Frequently Asked Questions - FAQ's

A map of early Londonderry from Willey's Book of Nutfield

Frequently Asked Questions

(see the answers below)

1.  Can you look up X for me?

2.  Who were the first Nutfield Grantees?

3.  Can the Londonderry Historical Society help me?

4.  Can the Derry Historical Society help me?

5.  When did Nutfield become Londonderry, Derry or Windham? 

6.  Was Derryfield part of Nutfield?

7.  My Scots Irish ancestors lived briefly in Londonderry, and then moved on.  Where did they go?

1.  Can you look up X for me?

The following books are all available at the Leach Library in Londonderry, the McGregor Library in Derry, and in other public and genealogical libraries.   Some are also available online, so you can look up your own ancestors yourself in most cases. If you still cannot find your ancestors, be aware that the early records are skimpy and incomplete.  I can try to suggest other resources if you have exhausted all these.

History of Londonderry, by Rev. Edward Lutwyche Parker, 1851 (includes genealogies in the back) and is available online at the Internet Archive, Google Book Search, and the Hathi Trust for free.  Also at Ancestry with a subscription.

Vital Records of Londonderry, by Daniel Annis Gage, 1914 (covers 1719 – 1910) available at the Internet Archive and the Hathi Trust websites for free.  Also available at the Ancestry website with a subscription. There is also a PDF at the Pelham Library website http://www.pelhamnhhistory.org/library/pdffiles/neighbors/vitalrecords/LondonderryVitalRecords.pdf

History of Windham, NH: 1719 – 1883, by Leonard Allison Morrison, 1883 available at Internet Archive and at Ancestry (subscription only)

Willey’s Book of Nutfield, by George Franklyn Willey, 1895  available at Internet Archive and the Hathi Trust websites.

Family Search also has the vital records of the state of New Hampshire available online. These are the scanned images of the same cards you see at the Vital Records office in Concord, New Hampshire.  The link to these collections is:  https://familysearch.org/search/collection/location/41?region=United+States+of+America&englishRegion=United+States+of+America  

2.  Who were the first Nutfield Grantees?

From The history of Londonderry : comprising the towns of Derry and Londonderry, NH, by Rev. Edward L. Parker, 1851, ( page 423) "Those who first composed the settlement [of Londonderry NH], were the following sixteen men and their families namely--James McKeen, John Barnett, Archibald Clendenin, John Mitchell, James Sterrett, James Anderson, Randal Alexander, James Gregg, James Clark, James Nesmith, Allen Anderson, Robert Weir, John Morrison, Samuel Allison, Thomas Steele and John Stuart.”

3.  Can the Londonderry Historical Society help me?

If you contact the Londonderry Historical Society you will get me!  http://www.londonderryhistory.org/  I do the genealogy look ups for LHS.  Here is the “canned letter” you will receive with your request:

“Genealogy Requests from the Londonderry Historical Society:  We will do a lookup in two published volumes for the names you submit:

1.)    The Londonderry Vital Records, 1722 – 1910

2.)    The History of Londonderry by Rev. E. L. Parker, 1851

If you need more information you can come to the Londonderry Leach Library’s historical room and search through our town records, cemetery files, and other books. Here are additional places where you can find more genealogy information on your ancestors

1)      The New Hampshire Vital Records, 71 South Fruit Street, Concord, NH

2)      The New Hampshire State Library, 20 Park Street, Concord, NH

3)      The New Hampshire Historical Society Library, 30 Park Street, Concord, NH has their catalog online at http://nhhistory.library.net/

4)      Familysearch.org has NH vital records (free online) births to 1900, deaths to 1959, marriages to 1959, and other records https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list?page=1&countryId=41

5)      The Rockingham County deeds are online http://www.nhdeeds.com/rockingham/RoHome.html

If you need to hire a researcher to look up records for you, please consult the website for the Association of Professional Genealogists APG https://www.apgen.org/ and search by location for New Hampshire”

4.  Can the Derry Historical Society help me?

There is no Historical Society in Derry at this time.  However, the volunteers at the Derry History Museum http://www.derryhistorymuseum.org/ and the Derry Town Historian http://www.derrynh.org/discover-derry/pages/history-derry  can answer your queries. 

5.  When did Nutfield become Londonderry, Derry or Windham? 

Nutfield was the name of the original grant of land given to the Scots Irish settlers with Rev. James MacGregor in 1719.  They received a charter to this grant in 1722 and called the town Londonderry.  In 1721 the settlers in what is now Windham (south of Londonderry) petitioned for their own town, which was granted in 1742.  The eastern part of town was set off as the town of Derry in 1827.  Small portions of Manchester, Salem and Hudson (Nottingham West) were once part of Londonderry, too.   If your ancestor was born in Londonderry, NH in 1740, you should search the records of Londonderry, Derry, Windham and Manchester. 

6.  Was Derryfield part of Nutfield?

Derryfield was chartered at a meeting house on the Derry Road (now Mammoth Road) in 1751. It included the land originally settled in 1722 by John Goffe III and called Harry’s Town.  The first settlers here were John Goffe, Edward Lingfield and Benjamin Kidder. This area was later called Tyngstown and was west of Derryfield. The entire area was renamed Manchester in 1810, the same year the Amoskeag mill was built on the Merrimack River.   Part of Derryfield was originally within the Nutfield grant, and part of it was expanded with the 1751 incorporation.   The land north of Harrytown and Amoskeag Village was ungranted, and was not annexed to Derryfield until 1792 (the year the corporation for the proprietors of the Amoskeag Bridge was formed). 

7.  My Scots Irish ancestors lived briefly in Londonderry, and then moved on.  Where did they go?

The Scots Irish who came to Londonderry did not leave good records.  The vital records are skimpy, and the church records (Presbyterian) are incomplete.  The Scots Irish tended to settle with other Scots Irish – they kept to themselves and intermarried.  Some of the settlers spread out to Derryfield, Litchfield, Bedford, Antrim, Dublin, and Dunbarton in New Hampshire (note the Irish names?).  Some left to form Londonderry, Nova Scotia and Londonderry, Vermont.  Others traveled all along the Appalachian mountain chain or Atlantic seaboard and can be found in Pennsylvania (which had the largest number of Scots Irish) and other places where other Scots Irish settled.

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Frequently Asked Questions - FAQ's", Nutfield Genealogy, posted October 17, 2016, (http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/10/frequently-asked-questions-faqs.html: accessed [access date]).