Hello List!
Bill Quinn sent me an email that really shows how much the old research material is being
put on line and for free use.
This material is of great help to Carpenter researchers and also for our related lines.
Bill cites the source of the email as:
Dale H. Cook, Member, NEHGS and MA Society of Mayflower Descendants;
Plymouth Co. MA Coordinator for the USGenWeb Project
Administrator of
http://plymouthcolony.net
Thank You Bill for sharing this!
John R. Carpenter
La Mesa, CA
Carpenter Cousins Project
http://carpentercousins.com/
Family Search
http://familysearch.org/
On Jun 3, 2013, at 10:47 AM, Bill Quinn <wrquinn(a)comcast.net> wrote:
Hi Gene and John,
Have you seen this?
Some of the most valuable resources for researchers of early Bristol County families are
now available at
FamilySearch.org - page images of the Plymouth Colony records of probates
and deeds.
The original Plymouth Colony records were, in 1818, separated, repaired, and rebound as
23 volumes (plus two index volumes). Among the records of most interest to researchers are
the four volumes of probate records (long referred to as "Old Colony Wills") and
the six volumes of land records (long referred to as "Old Colony Deeds").
The probate records, in one set of images, are at:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1961-31878-2594-10?...
The land records are in three sets of images, volume 1 (1624-1651) at:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1971-36174-9033-56?...
Volumes 2-4 (1651-1681) at:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-36172-1664-6?c...
And volumes 5-6 (1681-1699) at:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1951-36174-7788-90?...
Parts of those records have been transcribed or abstracted and published, but the page
images are the only complete versions of those volumes available online.
Seventeenth-century writing can be difficult to read for those of us in the twenty-first
century. I would suggest that newcomers to seventeenth-century hands should arm themselves
with a good guide to colonial handwriting, and practice reading the page images
side-by-side with quality published transcriptions such as those by George Ernest Bowman
in Mayflower Descendant, in order to gain proficiency in accurately reading those images.
I have compiled a guide to the four volumes of probate records, which serves as an index
to the page images of those records and includes references to published transcriptions
and abstracts of those records. Also included are references to published probate records
not found in the page images. One example is the 1621 will of William Mullins, which is
not found in the Colony records, but which survives in the records of the Prerogative
Court of Canterbury, now in the National Archives in London. Transcriptions of that will
have been published in at least three places, as cited in my guide, which also includes
citations to transcriptions and abstracts of other probate records not found in the Colony
records.
The guide (as well as my earlier index to the published volumes of Colony records) is
available at:
http://plymouthcolony.net/resources/pcr.html
I am currently working on a similar guide to the Colony land records.
Dale H. Cook, Member, NEHGS and MA Society of Mayflower Descendants;
Plymouth Co. MA Coordinator for the USGenWeb Project
Administrator of
http://plymouthcolony.net
Bill Quinn
wrquinn(a)comcast.net
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