About

The (Really) Short Version

My name is Liz Loveland and I use this blog to discuss my research (people, topics, archives, techniques, websites, background information, etc.) and events I have attended, and occasionally also related issues about which I am thinking.  I’ve been doing professional genealogical and historical research in the Boston area of Massachusetts since 2010, after having done personal historical research since high school and personal genealogical research since circa 2002. I love using unusual sources and social history to solve puzzles. I spend a large chunk of my free time attending courses, conferences, lectures, and other events on genealogy, history, archives, and related subjects. My email address is loveland at world dot oberlin dot edu. [PLEASE NOTE: I am currently not taking paying clients.]

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The Long Version [Last updated 8 June 2017]

On this page: About This Blog * About Me * About My Personal Research

About This Blog

This blog features a mix of stories from my personal research, discussions of research strategies & techniques, discussions of specific eras or record sets, and posts about social history and related topics. Many of my posts mix at least two of those topics into a single post. I choose not to post almost daily as most genealogy bloggers do; I aim to finish a new blog post at least once a week, though in recent months I haven’t generally reached that goal. I welcome comments on my blog and emails to loveland at world dot oberlin dot edu. Don’t worry if your comment doesn’t appear immediately; I need to approve comments from new posters before the comment publicly appears.

My historical interests include (but are not limited to) women’s roles throughout history; the history of abolitionism around the world; the history of slavery, enslaved people, and free people of color, most especially in the U.S.’s “Northern” colonies/states and in Canada; Native American histories; the early colonial North American period, most especially in New England and New York; the Slave Trade Triangle between colonial New England, Africa, and the colonial West Indies; the history of plants, gardens/farms, and foods; the medieval and early modern eras, especially (though not only) in the British Isles; homesteaders in North America; the early steamboat era, especially on the then-“Western” rivers of the U.S.; attitudes and practices regarding medicine throughout time; fashions and customs throughout cultures and eras; and historical media coverage. These are sprinkled around my posts.

About Me

My name is Liz Loveland. I had been researching my family history for almost a decade when I began blogging, and created this blog in early 2009 to talk about my genealogy adventures. I didn’t do much with it at first, but worked my way up to an average of one post a month and now am trying to do a minimum of one post a week. [These subsections follow: Talks, Articles, and Volunteering * Professional Genealogical and Historical Research * Education in Related Fields]

Talks, Articles, and Volunteering

I gave a talk on “Researching Enslaved and Recently Free Northerners” at History Camp 2016 in Boston on 26 March 2016; my handout and my recap slides are available on History Camp’s website. I gave a talk on “Early Modern England and the Colonization of New England” at History Camp Pioneer Valley in Holyoke, Massachusetts, on 30 July 2016.  I volunteered as the professional genealogist moderating the special-interest table “Researching in England’s Records” at the special-interest luncheon of the New England Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists at the 2015 New England Regional Genealogical Consortium Conference on 17 April 2015, including preparing a handout for my attendees.

My article “Using School Records” was published in the September 2012 issue of Indiana Genealogist, the publication of the Indiana Genealogical Society; my article “The Long Trek Westward: Migration from New England to New York and the Midwest” was published in the December 2013 issue of The Bulletin, the publication of the Genealogical Forum of Oregon; and I have more articles in the works that are planned to be published in specific genealogical publications in 2016. I am honored to have been interviewed for the December 2015 APG Quarterly “Profiles of Thought” column, the quarterly publication of the Association of Professional Genealogists.

I volunteer indexing and transcribing for two organizations to help make records more accessible to researchers; taking photographs in area cemeteries for FindAGrave and compiling memorials for those I photograph that don’t already have them; and as facilitator for the area monthly meeting of alumni of Boston University Center for Professional Education’s (BU CPE’s) Certificate in Genealogical Research. My volunteer position as group facilitator includes such duties as scheduling, programming, and moderating the meetings; planning and coordinating group tours and day trips; and answering correspondence related to the group. I’m also working on two personal projects – transcribing my ancestor’s diary of a year in Victorian Paris at the blog Addie’s Sojourn and creating a database of information on those buried in the cemetery plot of a foundling hospital. I also help answer questions and research problems of other researchers on mailing lists, web boards, etc.

