Ancestry Magazine

What does HisGen have to offer family historians?

Few organizations are as aptly suited to their names as the New England Historic Genealogical Society. It can be an unwieldy mouthful, but it has come to symbolize resources, collections, and a talent pool unrivaled by any other society focusing on New England research and, arguably, any other genealogical society in the country. It is a non-exclusive organization and the largest non-profit, member-supported genealogical society in the United States. If you find the moniker challenging, feel free to refer to the Society as NEHGS or simply (but unofficially), the HisGen.

Founded in 1845 by a group of prominent New England men, NEHGS continues to uphold and expand upon the original objectives of its charter to “collect, preserve, and publish genealogical and historical material relating to New England families.” It has succeeded in maintaining a classic and scholarly past while adapting to and meeting the challenges of technology and modern genealogical trends. To paraphrase a once popular car ad in describing NEHGS: This is not your father’s genealogical society.

Well, let me clarify. It really is your father’s (and mother’s) genealogical society. It boasts a collection of over 200,000 volumes in open, browseable stacks, a significant manuscript collection, rare books, some of the best genealogical scholars in the country, and many other resources that would be familiar to genealogists of generations past. Yet, even though it has been around for over 155 years, NEHGS has embraced the twenty-first century and contemporary genealogy with a passion, as evidenced by a strong website, cutting-edge publications, and popular databases on CD. Because genealogy is about the past, few resources become obsolete over time. It is, therefore, a goal of NEHGS to promote its traditional resources by using today’s technology to bring them to a widely dispersed and diverse membership.

The Library
NEHGS represents many things to genealogists of all skill levels. The collection, the resources, and the mission of the Society can be highlighted via a brief tour of its facilities, both onsite and online. The institution’s flagship, the NEHGS research library, is located at 101 Newbury Street in Boston’s historic Back Bay. Four library floors, staffed by professional genealogists and librarians, hold a vast array of resources including local histories and printed genealogies, manuscripts and rare books, and a technology center where visitors may access subscription websites online as well as records on microtext and CD.

Each floor is designated as a repository for a distinct selection of materials. The ground floor welcomes members and visitors alike with an orientation center, bookstore, and reading room. Also here are books, journals, and related information for international research. The main library floors are the top three floors of the building. The sixth floor is the most expansive research area of the library. Large tables with laptop hookups are convenient to shelves of commonly used materials like the Massachusetts vital record series “…to 1850″ and bound volumes of popular genealogical journals, which line the walls. The stacks on this floor are also easily accessible and browseable. They contain a considerable collection of published family genealogies as well as general reference materials.

The fifth floor houses the local history collection. Visitors can stroll through the open stacks to find books on New England states, counties, cities, and towns. Here too, are histories and related materials for neighboring states as well as destination states of ancestors who left New England, including county histories and maps. To learn more about the library collection at NEHGS, you may access the online catalog on the NEHGS website.

The technology room on the fourth floor is a very busy place for the many users who visit the library for microtext and Internet access. Computers are available for visitors to view subscription websites and a vast collection of data on CD-ROM. Several rows of microfilm readers are handy for viewing data in city directories; U.S., Canadian, and state censuses; Massachusetts vital records; and many other record groups.

Although visitors are encouraged to use all four floors of the library for their research, there is much more behind the scenes and available for member use. The manuscript collection is a thrilling place to discover the special insights into a family’s past that cannot be found in published volumes. At NEHGS there are papers and unpublished materials by noted genealogical scholars. The special collections department features over one million manuscript items ranging from the seventeenth century to the present, covering New England and other regions. The NEHGS website lists some of the collection’s highlights as including “unpublished family genealogies, vital records, Bible records, diaries, … cemetery records, church records, town records, institutional records, military records, artwork, charts, and much more.”

While the emphasis at NEHGS is on New England, the scope of resources goes much further. Particularly with materials covering New England immigrant groups and their native lands such as Canada and Ireland. Keeping in mind that New England was a primary point of entry into the United States, as well as a migration base for moving to other parts of the country, its collection parallels these patterns.

