A genealogist must have the patience of Job; the curiosity of a cat; the stubbornness of a mule; the eyesight of an eagle; be blessed with the luck of the Irish and have the ability and stamina of a camel to go long hours without food or drink." (The Herald, Vol. 18, No. 3 & 4; 1995)

Vermont Readings

Vermont Land Records Early land records resulting from Benning Wentworth's grants will be found in volume 26 of the New Hampshire State Papers, a list of the grantees being appended to the name of each town.

Many petitions of New York grantees are given in volume four of E.B. O'Callaghan's Documentary History of New York which contains more than 500 pages of Vermont records, many of genealogical importance. Some of the petitions constitute virtual censuses of the several towns.

Vermont land grants are indexed in volume II of the printed State Papers of Vermont and New York Charters are treated similarly in volume VII. Extensive information and names are included in volume VI, relating to the sequestration and confiscation of lands and estates during the Revolution. Petitions for land are printed and indexed in volume VII. Volume V, VI and VII are the work of Mrs. Mary Greene Nye, who has also compiled a monumental and nearly unique name and subject card index to the manuscript state papers in the Office of the Secretary of State.

Land records help to determine relationships and are useful in tracing migration. In Vermont today, land records are kept in the offices of town clerks, most of them with indexes of grantees and grantors. About 1810 one finds a land census giving approximate place of residence. These may be followed up in the land records of neighboring plots. Vermont land records with other town records were carefully inventoried by the Historical Records Survey.

Mimeographed bound inventories, accompanied by an introductory historical sketch, were issued for several towns before the Survey dissolved in 1943. Copies are in the Vermont Historical Society. The manuscript inventories for other towns were deposited with the Vermont Historical Society, and constitute an invaluable central reference file from which can be discovered the type, extent and condition of the records of any town in the state. There is a guide to the use of the files, compiled by Henry H. Eddy, last Director of the Survey.

Land records, as summarized above, span from the earliest days to the present time in published and unprinted sources. In similar form other records exist that are fundamental to the validity of genealogical research: town, probate, birth, marriage, death, church and cemetery.

by Mary Childs

For those who want to track down their ancestors but are at a loss as to how to go about it; we are publishing this helpful guide to the amateur. To provide a convenient checklist of genealogical guides, the foot notes have been grouped at the end. This is the work of Miss Mary Childs Nerney. EDITOR

...follows a trail through records in their original has all the lure of the chase. One never can foresee what may turn up. To illustrate-names of entire families down to the hired man may often be found in the "warnings" of early town records. This procedure apparently was routine in Vermont when the father and husband, i.e. the bread winner, died, even if he left property. In these cases frequently subsequent records show that the "warned" continued to reside in town, a circumstance suggesting that the "warning" to leave town had no reference to the desirability of the "warned" as residents but constituted a public notice that the town would not be responsible for the support of the widow and fatherless children.

...is a statewide survey of all cemeteries and burial grounds, with related information and maps of each town, showing the name, location, period of use and approximate number of burials. To order one of these books, please contact Charels Marchant, P.O. Box 132, Townshend, Vt. 05353. Make check or money order payable to VOCA for $22.50 per book. Please include a pre-addressed mailing label. This book is published by the Vermont Old Cemetery Association which is a nonprofit organization founded in 1958 to encourage the restoration and preservation of neglected and abandoned cemeteries in the State of Vermont.