Researching Colonial American Ancestors
There are fifty nifty United States from which we can trace our heritage, but of those, only Thirteen Original Colonies pre-date American Independence. If your ancestors jumped ship for the New World, this crash course in Colonial American genealogy may be just the ticket.
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Tyler Moss
Online Editor
Family Tree University
Note from the Dean
Having roots in Colonial America is both a source of pride and frustration: How awesome that your ancestors have been on American soil so long and helped shape the direction of our country-but how difficult to trace them in centuries-old, unfamiliar and often-incomplete records.
The one-week course Researching Colonial American Ancestors is designed to help solve that problem by quickly jump-starting your Colonial ancestor search. This course is self-led and contains both video and written materials, including the 60-minute video “25 Tips for Finding Your Colonial Ancestors.”
Unlike other Family Tree University courses that begin on a set date, this course begins as soon as you register! You’ll have immediate access for 7 days. For those 7 days, you’ll be able to interact on the message boards, ask questions of the instructor, and read or view all course materials. All course materials are also available for download in the course, so you can keep a copy of everything in case you don’t have time to go through everything during your 7 days of access. Sign up today!
Top Tools for Tracing Colonial Ancestors
Course Details: Researching Colonial Ancestors
Date: Course Starts as Soon as You Sign Up!
Length: 1 week
Contains: Videos & Written Articles
Price: $59.99
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During colonial times, the federal government didn’t yet exist to count heads, so each of the original 13 Colonies had its own mix of censuses and other lists that substitute for censuses. But you can’t count on schedules every 10 years, and you may have to dig a little to find them.
Several Web sites serve up Colonial census data, though in most cases, you’ll pay for the convenience. Ancestry.com’s US Records Collection offers a few early censuses, including the 1776 Maryland and 1774 Rhode Island counts. Check the two “unofficial” USGenWeb census projects at <www.us-census.org> and < www.rootsweb.com/~census> for free listings.
As this colony-by-colony census rundown shows, printed resources are more plentiful – just not as readily accessible. Unless otherwise noted, the following titles are out of print. But you can get many on FHL microfilm, from Virginia in 1624 right up through the 1776 census of Maryland.
Connecticut: Connecticut 1670 Census by Jay Mack Holbrook (Holbrook Research Institute) has a reconstructed census of more than 2,300 heads of families.
Delaware: Census records exist for 1665 to 1697, along with a 1693 count of Swedes living in Delaware and parts of nearby Colonies.
Georgia: There’s no census, but settlers from 1733 to 1747 are in A List of the Early Settlers of Georgia by E. Merton Coulter and Albert B. Saye (Genealogical Publishing Co.). It’s on a CD, as well, and in Genealogy Library.
Maryland: 1776 Census of Maryland by Bettie Stirling Carothers (self-published) has an index covering most counties.
Massachusetts: You won’t rind a Colonial census, but there’s a 1707 Boston census substitute (in Ancestry.com’s “A Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston Containing Miscellaneous Papers”) and a 1771 tax valuation list.
New Hampshire: Censuses from 1767 and 1775 are available, plus Jay Mack Holbrook’s New Hampshire Residents, 1633-1699 (Holbrook Research Institute).
New Jersey: Census records from 1726, 1738, 1745 and 1772 were destroyed. Instead, check New Jersey Tax Lists, 1772-1822 edited by Ronald Vern Jackson (Accelerated Indexing Systems).
New York: The colony took a census every 10 years from 1690 on, though some records have been lost. You’ll find an index and transcriptions in Carol M. Meyers’ Early New York State Census Records, 1663-1772 (RAM Publishers).
North Carolina: Though there aren’t any Colonial censuses, Ronald Vern Jackson collected tax and other lists from the 1680s on in Early North Carolina (Accelerated Indexing Systems).
Pennsylvania: No Colonial census records exist-use tax lists and land records as substitutes. Try the Secretary of the Land Office’s Rent Rolls, 1703-1744 on FHL microfilm, and The Pennsylvania Archives, 3rd series, volumes 11 to 22, by the General Assembly (J. Severns).
Rhode Island: Look for the 1730, 1747 to 1755, 1774 and 1776 censuses in Rhode Island Census, 1740-1890 by Ronald Vera Jackson (Accelerated Indexing Systems).
South Carolina: Colonial censuses were destroyed. Use Citizens and Immigrants: South Carolina, 1768 by Mary Bondurant Warren (Heritage Papers) as a substitute.
Virginia: Much of the 1624 census is in the two-volume Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607-1624/5, 4th edition, edited by John Frederick Dorman (Genealogical Publishing Co.). For later years, use Virginia in 1720: A Reconstructed Census (TLC Genealogy). Similar volumes cover 1740 and 1760.
Settlers in areas not among the original 13 Colonies were enumerated in Alabama (1706, 1721 and 1725), Maine (1771 tax list), Tennessee (1770 to 1790 tax lists) and Vermont (1771 substitute). For information, see the FHL research outline for each state; they’re on Family Search under Research Guidance.
Learn more in the week-long course Researching Colonial American Ancestors.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN
• How to understand colonial borders, using maps to trace migration paths
• How to use statewide and regional compilations for colonial research
• How to use genealogical periodicals to look for record extracts and research updates
• How to use Google Books and the Internet Archive to find free published materials
• How to find your colonial ancestors in church records, court records, passenger lists, probate records, land records and military records
REGISTER https://www.familytreeuniversity.com/courses/researching-colonial-american-ancestors?utm_source=email&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftu-tma-nl-150526-Colonial-Ancestors&et_mid=754386&rid=250619605
Researching Colonial American Ancestors
Register for Research Colonial American Ancestors today!
