Puritan Great Migration Project Reliable Sources

Profile managers: Bobbie Hall [send private message], S Willson [send private message], and Puritan Great Migration Project WikiTree [send private message]

This page provides an overview to sources used by the Puritan Great Migration Project. Project volunteers are encouraged to use these, where possible. While some good sources can be found free through FamilySearch.org or even through Google searches, many sources require paid membership or subscription. If you don't have access, ask for a lookup on G2G. Additionally, for general WikiTree guidance on reliable sources, please see the help page on Reliable Sources. This page contains a list of Project-approved, reliable sources for both pre-1700 and pre-1500 profiles. It also contains lists of sources to be used with caution, and those that should not be used at all.

NOTE: Please do not do full copy/pastes from any of the following documents. (I.e., don't put in a verbatim profile text from Anderson's Great Migration series.) Also please do not upload images of full pages of these documents. That places you and WikiTree at risk of copyright violation. Instead, extract key vitals and be sure to use the <ref>...</ref> citation format to cite your sources. Thanks!

Reliable Sources

Great Migration Series (NEHGS)

Robert Charles Anderson's Great Migration series, published by the New England Historic Genealogical Society between 1995 and 2011 (so far), covers New England immigrants between 1620 and 1635 (so far) with the intent to extend to 1640.

The series is available in print and digital format. Digital access requires membership to either:

• NEHGS, a nonprofit organization begun in 1845 to preserve and publish quality information about early American ancestry. Although a paid subscription is required to access the Great Migration series, there are many useful records available for free with a guest membership.
• Ancestry.com, a commercial subscription service with a range of digital genealogical information from which you may find sourced documents. Note: However, Unsourced family trees are not acceptable sources from this or other webtree sites.

Some libraries may have access to one or the other. For a list of specific titles see: Related Publications

See also: Sources used in the Great Migration series

Early New England Families Study Project (NEHGS)

Another NEHGS project, this will cover the period 1641-1700 (based on marriage year), initially following (and presumably correcting/updating) Clarence Almon Torrey’s bibliographic index of early New England marriages. The project's goal is to compile authoritative and documented sketches of more than 35,000 marriages from this time period.

The Great Migration Study Project will eventually treat all immigrants who came to New England through 1640. The Early New England Families Study Project will focus on individuals who emigrated in 1641 or later, but our sketches will be grouped by year of marriage rather than immigration. (You can read more about this effort here.)

The emerging/evolving online database is available to NEHGS members. For a list of available sketches and associated WikiTree profiles, see Early New England Families.

Quality Journals

The following peer-reviewed journals are also good sources for quality research that include (but are not limited to) early New England colonists. While pretty much all of these require paid membership to access, some early editions can be found through Google Books, OpenLibrary, or FamilySearch.

• The American Genealogist - searchable, digital version made available with NEHGS membership. Some older volumes may be found through a Google search.
• Connecticut Ancestry - journal of the Connecticut Ancestry Society
• Connecticut Nutmegger - searchable, digital version made available with NEHGS membership
• The Essex Genealogist - the journal of the Essex Society of Genealogists, Lynnfield, Massachusetts.
• The Genealogist - the journal of the American Society of Genealogists, 1980- . Searchable, digital version made available with NEHGS membership through 2016.
• Mayflower Descendant - searchable, digital version made available with NEHGS membership.
• New England Historical and Genealogical Register - published by NEHGS since 1849; searchable, digital version available (free for issues over 100 years old, list maintained at familysearch.org New England Historical Genealogical Register Online) and all issues available by subscription to NEHGS members; see also WikiTree Source FSP: The New England Historical & Genealogical Register.
• New York Genealogical and Biographical Record - published by the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society
• NGS Quarterly - published by the National Genealogical Society; non-searchable PDF versions of most issues are available online to NGS members.
• Rhode Island Roots, journal of the Rhode Island Genealogical Society.

Published Colony Records

A number of vital, court, probate and even land records have been published over the years. Some of these can be found through Google Books, FamilySearch or OpenLibrary; others are available only through membership in NEHGS or Ancestry.com. Those that have been particularly helpful to PGM project volunteers include:

• Records of the colony of New Plymouth in New England
• Records of the governor and company of the Massachusetts bay in New England, often abbreviated as MBCR.
• Massachusetts Vital Records through 1850. Most towns in Massachusetts published their early vital records. While NEHGS members can search across multiple towns, individual town books are often found through [Google Books]. For example: Vital Records of Ipswich, Massachusetts. Simply Google "Vital Records" + the name of the town in Massachusetts and see what you find.

Commonly Used Sources

Vital Records to 1850

Links to the various published Massachusetts town vital records. These are the primary sources for early births, marriages and deaths.

• Free space: Massachusetts VR to 1850.

