This is a growing collection of free genealogy books and documents. Read or download the free PDFs.
The University of Massachusetts at Lowell digitized 63 of the Lowell Textile School yearbooks during the years of 1906-1975. The yearbook during this period was known as the “Pickout”. Yearbooks provide a window into student life. From sports teams to clubs, fashions to hairstyles, these volumes document the changing attitudes and culture of college students year by year.
The University of Massachusetts at Lowell digitized all 41 of the State Teachers College yearbooks provided by the senior class during the years of 1935-1975 and known as “The Knoll”. Yearbooks provide a window into student life. From sports teams to clubs, fashions to hairstyles, these volumes document the changing attitudes and culture of college students year by year.
Most towns in New England started publishing annual reports of the town’s public business in the 1800’s and many smaller towns still carry on that trait today. The following list of 52 free annual reports for Lowell Massachusetts covers the years of 1862-1928 (incomplete). Each town provided different reports in it’s annual publications, but they generally contain information on vital records (births, marriages and deaths) for the year of publication (not always included in early years), lists of public officials, lists of police officers, firemen, and other government workers, including school teachers. Don’t overlook the town’s expenditures list, as it often included payments made to town citizens for work they performed in the town’s behest. Also, many towns include payments made for the support of the indigent within the town.
From 1890-1903, the Dedham Historical Society in Dedham Massachusetts printed a quarterly pamphlet for it’s historical society called the “Dedham Historical Register.” In this pamphlet a variety of genealogical data was published on families of Dedham and the villages emanating from the early residents of Dedham, such as Dorchester, Franklin, Medfield, Medway, Needham, and Sharon, etc.
This is a collection of free vital records books, otherwise known as “Tan Books” for Massachusetts towns. Generally, these records go up to 1849/1850 at which, the genealogist can use the census records to assist in identifying the family connections further. Included with this article is an account of why and how these manuscripts were published along with links to all 198 books which can be freely read or downloaded.
Alexander Bisset Munro was born 25 Dec. 1793 at Inverness, Scotland to Donald and Janet (Bisset) Munro. Alexander left Scotland at the age of 14, and lived in Dimecrana in the West Indies for 18 years. He owned a plantation, raising cotton, coffee and other produce. He brought produce to Boston Massachusetts on the ship of Solomon Dockendorff. To be sure he got his money, Solomon asked his to come home with him, where he met Solomon’s sister, Jane Dockendorff. Alexander went back to the West Indies, sold out, and moved to Round Pond, Maine, and married Jane. They had 14 children: Janet, Alexander, Margaret, Nancy, Jane, Mary, Solomon, Donald, John, William, Bettie, Edmund, Joseph and Lydia.
The picturesque island of Utilla is the most south-westerly of the group known as the Bay Islands. The islands are six in number. They are Ruatan, Bonacco, Utilla, Helene, Barburat and Morat; and are situated in the Bay of Honduras an arm of the Caribbean Sea. Bonacco, the most easterly of the group, was discovered by Columbus on his fourth voyage in 1502. Taken together these islands form a flourishing Department in the Republic of Honduras. In 1858 the population of Utilla was 101 souls. It now (1904) numbers nearly 800 inhabitants. And for many years past the island has … Read more
This volume was the first contribution to the series of biographies of deceased ministers, which the Lutheran board of publication had resolved to issue. It is singular in one respect, that it embraces the sketches of three men of the same name, and bearing to each other the near relations of grandfather, son and grandson. The writer of the present volume regrets that he was limited to so small a space for the full exhibition of the lives of these three most worthy men. He was compelled reluctantly to omit much that would have more fully illustrated their characters, but … Read more
James W. Agee wrote this pamphlet as a way to publish the vital records of every known Agee. Unfortunately, at the time of publication, he estimates to have received only a quarter of responses to the cards he sent out. Since he only asked for vital records, that’s all he presents in this manuscript. He claims all living Agee’s, except one, could claim descent from “the 24” who were the 24 children of James and Anthony Agee: Noah, James, Jacob, John, Hercules, Joseph, Rhoda, Ruth, Celia, Mary, Chloe, and Nancy, all children of James Agee; and Joshua, James, Daniel, Matthew, Jacob, John, Isaac, Joseph, Reuben, Anthony, Noah, and an unnamed daughter who married a ? Christian, all children of Andrew Agee.