Professional Genealogical and Historical Research

[PLEASE NOTE: I am currently not taking paying clients.] I had been doing small pro bono research projects for several years and volunteering on indexing and transcribing projects for a few years when I took BU CPE’s Certificate in Genealogical Research program in 2010. After I completed that program, I joined the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) and the New England Chapter of APG (NEAPG) and began taking paying clients in addition to my volunteer work. I visit various repositories in Suffolk & Middlesex counties in metro Boston. My focuses include (but are not limited to) Massachusetts research; colonial-era New England; tracking migratory families; researching emigrants’ British Isles ancestors and relatives; and helping edit and design family history books. I love using unusual sources and social history to solve puzzles. I can also do short-term tasks like obtaining copies of documents from such repositories as the Middlesex County (Southern District) Courthouse. You are welcome to view my listing in the APG directory and my listing in the NEAPG directory. You are also more than welcome to email me directly at loveland at world dot oberlin dot edu and talk to me about the research you would like to hire someone to do; if I am unable to do it myself, I will probably know someone in the area to whom I can refer your query.

Education in Related Fields

I started out my family history research with self-education through books, websites, and other methods, and then began my more formal education by taking some of the online (and completely self-directed) classes from the National Institute for Genealogical Studies, which is a part of Continuing Education at University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto. In 2010 I decided to move on to a more structured, formal educational experience. Here is a sampling of the courses I have taken since then:

• BU CPE’s Certificate in Genealogical Research (2010)
• ProGen Study Group; my group’s mentor was Claire Bettag (2010 to 2012)
• BU CPE’s then-new one-week course, “Writing Family History Narratives and Other Genealogical Works,” which was co-taught by John Colletta and Tom Jones (summer 2011)
• The Correspondence Course in Genealogy run by the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies (IHGS) in Canterbury, England, which focuses mostly on English research (December 2013 to present)
• BU CPE’s then-new one-week course, “Civilly Uncommon: Advanced Legal Analysis for Genealogists,” co-taught by Judy Russell and Ben Spratling (summer 2014)
• Several Pharos Tutors online courses on family history and related topics, mostly focused on English research (2014 to 2016)
• NEHGS’s online course “Puritan Pedigrees: The Deep Roots of the Great Migration to New England,” taught by Robert Charles Anderson (autumn 2014)
• J. Mark Lowe’s Virtual Institute of Genealogical Research (VIGR) course “Planting the Field: Understanding the Agricultural Records of Our Ancestors” (winter 2015)
• Kirsty Gray’s privately run course on Devon-specific research (winter 2015)
• Blaine Bettinger’s VIGR course “(Finally!) Understanding Autosomal DNA” (spring 2015)
• University of Exeter’s distance-learning course “The Tudors: History, Culture and Religion” (2015)
• University of Exeter’s distance-learning course “The English Country House: History, Architecture and Landscape” (2015)
• University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s graduate-level distance-learning course “The Public Life of History” [earned graduate credits] (summer 2015)
• Craig Scott’s VIGR course, “A Day in the Revolution: Researching Your Soldier” (summer 2015)
• Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History’s graduate-level course “Colonial North America” [which I audited] (autumn 2015)
• University of Exeter’s course “Village and Parish History: Reconstructing the Local Past, 1500-1800” (autumn/winter 2015)
• Blaine Bettinger’s VIGR course “Genetic Genealogy for Professional Genealogists” (November 2015)
• Michael L. Strauss’s VIGR course “Drafted, Deserted, and Volunteered: A Comprehensive Study of your Civil War Ancestors” (December 2015)
• University of Exeter’s courses “The Stuart Court: History, Politics and Culture ” and “The Archaeology and Architecture of Medieval and Tudor Britain: An Introduction” (winter/spring 2016)
• Gilder Lehrman’s graduate-level course, “African American History since Emancipation” [which I audited] (winter/spring 2016)
• Josh Taylor’s VIGR course “New England Research: Has It All Been Done?” (winter 2016)
• Craig Scott’s VIGR course “A Day in the First World War: Researching Your Ancestor” (winter 2016)
• Blaine Bettinger’s VIGR course “Third-Party Tools for Genetic Genealogists” (May 2016)
• Three-day course “Pre- & Post-Slavery Era Research” at the Midwest African American Genealogical Institute in Fort Wayne, Indiana (July 2016)
• One-week course “Practical Genetic Genealogy” at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh (July 2016)
• Many adult education courses on history at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education and at Lesley University’s Extension School over the last decade, such as Normandy and the Normans (2010), “The Socialist and the Republican: Marx and Lincoln on the Civil War” (winter 2013), “Birth & Expansion of the American Empire: From the Louisiana Purchase to the Invasion of Cuba” (winter 2014), “The American Revolution, The Founding Fathers, and African Americans” (summer 2014), European Arms and Armour (winter 2015), World War 1 (spring 2015), World War 2 (autumn 2015), and “Appreciating Medieval Music” (winter 2016).