NEHGS has more books and employees than it can comfortably house in its Boston location, therefore some of the behind-the-scenes membership benefits and support staff are located in a renovated warehouse in Framingham, Massachusetts. This is the base for the sales, membership, and circulating library departments. Although it is not open to the public, many membership needs are met here. Both members and nonmembers reach the Member Services Department by phone, e-mail, fax, or mail to purchase books, maps, charts, and CDs and to inquire about educational events, borrowing books, and joining the Society.

Buy or Borrow Books
Just as the research library catalog can be found online, so can the Circulating Library catalog. Members may borrow books from more than 30,000 volumes in the Circulating Library stacks. Orders are filled quickly and members may use their selections in the comfort of their own homes for up to two weeks. It is a useful and rewarding way to bring hard-to-find volumes into your hands, analyze the data, make photocopies, and fit genealogical research into your own schedule and home environment. I once quipped that I woke up next to one of my ancestors after I brought a loaned book to bed with me and fell asleep with it by my side.

While the Circulating Library is available only to NEHGS members, the Sales Department (aka NEHGS Book Store) ships books, charts, maps, and CDs to genealogists around the country, member or not. The store catalog is online or you may request a print version of the catalog. Recently, hundreds of books were added to the Book Store as it made reprints of older, out-of-print b ooks available for special order.

Publications
The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (referred to simply as the Register), is the preeminent journal of American genealogy. It has been published quarterly by NEHGS since 1847 and is regarded as a scholarly collection of compiled genealogies, case studies, corrected pedigrees, and unpublished record groups. The information contained in over 620 issues to date is considered essential by genealogists for proving New England family lines.

For those who prefer lighter but still dependable and pertinent fare, the newest NEHGS periodical, New England Ancestors magazine, is now in its third year and is mailed to members five times a year. New England Ancestors offers how-to articles on New England research, information on events and reunions, queries, relevant research insights, and much more. Articles from the magazine are also available online.

NEHGS publishes a number of books each year. Recently, a reprint of Executive Director Ralph J. Crandall’s Shaking Your Family Tree was republished and even more recently, NEHGS printed tandem editions of New York handbooks: New York State Probate Records: A Genealogist’s Guide to Testate and Intestate Record, and New York State Towns, Villages, and Cities: A Guide to Genealogical Sources. NEHGS produces CD databases available nowhere else, including New England Marriages Prior to 1700 and The Records of the Churches of Boston. A full list of current electronic and book publications is available within the Articles & Publications area of the website.

The Website
If the NEHGS research library is the flagship of the organization, its website could very well be the fleet. It is at NewEnglandAncestors.org that NEHGS best displays its wide range of resources. The website is accessible to anyone who wishes to search the library collec tion, order books, learn more about the society, read a few of the preview articles, or submit a query, free of charge. But the greatest value of the website is that it brings valuable resources from NEHGS to members around the world.

A visit to the NEHGS website gives online researchers a more detailed overview of what they can expect from a membership with NEHGS. Members can use the website to read articles previously published in either of the Society’s periodicals and search for names and places in a growing list of online databases. Non-members, too, can benefit from the online catalog, research articles, and access to the bookstore.

Some of the greatest online resources include access to over 2 million names in vital record databases, military records, and perhaps most popularly, the Register, which represents decades of genealogical research available nowhere else. The massive amount of shelf space taken up by the Register and the Massachusetts vital record series is familiar to anyone who has researched New England families. It is now handy to any genealogist with a computer and a modem–and a membership in NEHGS.

There are many more facets of the New England Historic Genealogical Society too numerous to elaborate upon here, including research services, free lectures, conferences, and consultations with prominent genealogists. The NEHGS membership totals 20,000. It is the members who ensure the success of NEHGS through many areas of support. More information about the benefits of membership is available by calling NEHGS at (888) 296—3447 or visiting the NEHGS website.

For a century and a half, genealogists have relied on the New England Historic Genealogical Society to provide them with pertinent, useful resources. As NEHGS keeps abreast of the changes and trends in genealogy, it will continue to offer a prolific range of resources to genealogists to help them discover their family heritage in New England and beyond.

Laura Prescott Duffy is the educational services coordinator for the New England Historic Genealogical Society.