Genealogy is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members. The results are often displayed in charts or written as narratives. The field of family history is broader than genealogy, and covers not just lineage but also family and community history and biography.
John Alden was an English politician, settler, and cooper, best known for being a crew member on the historic 1620 voyage of the Mayflower which brought the English settlers commonly known as Pilgrims to Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. He was hired in Southampton, England as the ship's cooper, responsible for maintaining the ship's barrels. He was a member of the ship's crew and not initially a settler, yet he decided to remain in Plymouth Colony when the Mayflower returned to England. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact.
Stephen Bachiler was an English clergyman who was an early proponent of the separation of church and state in the American Colonies. He was also among the first settlers of Hampton, New Hampshire.
A family history society or genealogical society is a society, often charitable or not-for-profit, that allows member genealogists and family historians to profit from shared knowledge. Large societies often own libraries, sponsor research seminars and foreign trips, and publish journals. Some societies concentrate on a specific niche, such as the family history of a particular geographical area, ethnicity, nationality, or religion. Lineage societies are societies that limit their membership to descendants of a particular person or group of people of historical importance.
Philip Sherman (1611–1687) was a prominent leader and founding settler of Portsmouth in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Coming from Dedham, Essex in southeastern England, he and several of his siblings and cousins settled in New England. His first residence was in Roxbury in the Massachusetts Bay Colony where he lived for a few years, but he became interested in the teachings of the dissident ministers John Wheelwright and Anne Hutchinson, and at the conclusion of the Antinomian Controversy he was disarmed and forced to leave the colony. He went with many followers of Hutchinson to establish the town of Portsmouth on Aquidneck Island, later called Rhode Island. He became the first secretary of the colony there, and served in many other roles in the town government. Sherman became a Quaker after settling in the Rhode Island colony, and died at an advanced age, leaving a large progeny.
A royal descent is a genealogical line of descent from a past or present monarch.
The Committee on Heraldry of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, established in 1864, is the world's oldest non-governmental body primarily concerned with heraldry.
The Puritan migration to New England took place from 1620 to 1640, declining sharply afterwards. The term "Great Migration" can refer to the migration in the period of English Puritans to the New England Colonies, starting with Plymouth Colony and Massachusetts Bay Colony. They came in family groups rather than as isolated individuals and were mainly motivated by freedom to practice their beliefs.
The Great Migration Study Project is an ongoing scholarly endeavor to create short biographical sketches of all immigrants from Europe to colonial New England between 1620 and 1640. These number over 5,000 individuals, not including dependent wives and children, almost all of whom came from England. Directed by Robert Charles Anderson, the project is conducted in collaboration with the New England Historic Genealogical Society and has been underway since 1988.
Greenwood Farm is a historic property and nature reserve located in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and owned by The Trustees of Reservations. The farm is 216 acres of gardens, pastures, meadows, woodlands and salt marsh and it features the PaineHouse, a First Period farmhouse constructed in 1694.
Emily Wilder Leavitt (1836–1921) of Boston, Massachusetts, who doubled as an historian and professional genealogist, was one of the first female members of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Daughter of an acting mayor of Boston, Miss Leavitt managed to make a living writing the histories of early New England families, compelling her to scour the region's early records.
Robert Abell was born in about 1605 in Stapenhill, Derbyshire, England. He emigrated to New England in 1630 as part of the first wave of the Great Migration, and was among the early settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, settling first in Weymouth, and subsequently in Rehoboth, where he died on June 20, 1663.
Thomas Hastings was a prominent English immigrant to New England, one of the approximately 20,000 immigrants who came as part of the Great Migration. A deacon of the church, among his many public offices he served on the Committee of Colony Assessments in 1640 and as Deputy for Watertown to the General Court of Massachusetts in 1673. He held property in nearby Dedham between 1636 and 1639, although there is no evidence that he ever lived there.
William Bradford (1590–1657) was the governor of Plymouth Colony for most of his life. Descendants of William Bradford, some of whom are listed here, have achieved noteworthy standing in numerous fields.
William Hathorne was a New England politician, judge and merchant who was Commissioner for Massachusetts Bay and Speaker of the General Court. He arrived in America on the ship Arbella, and is the first American ancestor of author Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Eugene Cole Zubrinsky is an American genealogist focusing on colonial southern New England families. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists and lives in Ojai, California.
David Brenton Simons is president and CEO of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (AmericanAncestors.org), a nonfiction history author, and an American genealogist.
Captain Christopher Hussey (1599–1686) was an English colonial official and initial settler in New England.
Elizabeth French Bartlett was an American genealogist.
