Favorite Offline Repositories in Massachusetts

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Permalink Reply by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on July 21, 2009 at 8:37pm

My very favorite place is the New England Historic Genealogical Society on Newbury Street in Boston. I've been a member for more than 15 years. You can also get a day pass to use the library. Most of the classes are free. If you join you can use their GIANT internet site.

Second favorite is the Philips library in Salem, which is good if you have Essex County ancestors, or maritime history to investigate.

Third would be the Antiquarian Society in Worcester- loads of antique newspapers, ephemera and books going back to colonial times. This is where I started my genealogy research in the 1970 because I was too young to drive, and I could get there by bike! A big genealogy section in the reading room.

Next would be the Mass. Archives in Columbia Point, Boston, followed by the Mass Historical Society in Boston and the Federal Archives in Waltham. Also useful are the genealogy experts at the local libraries where your Massachusetts ancestors lived, and you can often contact them by phone or mail if you can't get around to all the individual townships.

Permalink Reply by September McCarthy on July 22, 2009 at 5:45am

Excellent list, Heather! I am also a member of NEHGS and for those who don't live in MA, I would add that there is so much more there that is not available through their website, that you could spend a month there and not have time to look at everything. My experience has been that everyone there, as well as at the other locations you mention, are extremely helpful and knowledgable.

One place I would add which is just a few blocks from NEHGS and is often overlooked, is the Boston Public Library. They are a wonderful source of information, and have a spectacular image/maps/photographs archive. If it is your first visit, you have to fill out a short application and be issued a card, but that is right on the first floor near the entrance, and doesn't take long at all.

Permalink Reply by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on July 24, 2009 at 9:13am

Yes, I've often gone over to the BPL from NEHGS to use the newspaper archives and their collection of patent information (I had an ancestor who was an inventor, and the staff at NEHGS sent me over to make copies of some patent applications!) And right on Boylston Street is the Massachusetts Historical Society, which has a huge repository of letters and family papers (maybe from someone in your family tree?). All this within blocks of each other! A little further away is the Atheneum, which was useful to me because some of my ancestors used to live right in Boston (one worked at the Atheneum in the 1700's!) and also the Congregational library both on Beacon Hill, which also has records on line. If your ancestors were missionaries or ministers remember that the Congregational church used to be the Puritan church in colonial times.