The American Ancestors manuscript collection holds the largest amount of genealogical material in the country. This guide is an easy means to identify which of the over 5,500 entries have relevant individual bible records, diaries, account books, research notes, and more. This 600+ page guide directs family historians to an unprecedented wealth of resources — most available nowhere except the R. Stanton Avery Special Collections Department at the Society. The American Ancestors manuscript collection, considered one of the largest and most valuable of its kind in the world, contains more than two million items culled from four centuries of New England and American family history. From diaries, deeds, cemetery transcriptions, military commissions, and account books to full-scale, unpublished genealogical treatments of a multitude of New England and American families, this collection is a treasure trove of genealogical discoveries waiting to happen. The collection also features the unpublished papers of some of the nation’s leading genealogists, including John Insley Coddington, Gilbert Harry Doane, Mary and Winifred Lovering Holman, George Andrews Moriarity, Jr., and Clarence Almon Torrey, as well as scores of other professional and career genealogists. In spite of the collection’s reputation among scholars, many American Ancestors members remain unfamiliar with our manuscript holdings or how to access them either in person or at a distance from Boston. This fully indexed guide provides an easy-to-use reference for identifying family papers, Bible records, correspondence, and research notes and consulting them either in person at American Ancestors or by mail through our research service.

Author: Edited by Timothy G. X. Salls and Judith Lucey
Published: January 2011