Finding Your Colonial Rhode Island Ancestors

Find your colonial ancestors in the communities of New England with these fifteen strategies that cut through 400 years of changing records. Learn expert practices for accessing New England's information and building evidence of lives long forgotten. Your early New England roots can come to life with these less-obvious sources and methods.

What are the secrets to finding New England vital records today? If you understand how they were made, and all the things that have happened to them since, you will bring new skills and insight to your vital records research. Also, let's develop some strategies for those times when the record cannot be found.

Looking for Rhode Islanders in the Revolutionary War era, or 1865-1935? The Rhode Island colonial and state census collections offer amazing details, but each enumeration is quite different. Looking for all men 16 and over in 1777? Exact dates of birth? Civil War service? Name of school attended? Learn how to navigate the arrangements online and match family members to their records.

What methods and best practices might work well for YOUR Rhode Island brick wall ancestor? Five stories of breaking through brick walls will help you find new strategies for your own research.

Given Rhode Island's unique and fascinating history, it's no surprise that today's repositories of records and artifacts are quite varied. Learn about the best sites for various record types, and how to navigate the sources of your family's story in person, near the beaches and seafood of Rhode Island.

Follow the journey of Rhode Islanders that did not head west and the lives of newly arrived Americans. What unique kinds of records were produced as the state watched its small farming communities become growing industrial centers?

This lecture details the resources available for researching your New England ancestors who arrived during the Great Migration from England from 1620-1640. Discussion of the scholarship and resources both published and online created by the Great Migration Study Project will be covered.

New England town records represent a unique resource for Family historians. Early settlers from England brought their traditions of town governance to the new world, including their ideas of legal matters and record keeping. The result is a treasure trove of documents that capture aspects of our ancestors’ lives as they went about their day-to-day business. These records are especially valuable for the 17th and 18th centuries as many other records may not have survived. This webinar covers not only vital record sources but also records from the Town Treasurer, Overseers of the Poor, and the Selectmen.

Researching ancestors who lived in colonial New England can be challenging. This webinar begins by tracing settlement patterns, setting the stage for understanding key records and where to find them. For the 17th century, many unique published resources exist to help the family researcher. During the colonial years, several conflicts such as King Philip’s War and the Seven Years War affected settlement and thus the surviving records. The 18th century culminated in the Revolutionary War, but also saw the continued growth of settlement and ultimately resources for the family historian.