Once again Mayflower descendants, and descendants of those early residents of Plymouth, have cause to celebrate: 46 volumes of the illustrious Mayflower Descendant (publication of the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants) are now available on two CDs. Those of you familiar with Mayflower research will recognize the name of editor of the first 34 volumes -- George Ernest Bowman, noted Mayflower researcher. Bowman, secretary for the Society 1896-1941, transcribed thousands of records that would later be published in the Mayflower Descendant. The two-CD set contains information for approximately 200,000 individuals; the bulk of the information found falls in the period of 1600 to 1800, although I did see some references outside that time period. Volumes 1-46 were published from to 1899 to 1996.

The CD contains more than just the Mayflower Descendant; also included are a list of the Mayflower passengers (not just those who signed the Mayflower Compact), Middleborough, MA Vital Records (Volumes 1 and 2), and Pilgrim Notes and Queries, Volumes 1-5 (edited by George Bowman). As with other Family Archives CD, all names on the CD are indexed, and can be searched using the Search Expert feature, or by browsing through the master name Index. The CD is an image CD containing images of each page from the 46 volumes of the Mayflower Descendant; browsing through both CDs I did not see any pages that did not reproduce well, and was impressed with the quality of the images.

While my first instinct to search for my known Mayflower ancestors was rewarded with many hits, I found myself browsing through the volumes rather than searching for individuals. The Mayflower Descendant is a fascinating look at the Pilgrims and Colony members, with articles on a large variety of subjects; everything from the division of cattle amongst Plymouth members, to cemetery records, diaries, church records, vital records, deeds, wills, depositions, biographical features, inventories, notes, headstone pictures, autographs, miscellaneous records, in-depth features on the Mayflower passengers and their life in Plymouth, probate records, letters, and regular columns can be found in the Descendant's pages. Volume 17, for example, has the following contents (in addition to the tables of contents, indexes, and title pages):
 

November 26, 1997

Related Family Archives • Britain • Family Histories • Genealogical Records • International Records • Marriage Records • New England • Passenger and Immigration Records • Vital Records More Articles • New England Phone Book • A Primer for New England Research • European Migration & Your Family Origins Helpful Web Sites • New England On the Message Boards • GenForum: U.S. States

• Autograph of Resolved White, the Mayflower Passenger
• Plymouth, MA Vital Records*
• Unrecorded Barnstable County Deeds*
• Middleborough, MA, Vital Records
• Plymouth Colony Wills and Inventories*
• Eastham and Orleans, MA, Vital Records*
• Plymouth Colony Deeds*
• Morton Notes
• Cooke Notes
• Earle Notes
• Mayflower Genealogies
• Autograph of Maj. William Bradford, Son of Gov. William Bradford
• Gorham Notes
• Plymouth County Vital Records
• Hathaway Notes
• Little Notes
• Chatham, MA, Vital Records
• John Sunderland's Will
• Vital Records of Brewster, MA
• Unrecorded Plymouth County Deeds
• Autograph of William Pabodie
• Cushman Notes
• Ring Notes
• Tinkham Notes
• Burrowes-Tinkham Notes
• Howland Notes
• Vital Records of Halifax, MA
• Collection of Old Barrows Papers
• Wills of Lieutenant James Brown and His Widow Margaret
• Widow Elizabeth (Vaughan) Howland's Will
• Hawkes Notes
• Truro, MA, Church Records
• Will of Richard Bowin, Sr.
• Capt. John Gorham's Family Record
• Bradford Notes
• Freeman Genealogy

  * These items are continuing articles spanning several volumes.

Each volume retains its own title page, as well as the title page, table of contents, and index of persons and places for each issue (four issues per volume). I found the the Index to Subjects in this Section (Volume), located at the beginning of each volume, the most useful item; the subject index told me at a glance what church and cemetery records (items I am particularly interested in, were included in that issue). Other subjects listed included deeds (grantors, grantees, and abstracts), information about various ships, illustrations, marriage records, wills and inventories, and vital records by town.

