How many of your eight great-grandparents can you name? Where were they born? When did they die? The answers may be lost in the mists of time—or they may be as close as the Harvard Public Library.
Genealogy has become a rapidly growing hobby in the United States, partly because the Internet has made local records from across the country accessible from any computer. But membership in the many online genealogical organizations often comes with a price tag. So, if you are just beginning your search (or if you come from a long line of tight-fisted Yankees), it makes sense to check the library's free resources.
From the library, you can search all the databases of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS), of which the library is an institutional member. According to reference librarian Lisa Gagnon, the most popular databases for family historians are the Massachusetts Vital Records, which cover births, deaths, and marriages from the early 1600s to 1910. The NEHGS also offers town records extending well beyond Massachusetts, from Maine to New York.
Harvard also has some unique records in the NEHGS collection, such as An Inventory and Valuation of the Residents of Harvard, Massachusetts, 1866. In that year, the town voted to have the assessors print the "Valuation List" of all taxable property. One David Hartwell, for example, owned two oxen, four cows, two swine, a house, a barn, and a 29-acre farm, with the worth of each carefully tallied. (What was in your ancestor's wallet?)
Even more specialized information lurks in odd corners of the NEHGS databases. Did your ancestor receive a pension for fighting in the Revolutionary War? Was he a member of the Masons or the Jewish Cemetery Association? Did she learn needlework at Mrs. Rowson's Academy between 1797 and 1822? And was he or she perhaps inoculated against smallpox in Boston in 1824? It's all there.
If your roots are outside New England, you can still track connections at the library. For a nationwide search, the library has access to Heritage Quest online (via the Worcester Public Library). With the help of a reference librarian, patrons can access federal census information from 1790 to 1930.
The most detailed information, of course, is still local. Library volunteer Maureen Phillips is compiling Harvard's own vital records, cross-referencing with the state ones, because each list has information not found on the other. Phillips notes that the Vital Statistics show interesting changes in the town. She pointed out that more Irish names start to show up in Harvard records in the 1850s, as a result of the Irish Potato Famine that began in 1845.
Despite the convenience of computer searches, people still seek out the old books and local records for their family's past. Gagnon says that most out-of-state people stop by in the fall, so that they can enjoy the foliage and apple-picking, too.
Harvard residents often trace the lineage of their house, or the land where it stands. The Local History Room includes maps of Harvard as it was in 1831 and 1868, as well as a survey of historic houses that was done in the 1990s. Phillips has been researching her own 200-year-old house, on land that belonged to the Barnard family from the 1740s until about 1900. Interest in the house led her to begin tracing the family's history as well.