Genealogy Continued

It was with considerable surprise and dismay that I discovered upon reading “Genealogy: The Search for a Personal Past” that no mention was made of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Founded in 1845, and now occupying a seven-story building in Boston’s Back Bay, the society is the oldest genealogical society in America. NEHGS has numbered among its founders and members many of America’s most distinguished leaders, including Presidents John Quincy Adams, Millard Fillmore, and Ulysses S. Grant. For the past 138 years NEHGS has charted the course for American genealogy and local history with its superb library, manuscript collections, and educational programs. The quarterly journal, the New England Historical and Genealogical Register , is not only the oldest continuously published historical journal in the United States, it also has established the standard format for organizing genealogical data, known as “Register style,” and has unquestionably brought into print some of the best documented and most well-conceived articles in the field of genealogy. Today NEHGS boasts a membership of sixty-five hundred—of whom more than half reside outside of the New England region—and is truly one of the outstanding family research institutions in the world.