This CD, of particular interest to researchers with New England ancestors, contains the images of thirteen family histories listing a total of 113,000 individuals who either lived in New England, or were mentioned in the genealogy of someone who lived in New England during the time period of 1600-1800. While each book has its own index, the fastest searching is accomplished by using the FTM Search Expert or the Family Archive's comprehensive index of all thirteen books. Most of the books were in good condition and the images are quite easy to read; even those books which were in a less-than-desired condition have pages which can be read by using the Zoom In feature.

The books contained on the CD are:

• A Genealogical History of the Rehoboth Branch of the Carpenter Family by Amos B. Carpenter (published by Press of Carpenter & Morehouse, 1898).
• Descendants of Edward Colburn/Coburn, by George A. Gordon and Silas R. Coburn (published by Walter Coburn, 1913).
• A History of the Town of Keene [MA] by S. G. Griffin (published by Sentinel Printing Company, 1904).
• History of the Kimball Family in America by Leonard Allison Morrison and Stephen Paschall Sharples (published by Damrell & Upham, 1897).
• The Leavitts of America, published by Jane Jenning Eldredge for the Leavitt Family Association, 1924.
• Register of the Middlebrook Family by Louis F. Middlebrook (1909)
• Prominent Men and Women of the Day by Thomas W. Herringshaw (published by A.B. Gehman & Co., 1889).
• History of Salem, MA Vol I by Sidney Perley (1924).
• History of Salem, MA Vol II by Sidney Perley (1926).
• History of Salem, MA Vol III by Sidney Perley (1928).
• Records of William Spooner by Thomas Spooner (1883).
• The History of Weare, New Hampshire by William Little (published by the town, 1888).
• The History of the Wheeler Family in America compiled by the American College of Genealogy (published by American College of Genealogy, 1914).

I have the good fortune of possessing several New England ancestors, so I was delighted to search this collection of books which I had not imagined contained references to "my" lines...I was even more delighted to find mentions of several different ancestors. My experience drives home the benefit of searching the FamilyFinder Index, a feature of Family Tree Maker software and also available for searching online, which contains a list of individuals on all of the Family Archive CDs. You may find, as I did, that your ancestors show up in the most unexpected places! Information contained in the books on this CD varies widely; I found biographical details, historical notes, maps of land held by ancestors, wills, family details by generation, military records, names, dates, locations, and much more. Pages are easily printed, and you can copy a page image to the clipboard where you can later save or modify the image using a graphics program.

Family History: English Origins
of New England Families,
1500s-1800s (Family Archive 181)

Do you have New England Roots? If they are deep enough to reach back to the Colonial period, you may be able to find your New England ancestors on this CD. The contents are from the Genealogical Publishing Company's English Origins of New England Families, and it contains the actual images from the entire collection: Series 1 (Volumes 1-3) and Series 2 (Volumes 1-3). Together, all six volumes reference over 143,000 individuals. Because the CD contains images of the books, you can easily print selected articles, a specific page, or just copy an image for later use in a graphics program or word processor. Included on the CD are the original Introductions, Tables of Contents, and Indexes for each volume (searching the entire CD is best accomplished by using the Search Expert function or by viewing the comprehensive Family Archives Index of all six volumes). The images are very clear and easy to read.

The first series of books contains articles which were printed in the prestigious New England Historical and Genealogical Register between 1907 and 1967 for the Committee on English and Foreign Research. The introduction to the first volume points out that "almost all contemporary Americans with colonial Yankee forebears will descend from several of the 1,000 [people of immigrant origins]..." and indeed, I found several of my New England ancestors on the CD. In addition to the articles written under the auspices of the Committee on English and Foreign Research, two other important series of articles can be found: Genealogical Gleanings Among the English Archives (published 1900-1905), and English Will Abstracts (published 1897-1900).

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