CD-ROM: Probate Records of the Province of New Hampshire, 1635-1771

This week I used a massive collection of books all scanned and placed onto one CD-ROM disk. The "Probate Records of the Province of New Hampshire, 1635-1771" has long been a standard reference for anyone researching colonial New Hampshire ancestors.

I have spent a significant amount of time in those nine volumes myself in years past. I always had to travel to a genealogy library to access them, however. Reprints of the original books may be purchased but at prices that are a bit too expensive for most individual genealogists. Searching online, I found that a reprint of Volume 1 alone is available for about $150. I assume the prices for the other eight volumes would be about the same for a total in the neighborhood of $1,350. I don’t think I can find that much money in the piggy bank! Besides the purchase price, I am not sure where I would find room in my bookshelf at home for nine more thick, hardbound volumes.

Luckily for me and for many other New Hampshire descendants, Archive CD Books USA recently released all nine volumes on one half-ounce plastic disk. In fact, it is now possible to search all nine volumes for any word or phrase within seconds, something that is impossible with nine printed volumes. The best part is the price: $59.95 for all nine volumes.

Prior to 1641, the four towns of Portsmouth, Dover, Hampton, and Exeter were independent settlements. The place name of "New Hampshire" had not yet been invented. The towns were under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1641to 1679, when the new Province of New Hampshire was formed.

In 1881 the New Hampshire state legislature authorized the publication of all early probate records. Clerks traveled to all the towns and counties of the original Province of New Hampshire as well as to Norfolk, Essex, and Suffolk counties in Massachusetts and to York County in what became Maine. They examined all the original probate records that they could find and created abstracts for all wills and for some other important documents, such as estate distributions. Other documents, especially those including probate inventories, are presented as brief abstracts. Albert Stillman Batchellor, Editor of State Papers, was the editor of the books that were then published; he was assisted by Otis Grant Hammond and Ezra Scollay Stearns.

As soon as I received this new CD, I placed it in the drive and started using it. After all, I have a number of ancestors who died in New Hampshire during those years. I expected to find a number of wills, and I was not disappointed. Along the way, I learned a few things about the proper use of this CD.

I first went looking for Henry Dow. Without bothering to read the instructions, I entered the name of "Dow" and pressed SEARCH. I was rewarded with hundreds of "hits." In fact, there were far too many. The simple search looks for those three letters anywhere. In fact, the word "meddowes" appears hundreds of times in these volumes, and each occurrence was found within 2 or 3 seconds of my first search attempt. I found not only "Dow" but also "down," "medowes," "meddowes," "dowery," and more.

NOTE: "Medowes" was a common spelling of "meadows" in old documents. Men of colonial days often mentioned pasture land, or "medowes," in their wills.

Since my first search was a bit too successful, I broke down and read the instructions. I found that I could search by Boolean terms (exact word, approximate spelling, AND, OR, proximity, etc.) and more. I conducted the same search again, only this time I specified that "Dow" was to be a freestanding word, not a part of another word. This time I found fewer hits but still too many to be useful.

I then specified a search for "Henry Dow," my earliest New Hampshire ancestor. I was rewarded with 57 hits. One more click of the mouse, and I was immediately looking at the citation from the original books. Indeed, a few were for his will, but there were many more references to the same man as mentioned in the wills of other people. In some cases, he was a witness to someone else's will. In other places, he was mentioned as a neighbor, such as "I leave to my son the land that is adjacent to the land owned by Henry Dow."

In short, this is a great resource for anyone researching New Hampshire ancestry prior to 1772. The CD includes high-quality images of every page as originally published, not just a transcript. Not only is it much cheaper than printed books, but it is also faster and easier to use. The one CD-ROM disk consumes only a fraction of the storage space required by nine thick volumes.

The data on this disk is stored in Adobe Acrobat format, an excellent choice in my opinion. The data on this CD is completely self-contained and requires no installation and no separate software, other than the computer's operating system. This disk will work on any modern Windows, Macintosh, or Linux computer that has a CD-ROM drive installed. I even tested it on a tiny 2-pound laptop  after connecting an external CD-ROM drive  to the laptop's USB port. Everything worked well.

The "Probate Records of the Province of New Hampshire, 1635-1771" on CD-ROM sells for $59.95 and is produced by Archive CD Books USA. You can order it online by a safe and secure shopping cart system at http://www.archivecdbooksusa.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=US0291.

Comments

[Craig R. Scott, CG, President and CEO, Heritage Books, Inc.]