For the last several years, I have regularly attended area conferences, lectures, and seminars on genealogy, history, archives, and related topics; watched genealogy webinars; taken adult education courses on history; and continued with my lifelong love of taking walking tours and visiting historic sites and museums. A sample of the events that I have attended in person:

• New England Historic Genealogical Society’s (NEHGS’s) two-day Technology and Genealogy Seminar (2010)
• NEHGS’s Writing Your Family History Seminar (2010)
• Ancestry’s Family History Day, a day-long seminar in Boston (2010)
• NEHGS’s Identification and Care of Photographs Workshop (2010)
• “Embracing the Power of Technology for Family History,” a day-long seminar by The Genealogy Guys (George G. Morgan and Drew Smith), hosted by NEHGS (2011)
• Massachusetts Genealogical Council‘s annual day-long seminar (2011, 2012, 2013)
• NEHGS’s 2012 Annual Seminar, “Colonial New England’s Colorful History”
• Cambridge Open Archives Tours (multi-day events; 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)
• New England Regional Genealogical Consortium’s conference (NERGC 2013) in Manchester, New Hampshire
• NEHGS’s 2013 Annual Seminar, “Preservation Roadshow”
• International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies conference (IAJGS 2013) in Boston
• Digital Public Library of America‘s first conference (DPLAfest 2013) in Boston
• The first History Camp (the first known history ‘unconference’) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (March 2014)
• The inaugural Celtic Connections Conference in Waltham, Massachusetts (August 2014)
• Massachusetts Society of Genealogists’ (MSOG’s) 2014 Annual Meeting & Conference in Marlborough, Massachusetts (November 2014)
• “Researching Your Irish Ancestors: Strategies for Success,” a day-long seminar by the Ulster Historical Foundation, hosted by NEHGS (March 2015)
• History Camp 2015 in Boston (March 2015)
• The Massachusetts Historical Society’s conference “So Sudden an Alteration: The Causes, Course, and Consequences of the American Revolution” in Boston (April 2015)
• NERGC 2015 conference in Providence, Rhode Island, including the optional Tech Day (April 2015)
• NEHGS’s 2015 Annual Seminar, “The Who, What, and Why of Early New England” (April 2015)
• Mass Foundation for the Humanities’ 2015 Mass History Conference, “Chew on This: Presenting the history of food in Massachusetts,” in Worcester, Massachusetts (June 2015)
• “Tracing Your Essex Ancestors” seminar by Essex Record Office [UK] staffers Allyson Lewis and Neil Wiffen, hosted by NEHGS (August 2015)
• “The Guild Comes to Boston,” the first US seminar of the Guild of One-Name Studies, co-sponsored with NEHGS (September 2015)
• Boston University Digital Humanities 2015 Symposium (October 2015)
• MSOG’s 2015 Annual Meeting & Conference in Marlborough, Massachusetts (November 2015)
• History Camp Boston 2016 (March 2016) – including giving a talk, “Researching Enslaved & Recently Free Northerners”
• “Invisible Injustice: A Symposium on Slavery in the North,” presented by Essex Heritage and Salem State University in Salem, Massachusetts (April 2016)
• History Camp Pioneer Valley in Holyoke, Massachusetts (July 2016) – including giving a talk, “Early Modern England & the Colonization of New England”
• International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies conference (IAJGS 2016) in Seattle (7 through 12 August 2016)
• Federation of Genealogical Societies conference (FGS 2016) in Springfield, Illinois, including the optional Society Day (31 August through 3 September 2016)
• Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA) conference in Cambridge, UK (16-17 September 2016)
• “Region and Nation in American Histories of Race and Slavery” conference co-sponsored by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture (OIEAHC) and the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon, held at Mount Vernon in Alexandria, Virginia (6-9 October 2016)
• “Slavery and Global Public History: New Challenges” conference co-sponsored by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University, and the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University, held at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island (1-3 December 2016)