Great Migration Series & Related Publications

• Anderson, Robert Charles, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, vol. 1: A - F, (Boston: NEHGS, 1995).
• Anderson, Robert Charles, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, vol. 2: G - O, (Boston: NEHGS, 1995).
• Anderson, Robert Charles, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, vol. 3: P - W, (Boston: NEHGS, 1995).
• Anderson, Robert Charles. Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume I, A–B. (Boston: NEHGS, 1999).
• Anderson, Robert Charles. Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume II, C–F. (Boston; NEHGS, 2001).
• Anderson, Robert Charles. Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume III, G–H. (Boston: NEHGS, 2003).
• Anderson, Robert Charles. Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume IV, I–L. (Boston: NEHGS, 2005).
• Anderson, Robert Charles. Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume V, M–P. (Boston: NEHGS, 2007).
• Anderson, Robert Charles. Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume VI, R–S. (Boston: NEHGS, 2009).
• Anderson, Robert Charles. Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume VII, T–Y. (Boston; NEHGS, 2011).
• Anderson, Robert C. The Great Migration Directory: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1640: A Concise Compendium (New England Historic Genealogical Society, Great Migration Study Project, Boston, 2015)
• Anderson, Robert Charles. The Winthrop Fleet: Massachusetts Bay Company Immigrants to New England, 1629-1630. (Boston: NEHGS, 2012)
• Anderson, Robert Charles. The Pilgrim Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth Colony, 1620-1633. (Boston: NEHGS, 2004)
• Anderson, Robert Charles. The Mayflower Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth, 1620. (Boston: NEHGS, 2020)

Royal Ancestry Series

• Richardson, Douglas. Royal Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families, in 5 vols. (Salt Lake City, Utah, 2013).
• Richardson, Douglas, Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families, exp. 2nd ed. in 3 vols. (Salt Lake City, Utah, 2011).
• Richardson, Douglas. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families, exp. 2nd ed. in 4 vols, (Salt Lake City, Utah, 2011).

Essex County Courts

• Essex County Courts. Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex ... vol. 1: 1636-1656. (Salem: The Essex Institute, 1911). HathiTrust.org LINK
• Essex County Courts. Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex ... vol. 2: 1656-1662. (Salem: The Essex Institute, 1912). HathiTrust.org LINK
• Essex County Courts. Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex ... vol. 3: 1662-1667. (Salem: The Essex Institute, 1913). HathiTrust.org LINK
• Essex County Courts. Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex ... vol. 4: 1667-1671. (Salem: The Essex Institute, 1914). HathiTrust.org LINK
• Essex County Courts. Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex ... vol. 5: 1672-1674. (Salem: The Essex Institute, 1916). HathiTrust.org LINK
• Essex County Courts. Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex ... vol. 6: 1675-1678. (Salem: The Essex Institute, 1917). HathiTrust.org LINK
• Essex County Courts. Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex ... vol. 7: 1678-1680. (Salem: The Essex Institute, 1919). HathiTrust.org LINK
• Essex County Courts. Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex ... vol. 8: 1680-1683. (Salem: The Essex Institute, 1921). HathiTrust.org LINK
• Essex County Courts. Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex ... vol. 9: 1680-1683. (Salem: The Essex Institute, 1975). Online copy

Plymouth Colony Records

• Shurtleff, Nathaniel ed. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, vol. 1: Court Orders 1633-1640. (Boston, 1855). Archive.org LINK
• Shurtleff, Nathaniel ed. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, vol. 2: Court Orders 1641-1651. (Boston, 1855). familysearch.org LINK
• Shurtleff, Nathaniel ed. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, vol. 3: Court Orders 1651-1661. (Boston, 1855). Archive.org LINK
• Shurtleff, Nathaniel ed. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, vol. 4: Court Orders 1661-1668. (Boston, 1855). Archive.org LINK
• Shurtleff, Nathaniel ed. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, vol. 5: Court Orders 1668-1678. (Boston, 1856). Archive.org LINK
• Shurtleff, Nathaniel ed. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, vol. 6: Court Orders 1678-1691. (Boston, 1856). Archive.org LINK
• Shurtleff, Nathaniel ed. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, vol. 7: Judicial Acts 1636-1692. (Boston, 1857). Archive.org LINK
• Shurtleff, Nathaniel ed. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, vol. 8: Miscellaneous Records 1633-1680. (Boston, 1857). Archive.org LINK
• Pulsifer, David ed. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, vol. 9: Acts 1643-1651. (Boston, 1859). Archive.org LINK
• Pulsifer, David ed. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, vol. 10: Acts 1653-1679. (Boston, 1859). Archive.org LINK
• Pulsifer, David ed. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, vol. 11: Laws 1623-1880. (Boston, 1861). Archive.org LINK
• Pulsifer, David ed. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, vol. 12: Deeds 1620-1651. (Boston, 1861). Archive.org LINK

New England Marriages Prior to 1700

Both of the items listed below are indexes of sources related to marriages; they provide citations that show where the marriage and related sources can be found. Neither is a source, per se.

