Mayflower Descendant
A Publications of the
Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants

The reviews are the opinion of the editor (unless indicated otherwise). They are solely for the aid of our readers. Reviews appear in every issue of the journal. If you would like to subscribe or order any back issue, please click here.

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This review was published in 2001
[MD, 50 [2001]: 78-80]

The Genealogical Publishing Company, 1001 North Calvert Street, Baltimore, MD 21202, reprints the following books and CD-ROMs. Phone orders can be placed at 1-800-296-6687 or fax 1-410-752-8492 with a VISA or Master Card number. Postage for one item is $3.50. For each additional item add $1.25. Maryland residents please add 5% sales tax and Michigan residents add 6% sales tax.

Many of you will recognize that these are reference books found in many libraries. Some are old standards that may have been updated, some are abstracts from various journals, and others are valuable indexes to original records. You can now cheaply obtain a large collection of book and take very little space on your shelves.

Below is a list of CDs for sale. The number, title, original book publication date, and its cost is given first. What follows is the author of title of the original work and when it was published. Last is a very brief description of the contents of each book included on the CD. For detailed reviews of each book individually, search through back issues of any major genealogical periodical. To see all of what GPC offers in CD form, write for your free copy of The Best of Genealogy on CD-ROM: A Complete Catalog of CD-ROM Publications from the Genealogical Publishing Company. It might be your best way to expand your personal library.

CD #7171: “Genealogies of Mayflower Families, 1500s-1800s” $29.99.

The four-volume set of the Genealogies of Mayflower Families of selected articles that appeared in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register between 1847 and 1985 is presented here.

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CD #7179: “Family History: Connecticut Genealogies #1, 1600s-1800s” $29.99.

Like CD #7171, this includes the three-volume set of the Genealogies of Connecticut Families (reprinted 1983) of selected articles that appeared in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register between 1847 and 1985. Also found here is the three-volume set of Donald Lines Jacobus' Families of Ancient New Haven magazine (reprinted 1974). This is the precursor to the now famous The American Genealogist. The index to the latter is not an all-name one. Check the table of contents to find your family of interest.

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CD #7180: “Family History: Rhode Island Genealogies #1, 1600s-1800s” $29.99.

This CD continues the above mentioned project by reproducing the two-volume set of the Genealogies of Rhode Island Families of selected articles that appeared in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register between 1847 and 1985.

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CD #7181: “English Origins of New England Families, 1550s-1800s” $39.99.

This CD provides the user with the three-volume set of the English Origins of New England Families, First Series (reprinted 1984) and the three-volume set of the Second Series (reprinted 1985). All of the material was of selected articles that appeared in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register between 1847 and 1985.

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CD #7192: “Genealogical Records: The Encyclopedia of Quaker Genealogy, 1750-1930.” $59.99.

William Wade Hinshaw's Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy (1936-1977) is six volumes of the single biggest source for Quaker genealogy. Here are presented 455,000 Quakers who resided in New Jersey, New York, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries compiled from monthly meeting records.

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CD #7274: “Genealogical Records: Ontario and Nova Scotia Settlers, 1790-1860.” $29.99.

Leonard H. Smith, Nova Scotia Immigrants to 1867, Volumes I and II (1992). The used public records and private manuscripts to create these short biographies of the early settlers.

Marion Gilroy, Loyalists and Land Settlement in Nova Scotia (1990). This work encompasses all surviving information on the nearly 10,000 Loyalists who were eligible for land in Nova Scotia. Each Loyalist is identified by name, date and site of grant, acreage, and, in some cases, the individual's military rank.

George S. Brown, transcriber, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Genealogies Transcribed from the “Yarmouth Herald” (1993). This work is a transcription of Fred E. Crowell's serial article called “New Englanders in Nova Scotia” published between 1896 and 1910. It focuses on New England families who migrated to Nova Scotia around the time of the Revolutionary War (many of them descended from Mayflower colonists) with it's 186 sketches.

Norman K. Crowder, Early Ontario Settlers (1993). This work culled the records of the early settlers of Upper Canada, or Ontario, from 1783 through 1789. Many of the settlers named in the records were from the American colonies (especially New York's Albany area and Mohawk Valley).

E. Keith Fitzgerald, Ontario People: 1796-1803 (1993). This is a transcription of the District Loyalist Rolls of 1796. These Loyalist Rolls recorded individuals who appeared in court to confirm their land rights and possibly to obtain Loyalists status for the benefit of their children.

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CD #7502: “Massachusetts Probate, Town, and Vital Records, 1600s-1900s.” $29.99.

Justin Winsor, History of the Town of Duxbury, Massachusetts, with Genealogical Registers (1849). This is an early history of town settled by people from Plymouth, Mass.

George Wingate Chase, The History of Haverhill, Massachusetts, from its First Settlement, in 1640, to the Year 1860 (1861). This is the standard early history for the Merrimac River town.

Samuel Deane, History of Scituate, Massachusetts, from its First Settlement to 1831 (1831). Valuable early history of the town with 250 pages of family sketches.

William B. Stevens, History of Stoneham, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Prominent Men (1891). Town history with about 100 biographical sketches of the pioneers.

William T. Davis, ed., Records of the Town of Plymouth (1889-1903). These three volumes contain transcriptions of many of the official records of the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts. The published records pertain to formal actions of the town, such as the laying out of highways and grants of land, and cover important periods of local history.

Leonard H. Smith Jr. and Norma H. Smith, Vital Records of the Town of Plymouth, An Authorized Facsimile Reproduction of Records Published Serially, 1901-1935, in The Mayflower Descendant (1989). Plymouth vital records from 1663 to 1819 and mention some 15,000 inhabitants as published in The Mayflower Descendant from 1899 to 1937.

Leonard H. Smith Jr. and Norma H. Smith, Vital Records of the Towns of Barnstable and Sandwich, An Authorized Facsimile Reproduction of Records Published Serially, 1901-1937, in The Mayflower Descendant (1976). This is the same as above, except for Barnstable and Sandwich (whose records have since been published separately).

Leonard H. Smith Jr. and Norma H. Smith, Vital Records of the Towns of Eastham and Orleans, An Authorized Facsimile Reproduction of Records Published Serially, 1901-1935, in The Mayflower Descendant (1976). This is the same as the above two, except for Eastham and Orleans.

Leonard H. Smith Jr. and Norma H. Smith, Vital Records of the Town of Middleborough, An Authorized Facsimile Reproduction of Records Published Serially, 1899-1937, in The Mayflower Descendant (1976). This is the same as the above three, except for Middleborough. This has since been published fully in two volumes.

Leonard H. Smith Jr. and Dorothy Marvelle Boyer, Vital Records of the Town of Fairhaven, Massachusetts, to 1850 (1993). This book includes the vital record of the town plus some gravestone inscriptions.

H. L. Peter Rounds, Abstracts of Bristol County, Massachusetts Probate Records, 1687-1745 (1987) and Abstracts Of Bristol County, Massachusetts Probate Records, 1745-1762 (1988). The author transcribed all the wills, inventories, administrators' accounts, receipts, divisions of estates, petitions, guardianships, and other Bristol County probate records. It should be noted that this county included the Rhode Island towns of Bristol, Warren, Barrington, Little Compton, and Tiverton until 1747. This work was continued to 1765 in the Mayflower Descendant!

Judith McGhan, ed., Suffolk County Wills: Abstracts of the Earliest Wills Upon Record in the County of Suffolk, Massachusetts, from The New England Historical And Genealogical Register (1984). This was a serialized article abstracting the earliest wills and inventories of Suffolk Co. for the first thirty years.

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Page updated 21 April 2011