If you have been researching colonial New England ancestry for some time, you
may have used one of the greatest genealogy resources: Clarence Almon Torrey’s
"New England Marriages Prior to 1700," a massive twelve-volume manuscript.
As you might imagine, a reference of this size is too expensive
for most genealogists who would like to purchase their own copy. Now, thanks
to the New England Historic Genealogical Society, you can probably afford the
new electronic version, released last week. Not only is it cheaper, but it is
also easier to search than the original—and you don’t have to
buy several feet of shelving to hold it!
I had a chance to use this new CD-ROM this week. In fact, I spent
a lot of time with it as I found many of my ancestors mentioned in it. I must
admit that I already scoured the original version years ago, but I found it
much easier and less confusing to use the electronic version this week. My only
regret is that this CD-ROM was not available when I started in genealogy.
Quoting from the CD-ROM’s "Introduction," written
by David Curtis Dearborn, NEHGS Reference Librarian:
"Torrey," or Torrey’s Marriage Index, as it’s
often called, is a compilation of approximately 37,000 known or presumed
marriages that occurred prior to 1700, arranged alphabetically by groom.
The work is so huge and so comprehensive (it is estimated that 99 percent
of all marriages are included), that it has become one of the principal
resources for seventeenth-century New England genealogy. Indeed, the usage
of "Torrey" to refer both to the creator and to the work itself
places it within that exclusive genealogical lexicon of by-names that includes
"Savage," "Pope," and "Filby."
Many readers are familiar with, or even own, a copy of the
printed version of Torrey. In 1985, Genealogical Publishing Company published
the list of marriages, without the all-important references, in a single
volume of over a thousand pages (two supplements, containing references
to marriages discovered after Torrey’s time, have since been published).
When the book was prepared, it was decided that the references shouldn’t
be included because of the time that it would take to do a faithful transcription
and the cost involved, and also because the resulting text would be too
massive to market at a cost considered acceptable by the public. Nonetheless,
despite the drawback of not including the references, Torrey’s New
England Marriages Prior to 1700, with over 7000 sales, has proven to be
one of the most popular genealogical books of the past fifteen years.
Dearborn goes on at some length to explain Torrey’s presentation
of information; a sort of "genealogy shorthand" meant to keep the
volumes to a reasonable size. For instance, here is one reference that I looked
at:
EASTMAN, Roger (1610-1694) & Sarah [SMITH?] (1621-1698);
by 1640(1?); Salisbury {NYGBR 46:62; Frame-Dana 289; Reg. 21:229, 87:379,
89:365; Newell Anc. 173, 174; Dawes-Gates 1:542; Dodge Anc. (1896) 84; Woodstock
4:616; Pillsbury Anc. 103, 112; Salisbury Fam. 1:141; Hadley Fam. 47; Corbin
28; Eastman 1:7; Stickney Anc. #1834; Essex Ant. 2:133; Tracy (1936) 172;
NYGBR 46:62}
This example says that Roger Eastman and Sarah, with a possible
maiden name of Smith, were wed by 1640. However, Torrey had doubts about that
maiden name, as indicated by the brackets and the question mark. The words "by
1640(1?)" says that the couple’s first child was born in 1640 or 1641
so Torrey infers that the couple was wed by that time. In other words, he found
no records of the actual marriage and simply assumed it had occurred in advance
of the birth of their first child. The word "Salisbury" refers to
the town in which they lived.
The names and numbers following identify the sources of information
that Torrey found. These somewhat cryptic references are all hot linked to a
list of references that explains each code. For instance, "NYGBR 46:62"
refers to the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, volume 46, page
62, as published by the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. "Frame-Dana
289" refers to information found on page 289 of "Some of the Ancestors
of Rev. John Selby Frame & Clara Winchester Dana" published by Julia
Locke Bunce in 1948. These hot links to the references make the CD-ROM much
easier to use than the original manuscripts!
There is one subtlety that I was not aware of until I read David
Dearborn’s Introduction:
Torrey’s geographical coverage included an area somewhat
larger than the presently-understood definition of New England. In colonial
days, Long Island (except for the westernmost end) was settled by New Englanders,
so Torrey included couples who settled, or were married, in the present-day
counties of Suffolk, Nassau and Queens. He also included many couples who
moved over the line from Greenwich, Connecticut, into the adjacent parts
of Westchester County, New York, or who left New England to settle in Newark,
Elizabeth, Piscataway, or Woodbridge, New Jersey.
Torrey’s "New England Marriages Prior to 1700"
CD-ROM was created with Folio Views, an excellent choice of software. Best of
all, it works both on Windows and on Macintosh systems. All the necessary software
is included on the CD-ROM. Windows users will need 2 megabytes of hard disk
space (minimum); a 4-speed or faster CD-ROM drive, a monitor with 800x600 pixel
or greater display; 32-bit color or higher. It requires a Pentium I or better
processor; Windows 95, 98, NT or 2000; 32 megabytes of RAM (64 megabytes recommended).
While not mentioned, I suspect it will also operate with Windows ME. Macintosh
users will need System 7.5 or higher (although Folio will not run on System
OS X) and 40 megabytes of RAM memory (64 megabytes recommended).
It took about a minute to install the Folio Views software on
my Windows 2000 system, after which I was able to search the database for families
of interest. I had a lot of fun with the advanced query capabilities. The queries
operate in the same manner as those on the NEHGS Manuscript Collections CD-ROM
that I reviewed last week. The software is simple to use: simply type in a name,
and it quickly shows you all occurrences of that name in the database. Basically,
the program searches for single words; a search for John Smith will find occurrences
of each word and will show you all the Johns as well as all the Smiths. However,
there are many search options that allow for more advanced searches. You may
use Boolean operators (and, or, not, exclusive or). You may also use wildcards
(single character, multiple character, word form, synonym) such as Sm?th? to
find all occurrences of Smith, Smyth, Smythe, etc. You can also use proximity
operators to specify how close terms must be. For example: "phrase search"/5
would indicate that all words must occur within 5 words of each other. As you
begin to use the Torrey CD-ROM more and more, you learn that you can quickly
find the information you seek, even with more common surnames.
I found it easy to print selected records. I also was able to
easily copy-and-paste information from the CD-ROM into any other program, such
as the copy-and-paste of the record of Roger Eastman and Sarah [Smith?] that
I placed into this newsletter earlier in this article.
The Torrey’s Marriages CD-ROM also features the ability to
mark records as bookmarks so that you may quickly return to particular records
in the future. You can also highlight records of interest or even insert "notes"
into the database for your future reference. These bookmarks, highlights, and
notes are actually written to your hard drive. The next time you go to the particular
record on the CD-ROM, the Folio Views software will retrieve the applicable
bookmarks, highlights, and notes from your hard drive and display them on the
screen, along with the data from the CD-ROM disk. These bookmarks, highlights
and notes will remain as long as you use the CD-ROM disk on the same computer.
Should you ever move the CD-ROM disk to another computer in the future, the
bookmarks, highlights and notes will be lost.
Torrey’s "New England Marriages Prior to 1700"
on CD-ROM is a winner. The people at the New England Historic Genealogical Society
have a right to be proud of this great new product. This CD-ROM disk is destined
to become a reference in many personal and public libraries.
"New England Marriages Prior to 1700" on CD-ROM sells
for $79.99 plus tax and shipping. For more information, or to safely order it
from the New England Historic Genealogical Society’s secure Web site, look
at: www.newenglandancestors.org/bookstore/libdetail.asp?sku=3107&added=yes.
Dick Eastman Online
