Batchelder Family Do Over Part 3

The New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord, New Hampshire

This is part 3 of a series (see below for the links to parts 1 and 2 )

We arrived at the New Hampshire Historical Society Library in Concord very early one Saturday to look at the collected papers and manuscripts of Charles Hull Batchelder (1876 – 1948).  His lifetime work on the genealogical research of the BATCHELDER family was held in eleven storage boxes.  He died before he could publish his book, which was a revision of Frederick C. Pierce’s compiled genealogy of the Batchelder family published in 1898. 

I was dismayed when I saw the large number of big boxes, and even more dismayed when I saw how much paperwork was stored in each box!  According to the Lane library website “196 handwritten notebooks in five boxes, handwritten and typed correspondence in four boxes, about 2000 handwritten family group sheets in one box, and about 10,000 individual handwritten index cards in one box”.   Fortunately, I had spent a lot of time reading Carl W. Brage’s 1985 manuscript from the Lane Library in Hampton, New Hampshire, which was a collection of four or five generations of C. H. Batchelder’s work. I was looking for Jonathan Batchelder (about 1800 – 1847), my 4^th great grandfather.

From studying Brage’s work, we had figured out the numbering system for C.H. Batchelder’s notes.  I knew we were looking for Jonathan Batchelder, who was probably #32,213  (See the previous blog post HERE ).  One of the boxes held note cards on almost 10,000 individuals, so we found the card with this number.  Another box held family group sheets using this same numbering system, so it was easy to find Jonathan’s family group sheet.  Thank goodness that C. H. Batchelder was such a meticulous note keeper and genealogist.  Once you know his secret code, it is much easier to navigate the boxes of notes!

Next to each line on the group sheet and across the bottom of the family group sheet were mysterious lines more code numbers.  It took a while to figure out what these numbers could mean.  Each number looked like this “109-28&30” or “167-28 to 30”.   After looking through the boxes we could see that the first number in each code was a notebook, and the second set of numbers was the page.  C.H. Batchelder had numbered every note book (or bundle of notes) and numbered each page in that notebook.  Some of these notebooks were collections of letters, others were transcribed records from deeds, newspapers, vital records, and other official records.  These numbers were his proofs or sources for the dates and notes for each person on his family group sheets.

Finding these notebooks was a bit tricky.  Although each box was labeled with the numbers of the notebooks it held, finding the proper notebook was trickier.  These were fragile, old notebooks that were falling apart.  In most boxes the notebooks were all different sizes, from small 3” x 5” notepads to larger book.  Some of them were wrapped in butcher paper so the pages wouldn’t fall out. Others were tied with ribbon.  We had to carefully remove each notebook while looking for the one we wanted from the codes.  Then we had to carefully find the page numbers.  Then replace all the books back into the box.  It took a long time to find all the relevant notes for Jonathan.

After finding Jonathan, I knew who his parents were, and the search started all over again.  We found his parent’s group sheet (Nathaniel Batchelder (1763 – 1809) and Mary Perkins). We carefully photographed that sheet, and then searched for all the notes.  Then I moved on to Jonathan’s son, George (1822- 1848), my 3^rd great grandfather.  Then George, Jr. (1848 – 1914), born posthumously, my great great grandfather. I had time to photograph Jonathan’s grandfather’s family group sheet (Nathaniel (17320 1778) and his wife Mary Longfellow), his great grandfather’s information (Stephen Batchelder (1701 – 1748/9) and Jane Lamprey), and his 2x great grandfather’s sheet (Stephen Batchelder (1675/6- 1748) and Mary Dearborn. The notes for all these generations would have to wait for another trip because it was too time consuming, even though it was very illuminating!

Family Group Sheet for Jonathan Batchelder, my 4th great grandfather

"Notebook 154" was not a book,
but a stack of lined paper,
wrapped in craft paper, tied
with a ribbon. 

Code 154-227 meant book 154, page 227
A note which was a transcription from
probate describing a debt based on a wager
"some trick with a pack of cards"

Notebook 2

A family group sheet for Nathaniel Batchelder, my 5th great grandfather,
Lots of notes here, all backed up with proofs from records in the storage boxes

What a treasure trove we found in C. H. Batchelder’s boxes of notes!  He had collected all this information by hand on thousands of individuals, combing through archives, deeds, probate records, vital and church records, and newspapers all before the invention of the computer or the internet.  He had invented his own system for organizing all this information without the use of an electronic database. I am amazed and thankful for this man’s attention to detail on this branch of my family tree.

Over time, I eventually combed through enough of the papers at the NH Historical Society to confirm my new lineage.  I'll outline that in my next post!

Stay tuned!

If you missed the previous posts....

Click here for  Part 1 

Click here for  Part 2


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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Batchelder Family Do Over  Part 3", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 13, 2018, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/09/batchelder-family-do-over-part-3.html: accessed [access date]).