Expert Insights: Unraveling the Genealogy of Colonial and Early American Ancestors
Are your ancestors from America who witnessed the signing of the Declaration of Independence or first shots fired during the American Revolution –or even earlier?
Lindsay Fulton, staff genealogist at the New England Historic Genealogical Society, specializes in researching Colonial and Early American ancestors as a career. In this Q&A she shared some helpful resources for tracking ancestors from this period:
Q: What are the primary challenges associated with researching Colonial-era and early American histories?
Common challenges can include:
Genealogists often face difficulty when trying to ascertain an ancestor’s parents and maiden name of his or her mother; so often genealogists discover first names of female ancestors but cannot pinpoint a maiden name; often this requires extensive “cluster study” research with original records.
Birth or origin location of one’s earliest known ancestor can often be difficult to ascertain due to lack of documentation from 17th and 18th century passenger lists, therefore researchers must rely on alternative records in order to ascertain its country of origin.
Q: How can you verify whether an ancestor served in the American Revolution? To confirm whether your relative served during this conflict, first determine their town (or state of service). If any Revolutionary War records exist for them, these should be filed in their state of service. Furthermore, you should search specific record collections related to it such as:
