We are living in strange times. Why not look into history to find hints about even stranger times?
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have already digitized our New Hampshire town records and — based on my limited testing — at least some of the vital records are findable on Ancestry.com. But what about scouring the town records for other bits of interesting town history?
In order to browse the digital collection of Town Records, you must sign up for a free account on FamilySearch.org.
- From the Search menu, click on Records.
- In the search box under “Find a Collection” start typing in: New Hampshire, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1636-1947. The entry should populate itself. And click on it.
- Scroll down the page and click on “Browse through 402,443 images.”
- Select your county.
- Select your town.
- Start browsing!
Share and Preserve
It is likely that you will find interesting snippets of colonial and early American life. Capture what you find and think of interesting ways to share the information.
In our town records, prior to the separation of church and state, one can find confessions and sermons.
Uh-oh. “Wicked expressions!”
Town History
This entry talks about issuing tavern permits.
I could take the tavern permit information and, by looking at old maps, try to determine where the taverns were in town…
And perhaps investigate further by reading old town histories. Luckily, the history for my town is out of copyright and freely available on Google Books.
Using Google Maps, I can pin the placement of historical buildings in town. (More coming.)
Vital Records
And while most vital records are findable in Ancestry.com, the database is not available to everyone. From my own personal experience working the reference desk and providing genealogy research assistance, I will attest that I have found a stray record buried in the volume that was never captured digitally. In my town, vital records are found mostly at the end of a volume, but there are some vital records scattered throughout the books that were likely not captured elsewhere. (Can I tell you how happy the patron was to have his great-somethingth-grandparents’ marriage record?)
Get Creative with the Resources & Your Time
You never know what small oddities and items of interest you will find in the records. Why not take some time to browse through them and see what you can find!
Note: The individual pages can be downloaded.
Further reading: https://tech.nhlibraries.org/2017/08/gems-of-nh-genealogical-research/