Genealogical Encyclopedia of the Colonial Americas


Book Description

Covers the period of colonial history from the beginning of European colonization in the Western Hemisphere up to the time of the American Revolution.




Early New England


Book Description

The idea of covenant was at the heart of early New England society. In this singular book David Weir explores the origins and development of covenant thought in America by analyzing the town and church documents written and signed by seventeenth-century New Englanders. Unmatched in the breadth of its scope, this study takes into account all of the surviving covenants in all of the New England colonies. Weir's comprehensive survey of seventeenth-century covenants leads to a more complex picture of early New England than what emerges from looking at only a few famous civil covenants like the Mayflower Compact. His work shows covenant theology being transformed into a covenantal vision for society but also reveals the stress and strains on church-state relationships that eventually led to more secularized colonial governments in eighteenth-century New England. He concludes that New England colonial society was much more "English" and much less "American" than has often been thought, and that the New England colonies substantially mirrored religious and social change in Old England.




New Jersey, a Guide to Its Present and Past


Book Description

compiled and written by the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of New Jersey ... Sponsored by the Public Library of Newark and the New Jersey Guild Associates.







Broome, Latourette, and Mercereau Families of New York and Connecticut


Book Description

Broome, LaTourette, and Mercereau Families of New York and Connecticut If you have a connection to Staten Island, New York, you probably have a connection to these families. The LaTourette and Mercereau families came separately to Staten Island from France in the late 17th century. They were French Huguenots who left France for religious freedom and were among the small number of early settlers on Staten Island. There were a lot of intermarriages between the LaTourette and Mercereau families and with the other Staten Island families, such as Broome, Chadrayne, Corsen, Doucinet, Lake, Poillon, and Vanderbilt. Later generations went further afield, though not very far to Manhattan Island (New York City), Long Island, upstate New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut to include Barnard, Chetwood, Fay, Gould, Jarvis, LaGrange, Phelps, Platt, and Smith. And still later, they included other families in other states. This book tells the stories of these early American settlers and their descendants. Even if you dont know of a connection to Staten Island, you may find a connection to a later descendant. And you will learn about early difficulties and successes of these pioneers.




The Family Tree Sourcebook


Book Description

The one book every genealogist must have! Whether you're just getting started in genealogy or you're a research veteran, The Family Tree Sourcebook provides you with the information you need to trace your roots across the United States, including: • Research summaries, tips and techniques, with maps for every U.S. state • Detailed county-level data, essential for unlocking the wealth of records hidden in the county courthouse • Websites and contact information for libraries, archives, and genealogical and historical societies • Bibliographies for each state to help you further your research You'll love having this trove of information to guide you to the family history treasures in state and county repositories. It's all at your fingertips in an easy-to-use format–and it's from the trusted experts at Family Tree Magazine!




Major Robert Farmar of Mobile


Book Description

Major Robert Farmar of Mobile recreates the life and times of an 18th-century American whose family was prominent in the early settlement of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Born in 1717 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Farmar sought his fortune in the British Army and led a company in the unfortunate Cartagena expedition, on which most Americans sickened and died. Having survived that experience, Farmar went to London, obtained a regular Army commission and fought in the bloody battles in Flanders from 1745 to 1748. He was ordered to occupy French Mobile in 1763, and in 1765 he led a successful ascent of the Mississippi River to occupy Fort Chartres in the Illinois country. He later became a prominent citizen of Mobile, Alabama.




Citizen Explorer


Book Description

It was November 1806. The explorers had gone without food for one day, then two. Their leader, not yet thirty, drove on, determined to ascend the great mountain. Waist deep in snow, he reluctantly turned back. But Zebulon Pike had not been defeated. His name remained on the unclimbed peak-and new adventures lay ahead of him and his republic. In Citizen Explorer, historian Jared Orsi provides the first modern biography of this soldier and explorer, who rivaled contemporaries Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Born in 1779, Pike joined the army and served in frontier posts in the Ohio River valley before embarking on a series of astonishing expeditions. He sought the headwaters of the Mississippi and later the sources of the Arkansas and Red Rivers, which led him to Pike's Peak and capture by Spanish forces. Along the way, he met Aaron Burr and General James Wilkinson; Auguste and Pierre Couteau, patriarchs of St. Louis's most powerful fur-trading family, who sought to make themselves indispensible to Jefferson's administration; as well as British fur-traders, Native Americans, and officers of the Spanish empire, all of whom resisted the expansion of the United States. Through Pike's life, Orsi examines how American nationalism thinned as it stretched west, from the Jeffersonian idealism on the Atlantic to a practical, materialist sensibility on the frontier. Surveying and gathering data, Pike sought to incorporate these distant territories into the republic, to overlay the west with the American map grid; yet he became increasingly dependent for survival on people who had no attachment to the nation he served. He eventually died in that service, in a victorious battle in the War of 1812. Written from an environmental perspective, rich in cultural and political context, Citizen Explorer is a state-of-the-art biography of a remarkable man.




New Jersey Encyclopedia


Book Description

NEW JERSEY ENCYCLOPEDIA is the definitive reference work on New Jersey ever published. The noted New Jersey historian Chad E. Leinaweaver, Director of the Library and Museum Collection for the New Jersey Historical Society, has written articles on Introduction to New Jersey History, Early History of New Jersey, and New Jersey History. These articles cover the history of New Jersey, from the early explorers to twenty-first century events. Other major sections in this reference work are New Jersey Symbols and Designations, Geography and Topography of New Jersey, Profiles of New Jersey Governors, Chronology of New Jersey Historic Events, Dictionary of New Jersey Places, New Jersey Constitution, Bibliography of New Jersey Books, Pictorial Scenes of New Jersey, State Executive Offices, State Agencies, Departments and Offices, New Jersey Senators, New Jersey Assembly Members, U.S. Senators and U.S. Congress members from New Jersey, Directory of New Jersey Historic Places and Index.NEW JERSEY ENCYCLOPEDIA contains stunning photographs and portraits to compliment the expertly written text. Population charts are arranged alphabetically by city or town name, and by county. This allows students easy access to find population figures for their area of interest. Other population charts list all places in New Jersey by largest populated places to least populated places by city or county. Directories contain the information on elected state and federal officials along with their contact information including mail and email addresses, phone and fax numbers. Easy to use reference maps are included to find your elected state or federal officials. The Directory of State Services lists the head officials and full contact information on state agencies and departments, some of which were just newly created by the legislature. The Directory of New Jersey Historic Places contains all the latest up to date information on every New Jersey historic place. The Bibliography includes that latest books published on New Jersey. A detailed Index makes the work thoroughly referential. NEW JERSEY ENCYCLCOPEDIA offers librarians, teachers and students a single source reference work that provides the answers to the most frequently asked questions about New Jersey and its history.