• Torrey, Clarence Almon, New England Marriages Prior to 1700, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011
• Sanborn, Melinda, Third Supplement to Torrey's New England Marriages Prior to 1700", Genealogical Publishing Company, 2003

Links to Related Wikitree Source Compilations

• England Project Reliable Sources
• Scotland Project Reliable Sources
• United States Project Reliable Sources

Unreliable Sources

The following should not be used and are subject to removal from PGM-managed profiles if found:

• User-contributed family trees, including (but not limited to):
  • Pedigree Resource File, Ancestral File and FamilyTree data on familysearch.org (if there is an actual reliable primary source on the pedigree record, that source may be cited but the overall familysearch.org pedigree or tree record is NOT a source and may not be cited).
  • Public or any other family trees from Ancestry.com including OneWorldTree and RootsWeb (OneWorldTree was replaced by public ancestry trees and RootsWeb in 2013 but OneWorldTree as a source still appears widely on the internet)
  • Geni.com
• U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900, from Yates Publishing, on Ancestry.com. See this discussion for why.
• Millennium File: "created by the Institute of Family Research to track the records of its clients and the results of its professional research. It contains more than 880,000 linked family records, with lineages from throughout the world, including colonial America, the British Isles, Switzerland, and Germany. Many of these lineages extend back to nobility and renowned historical figures. In fact, one of the things the Millennium File focuses on is linking to European nobility and royalty."
• Family Data Collections, i.e. Births, Deaths, Individual Records, [Edmund West, compiler] on Ancestry.com
• International Genealogical Index from familysearch.org "can" contain legitimately sourced records but about half of the records are "...names submitted to the Church of Jesus Christ for which no historical record collection source is known..." so the true original source must be found, IGI by itself is not acceptable.

Family Genealogies and Local Histories: Additionally, it was very popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s to publish family genealogies and local histories, including a genealogy section. These are much like the online trees of today-- their quality varies depending on the extent to which they cite their sources. Some contain accurate information-- especially about the people living within the last 50 years prior to the publication date; but many have been subsequently proven to be incomplete, inaccurate, or in a few rare cases, downright fraudulent. Absent better sources, these old published genealogies can be cited or included under "See also:". A goal of the PGM project, however, is to find more original documentation, closer to the time of the event being cited.

Four things in these early publications that should be treated with great skepticism and need to be researched further: 1) Claims of specific English origins and parents 2) Coats of arms 3) Arrival dates and 4) Names of ships they supposedly arrived on.

Related:

• Ancestry.com's database "North America, Family Histories 1500-2000," is described as: "This collection contains genealogical research privately published in nearly one thousand family history books." Researchers should use this as a finding aid, not as a source on PGM or pre-1700 profiles. However, a clue may be found in most Ancestry.com references that cite it; namely, there should be included the family history that is being referenced; e.g., "Descendants of Joe Schmoe..." Unfortunately, no page numbers are provided, so it is up to the researcher to find the reference and locate within it, what the genealogy has to say about the profiled person, determine if it adds value, and if so, cite that. Please do not list "North America, Family Histories 1500-2000" as either a cited source or even under "See also."
• Ancestry.com's database "Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s" Is an index of names of immigrants and arrival dates found in published sources. The quality of these sources varies considerably, and many have incorporated unreliable information from family and local histories. PGM Profiles instead should reference the arrival information in the Great Migration Series or Great Migration Directory.

A Note about Find-a-Grave

Find-a-Grave is a user-contributed site, and as such is generally excluded from the list of reliable sources. Please do not make changes to a profile's vitals, including identification of relations, based solely on information transcribed on a Find-a-Grave profile. The exception is that if the Find-a-Grave profile contains a photo of a contemporaneous gravestone (i.e., a gravestone created and placed at the time of the person's death) and includes information about the person's death, you can cite the Find-a-Grave profile for the death information, and for other information that appears on the gravestone. Please understand, though, that even gravestones may contain erroneous information.

Lewis Publishing and similar books

Books by Lewis Publishing Co.; Lewis Historical Publishing Co.; Cutter, William Richard (editor) eg. Example Titles: Historic homes and places and genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Genealogical and Family History of... (lots of places) Partial lists at at Archive.org and Online Books Page.

These and similar books all over the country are "pay to see your name in print" books. The genealogical sections of these books were written and placed in the books by subscription. Prominent citizens were approached and submitted biographies and money to print their biographies. At least one person paid $375 for a biography with a photo of himself. The autobiographies of the paying person, are no doubt accurate enough, although sometimes exaggerated. They also submitted pedigree information. Information on parents and grandparents that the person knew is also probably accurate, if slightly exaggerated. But... some of the pedigrees state as facts what is pure speculation. Some of the pedigrees within one volume will contradict each other. They are frequently inaccurate. The books are readily available online, so they are an easy starting place, but it is absolutely necessary to double-check every fact and every pedigree with better (closer to primary) sourcing.

The historical sections were written by legitimate historians.

• If you have a reliable source which you would like to see added to this list please leave a citation in the comments section, and project leadership will add it after doing a review.