Sometimes one forgets that there is this little 30 year old company called Heritage Books, Inc. that publishes genealogy and history. Heritage Books published the nine volume set in paperback in 1989. In 1999 Heritage Books published CD1163, New Hampshire Provincial Probate Records, 1635 - 1771 for $49.50, the price it is today, also in Adobe Acrobat. Sorry you had to wait so long for ArchivesCD to do it for you. A little research at www.HeritageBooks.com would have revealed 26 CDs that relate to New Hampshire, with this being one of them. Heritage Books has long had CDs in print that ArchivesCD has chosen to do themselves. I don't have a problem with that, but this is not the first time that Mr. Eastman has sung their prasies for a CD that has already been in the marketplace for years. And I have been silent about it till now. Maybe he needs a new fact checker.

[Dick Eastman]

Hi Craig,

The difference is that Archive CD Books USA sent a review copy to me so that I could evaluate it myself. I do not recall ever receiving a review copy of anything from Heritage Books. I'd love to receive some. The material can be returned to you after I have written a review, if you wish.

In short, if I haven't seen it and used it, I cannot write much of a review of it.

Thanks.
- Dick Eastman

[Drew Bartley, Genealogist, editor of Mayflower Descendant and Vermont Genealogy]

As a professional librarian as well, I opt for books whenever possible. I do realize that not everyone has the space or the resources for this luxury. Fortunately, the New Hampshire State Archives stepped in for the above issue several years ago (2003). The difference is they not only reprinted the probates on CD, but the entire state papers series of 40 volumes by creating a pdf for each book. The search feature will not be as technically savvy as the products above, but you get all 40 volumes instead of the nine above. Each volume (pdf) has bookmarks for the sections and index. The images are smartly numbered so (for the most part) page 856 will actually be image 856. The best part is the state sells the two CDs for $40. Check out the review in MD 53 [2004]: 88-89 [url www.massmayflower.org/publications/md/md-contents.htm and click on the book reviews for Winter 2004]. It will give you a brief outline for what is found on each volume. The files can be uploaded to your laptop or desktop hard drive so they are handy anytime without needing the CDs. I use this all the time.

[Jackie Marshall]

You can get all 40 volumes of the New Hampshire State Papers (including the probate volumes) for free. Probate are in Volumes 31-39. Go to the New Hampshire State Archives web site to see them. http://www.sos.nh.gov/archives/nhstatepapers.html You can learn more about the New Hampshire State Papers in an excellent article by Ed Holden on the NEHGS web site at: http://www.newenglandancestors.org/education/articles/research/localities/new_hampshire/edward_holdens_article_659_10410.asp

[Larry Hamilton]

Google books is also a helpful resource to find full texts of out of copyright books. The above mentioned volumes in the title of this article are not among them, but I did find both volumes of "The History of Hillsborough, New Hampshire, 1735-1921". Now I can read about my ancestor Samuel Gibson, who helped found the town in volume one. Until now, all I had was a photocopy of the genealogical information on the pages in volume 2.

The PDFs are available for download, but are not searchable. However, one can search the full text online. Books found via Google's book search can be added to your personal "library". Be aware that this library is publicly searchable, but it a handy way to gather all the resources one finds.

In addition to the books Google has already scanned, both those scanned and not, can be searched for in library card catalogs, so one might find a library with these volumes.

I appreciate the links to all the other free resources about New Hampshire.

It is also good to be reminded of the two re-print companies, that provide a means to access the printed page.

[Bob Velke]

Dick's review focused heavily on the searching features of the CD. Although the Heritage Books CD includes a human-generated index, that is not the same as full-text search which, as Dick points out, supports AND, OR, word-proximity searches and more. The New Hampshire State Archives copies are also not searchable.

Bob Velke, CEO
Archive CD Books USA

[Dick Eastman]

In a follow-up comment: I did not earlier compare the Archive CD Books USA version against the Heritage Books version simply because I have never seen thge Heritage Books version. It's tough to compare things when you haven't yet seen one of the items.

I have since been told by several people who HAVE seen both that the Heritage Books version is not searchable by full-text using AND/OR boolean searches. You cannot search search for all occurrances of the word Henry and the word Dow and Hampton with all three words being within five words of each other. That's called a proximity search.

I assume the online version from the NH State Archives also is not searchable. That can be a major factor when searching the equivalent of nine printed volumes.

Does that make one version automatically better than another one? Certainly not. However, it is one factor you might want to evaluate before deciding where to spend your money.

- Dick Eastman

[Cindy McIntire Johnson]

Jackie M, thanks a million for that free NH State Archives link to the Probate & State Papers of early days. I have saved the e-link and the Index so I can look to see what surnames are there without having to get into the website until I am ready. Wonderful info!
Cindy