen. I know there's some real meat here, because I understood it a lot better the second time I read it.

Rhonda Dunn, "Finding Proof of Family Lore, or, The Search for Redeeming Qualities in My Mean Ole Great-Grandpa, George Dunn." Still some mysteries here, but good evidence that family history can tell less than ideal stories about our ancestors without flinching.

Timothy Paul Reese, "Isaac D. Robbins of Dearborn County, Indiana." Robbins, the author's great-great-grandfather, had an eventful Civil War in the 26th Indiana Volunteer Infantry.

Plus listings of "When They Came to Gary," Indiana Civil War soldiers buried in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, and more...

*footnoted