Thursday, January 25, 2018

Christmas Books from Santa 2017!

My usual Genealogy Christmas Book post is late because we were in Spain over the holidays, visiting with relatives and seeing the sites where the Rojo ancestors lived and worshipped. But, better late than never!  Here are the books Santa blessed me with this year.


The Genealogies and Estates of Charlestown: In the County of Middlesex and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1629 - 1818 by Thomas Bellows Wyman, originally published in 1879, this reprint was published by NEHGS in 2016 in two volumes, with a wonderful foreward by Roger Thompson, who has written a book on Charlestown court records. 

I have used this book in libraries, archives and also online (Archive.org) but it's great to have this book on my shelf, especially for writing up the "Surname Saturday" posts I have for my many Charlestown (and Woburn, which is a daughter town) ancestors.  I've already marked up pages and tagged several family sketches for the LARKIN and NEWELL blog posts I've written since Christmas!  This book has a list of early settlers and abstracts of real estate records. 


Making Haste from Babylon:  The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World, by Nick Bunker, 2011

I heard about this book from some of my fellow travelers on my Mayflower Historic Sites Tour of England and Holland this past autumn.  I wanted to learn more about the origins of the Pilgrims and their life as Separatists (or Brownists) in England and Leyden.  It's written by an English author, not an American.  I haven't read it yet, but I'm looking forward to learning something new.  It was written after Philbrick's Mayflower and Bangs' Strangers and Pilgrims.  


Chronicles of The Pilgrim Fathers of the Colony of Plymouth from 1602 to 1625, by Alexander Young, originally published in 1841, and republished by the New England Historic Genealogical Society in 2016. 

This book is a compilation of documents concerning the early Separatists in England and Leyden, up to the early days of the Plymouth Plantation. The documents are written by William Bradford, Edward Winslow and Robert Cushman.  Some of these documents can be found in other books I already own (Bradford's journal, Cushman's Cry of a Stone, and Winslow's Good News, etc.) 



Cry of a Stone: A Treatise Showing What is Right Matter, Form and Government of the Visible Church of Christ, by Robert Cushman,  first published in 1642 and reprinted in 2016 by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants. 

Here is another book I learned about on my trip to England and Holland, and I had also read about it in the Mayflower Quarterly magazine.  It was written in 1619 in Leyden, before the Mayflower came to New England.  It wasn't published until after Robert Cushman's death, and not recognized as being a Pilgrim book until the 20th century.  I haven't read it yet, but it is always wonderful to read primary source material written by the Pilgrims themselves.  Robert Cushman did not sail on the Mayflower, but arrived in Plymouth on board the Fortune with his son.  I'm looking forward, again, to learning more about the early life of the Separatists. 


The Pilgrim Chronicles:  An Eyewitness History of the Pilgrims and the Founding of Plymouth Colony, by Rod Gragg, 2014

Her is a book Santa found in a used book sale, and it is another compilation of documents about the Pilgrims.  It includes letters and journal accounts from England, Holland and the New World.  I have a feeling that this book duplicates some of the same things in other Pilgrim books I already own, or from the book above, Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers.  However, even if it is a duplicate effort, I have to thank Santa for thinking of me and my interest in the subject of the Pilgrims!  


New England Then and Now, by Derek Strahan, 2017

My Genealogy Santa knows I love these kinds of photo books, and I already own several similar books on Boston and other New England cities.  This kind of book shows side by side comparisons of New England scenes, with an antique photo on one side, and a modern photo on the next page. Sometimes the scenes are strikingly similar, and sometimes the scene is glaringly different.  I especially enjoy seeing how street scenes and neighborhoods I know intimately looked 100 years ago.  Thanks, Santa!



New England Rooms, 1639 - 1863, by Samuel Chamberlain and Narcissa G. Chamberlain, originally published 1972, reprinted in 1993. 

Here is another Christmas book bought at a used book sale just for fun!  My genealogy Santa loves to look at architectural books of interiors and exteriors, such as Wallace Nutting's books, and other books of sketches and photographs.  This one has many houses I've toured, which makes it fun, such as Beauport in Gloucester, Massachusetts; The Derby House in Salem, Massachusetts; or the Longfellow House in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  Thanks again, Santa!

Christmas Books 2016:

Christmas Books 2015:

Christmas Books 2014:


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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Christmas Books from Santa 2017!", Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 25, 2018, (   https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/01/christmas-books-from-santa-2017.html: accessed [access date]).

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