No comments about Ely in Old Photographs (Britain in Old Photographs).

No comments about Eastern Maine and the Rebellion: being an account of the principal local events in eastern Maine during the war. And brief histories of eastern Maine ... drafts, Confedera (A Heritage classic).

No comments about List of Freemen of Massachusetts, 1630-1691 : Extr. New England Hist. & Gen. Register.

No comments about Virginia Gleanings in England.

No comments about More Emigrants in Bondage: 1614-1775.

1 comments about Digging for Genealogical Treasure in New England Town Records.

1. I confess, this is not the book I thought it was going to be. I was expecting an update of Marcia Wisall's standard (but rapidly becoming outdated) _Genealogist's Handbook for New England Research_ (3d ed, 1993), but the author tells you right up front that this is a different book. New England research -- to which I came late, since it was only a few years ago that I discovered that not quite all my ancestors were Southerners -- centers on the records of the town, or township, not the county. In fact, except in Maine, it's impossible to live "out in the county," in the sense of residing outside the city limits and being subject to county laws instead of city ordinances. Every county in New England is divided into townships and, historically, that's where most of the most useful records have been created, since the beginning of settlement. The town clerk's office is usually in the town hall, but in the old days the clerk often kept his records at home; that still may be the case in the very smallest towns. Many local libraries and state archives have copies of the early records, and the LDS, naturally, has filmed most (but not all) of them. In any case, wherever they may be physically located, the town records include not only birth, death, and marriage records -- which have been covered in great depth elsewhere, so Lainhart completely ignores them here -- but also all the records that relate to the business of the town: Election of town officers, town business, land grants, boundary and border disputes, manumissions, adoptions, treasurer's records, tax and assessor's records, licenses of all kinds, cattle marks, chattel mortgages, school records, church records (especially before the disestablishment of religion), military and militia records, and especially the poor records, which are the author's special interest. Each type of record gets its own brief chapter, explaining what it relates to and giving anecdotal examples (which are worth reading by themselves). A lengthy appendix details the powers and duties of town officers, of which there were many, including Overseer of the Poor, Surveyor of the Highways, Surveyor of Shingles and Clapboard, Fence Viewer, Clerk of the Market, Deer Reeve, Salt-Measurer, and not to forget the Weigher of Onions. These really aren't as silly as they may sound, not in the proper maintenance of a peaceful town in which everyone depended on everyone else for survival. So, while it wasn't what I had been hoping for, this turns out to be a very interesting and very useful volume, and I expect to refer to it frequently as I delve into my mid-17th century heritage.

No comments about Burkes and Hare.

No comments about Wentworth Genealogy, England & America in 3 Vols.

1 comments about Fitch Family History: English Ancestry of the Fitches of Colonial Connecticut.

1. Very well written, but why not, it was written by John T. Fitch who has spent so much time researching the Fitch family. He knows our family inside and out. This book traces the early Fitch family back to England. There are numerous pictures in it from documents in old England. If you don't understand some of the words from old England have no fear, he gives a wonderful Glossary with definitions. He explains how the Fitch name and it's different spellings came about and has an extensive index. There are explanations on the different coats of arms and where they originated from. It reads like a novel though. You can sit down and just run through it quite fast and then go back and get the details on the different names for research. What a wonderful book for your Fitch research and best of all he's done the work for you.

No comments about The Peerage of England: Containing a Genealogical and Historical Account of All the Peers of that Kingdom. Volume 4.