Sarah Titcomb over her years of study of various New England families had collected quite a bit of material of several early New England families. At the bequest of some of her friends, she prepared and published them in book form. When reading through the material I was impressed with the amount of material collected on each individual, and rather then a brief genealogical sketch, readers are provided an in-depth study of each early family: Ayer, Bartlett, Bradley, Chase, Dean, Dow, Dunster, Ellis, Fuller, Hope, Kilby, Martine, Les Dernier, Maverick, Mills, Montague, Pemberton, Pepperrell, Poore, Precott, Sewall, Longfellow, Spofford, Titcomb, Watmough, and Willard.
A partial history of some who have been distinguished in public life in Maine, and who abode in Piscataquis County and helped to make its history during their generation.
A glance at the map of the western part of Washington County will show that any treatment of the early settlement upon the Narraguagus River, necessarily involves more or less of the histories of Steuben, Milbridge, Harrington and Cherryfield. Steuben was formerly township “No. 4, East of Union River,” and No. 5 comprised the territory now included in the towns of Milbridge and Harrington. The town of Cherryfield is composed of No. 11, Middle Division, Brigham Purchase, and of the northeastern part of what was formerly Steuben. All that part of Cherryfield lying south of the mills on the first … Read more
The concern in this self published manuscript is with the descendents of William Clements, who came to Philadelphia from Ireland, about 1760, and with the ancestors and descendents of those families connected with them by marriage.
19 free digitized directories found online for the city of Manchester New Hampshire covering the years of 1860-1918 (incomplete). Directories can provide such information on an individual such as their employment and address during the year issued. They may also indicate whether they were renting or residing with somebody else at the time.
This post contains a brief outline of the history of the town of Leicester, Massachusetts. However, at the bottom of the page, it provides extensive additional free material on historical and genealogical research within Leicester Massachusetts. If you have ancestors in Leicester, do not miss this!
Hampton History: an account of the Pennsylvania Hamptons in America in the line of John Hampton, Jr., of Wrightstown; with an appendix treating of some other branches.
This is a transcript of the first 31 pages of Elijah Hackleman’s Scrap book No. 2. The original is in the Wabash County Indiana Historical Museum. Although material of genealogical significance is to be found throughout the scrapbook, the material following deals with the Hackleman family. Michael Hackleman was born in Germany about the year 1720. He migrated to America in the seventeenth year of his age (1737) and was bound to a Maryland, or Pennsylvania farmer for three years to pay for his passage. He finally cleared twenty-six acres of land, and squared the account. He married Mary Sailors in March of 1751, and settled on the Susquehanna River, near the line of Pennsylvania and Maryland. He later in life moved to the Abbeville District, South Carolina where he died in 1808. His children were named Jacob, Lydia, Conrad, John and George.
This is a self published manuscript of the Hart Family from Orange County, North Carolina.
The great ancestor of the Hart family in the United States emigrated from London about 1690 and settled in Hanover County, Virginia, where he died leaving an only son, Thomas Hart, who was about eleven years of age when his father arrived in Virginia. Of the elder Thomas little is known except that he was a merchant and probably late in life, a blind man. This manuscript begins with the son, Thomas Hart, Jr. who married Susanna Rice. After the death of Thomas Jr., Susanna and all of her children: Thomas, John, Benjamin, David, Nathaniel, and Ann, moved to Orange County, North Carolina.
A collection of portraits with biographical sketches of residents of the state of Maine who have achieved success and are prominent in commercial, industrial, professional, and political life, to which is added the portraits and sketches of all the governors since the formation of the state of Maine in 1820.
Upon the very threshold of this historical sketch we find ourselves quite destitute of early public records for Swan’s Island. For over half a century from the settlement of this island until its organization as a plantation no municipal records were kept. But we are fortunate that H. W. Small saw purpose in bringing to light many private family records, old deeds showing what lots were occupied by the pioneer settlers; and written mutual agreements, which seem to have been often the result of arbitration on any disputed point where different claims to land conflicted with one another.