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Note from the Chase Chronicles - Jan. 1931.
GENEALOGISTS
From "Boston Personalities" by Mason Ham
( Boston Herald, March 16, 1931)
"Even Boston does not have many professional genealogists, but it has some.
There is, for example, Mrs. Joseph Gardner Bartlet, whose late husband was
one of the best known genealogists in the country. Up at the New England
Historic Genealogical Society on Ashburton Place, there are Mrs. Susan
Cotton Tufts and George W. Chamberlain.
We've been talking over some of the difficulties and oddities of the
profession with Mr. Chamberlain and with Mr. Charles K. Bolton of the
Athenaeum, an enthusiastic amateur.
First of all, to genealogy, as to many other things, distance lends
enchantment. Westerners are more interested in their New England ancestry
Than New Englanders are themselves. New Englanders want to learn about their
forefathers across the sea. And the person who cares least about his
genealogy is often the man who lives today where his family has lived for
generations. If he happens to be a Smith, he is content to know that he had
a lot of Smith ancestors and he doesn't care about the details.
Assuming that your forbears came to America in the 17th century, it will
probably be easier to prove your descent for 250 or 300 years back to the
first settler here than it will to go the next hundred years back of that.
New England records of births, marriages and deaths were the business of the
town, and the town clerks, for the most part, did a good job. The English
records were handled by the church, and they aren't so good. It is very
rare, except in the case of unusually distinguished families, that the
ancestry of 17th century settlers can be traced for more than three
generations in England. It is almost impossible to go beyond the time of
Queen Elizabeth, who made the clergy keep better records than before.
There may be trouble, of course, in tracing even the New England line. Fires
have destroyed records. For nearly 100 years, from 1750 on, the town clerks
of Boston kept almost no records of births. If your ancestors lived in
Boston during that period, almost the only guide is the record of baptisms
kept by all churches except, oddly, the Baptist.
A wondering ancestor is a very special nuisance. How, for example, can you
prove that the John Smith who was in Cambridge one year is the same John
Smith who was in Springfield the next? There is one pretty good way. The
old-time New England towns had an institution of "warnings" which became
public records. Any newcomer who didn't by real estate was likely to be
"warned" out of town lest, eventually, he became a town charge.
The ancestor of many an illustrious person today was warned from some of our
best communities. A great-great-grandfather (or maybe it was
great-great-great-) of Calvin Coolidge was thus asked to leave a town in
Worcester County. But that's nothing against the man. and it did help the
genealogist."
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