I am honored to have been interviewed for an article on the 2014 Cambridge Open Archives Tour. In 2010 I began attending the meetings and other activities of the in-person group for alumni of BU CPE’s Certificate in Genealogical Research (the group for which I have since become facilitator), and started attending one of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly Study Group monthly chats. I have also attended many meetings of the Irish Genealogy Study Group in Boston and of MSOG’s Middlesex Chapter in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and have attended many of the Massachusetts Historical Society’s scholarly seminars and brown bag lunches, as well as some of the Congregational Library’s and NEHGS’s brown bag lunches, and many other events at these and other local archives.

For the last several years I have also watched the yearly live-streams from the conferences known as RootsTech and the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree, including the Jamboree’s DNA Day since they began it in 2013. From 2013 through 2015 I have watched the Virtual Genealogy Fair of the National Archives [US] and in 2014, 2015, and 2016 I’ve watched the (new in 2014) live-stream from the National Genealogical Society [US] Conference. I have also gotten partway through watching the recorded lectures from the 2014 International Genetic Genealogy Conference, the first conference of its kind. In winter 2015 I watched several live-streamed talks from the Association for Professional Genealogists’ Professional Management Conference.

My prior educational background focused primarily on anthropology and history – putting people in the context of their culture and the events that surrounded them. I have always particularly enjoyed how family history research brings history and cultures to life by showing the way that individuals interacted with their cultures and were a part of history. Thanks at least in part to my background, I greatly enjoy reading about social history, and always work to maintain context in my head as I work to reconstruct the lives of individual people/families through individual records.

About My Personal Research

I live in eastern Massachusetts, U.S., but my family was far-flung. For my personal research, I am primarily researching in the United States (especially New England, New York/New Netherland, the Dakotas, Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, Kentucky, and Colonial Pennsylvania & Virginia & New Jersey); Canada (especially Ontario & Alberta); Scotland (especially Fife & Edinburgh); England (from my early colonial emigrants, a wide swath of England in the medieval to early modern era; from my more recent emigrants, especially the northern border area of Devon/Cornwall and Warwickshire’s border regions with Staffordshire, Worcestershire, & Gloucestershire, as well as many collateral lines that moved to Greater London); the Netherlands; and ethnic Germans (primarily in today’s Switzerland & Poland), as well as scattered other states and countries. Most of my experience is in researching American, Canadian, and UK records. I am (still) in the process of slowly adding a catalog of my personal research locales and surnames at a separate page on this blog, Surnames and Locations. Many of my ancestors that left the UK in the 1800’s left most or all of their relatives behind, so I have many relatives whose descendants remain in the UK today and/or emigrated at different times to a wide variety of locations.

For my personal research, I quite enjoy researching collateral lines and allied families in addition to my direct lines. By painting a wide brush, I have found many clues and answers that I would have otherwise missed. Similarly, I find that studying the history of the community is often useful. In addition to collecting local history books, I also collect historic maps/atlases and vintage postcards. I find that it all helps to bring both history and my relatives vividly to life.

I especially love studying the little details that flesh out historical lives – supporting documents, photographs, maps, social history, what was going on in the world around them at the time, … I like to try to discover what they were like as people and the personal, local, and larger issues and events that shaped their choices and their lives. Some of my most fulfilling genealogical moments to date have been reading probate inventories and Homestead Applications that detail all the belongings in a particular family’s life, or reading school records that detail a student’s course load each semester, then consulting catalogs to read about the courses. I also find it especially satisfying to trace women and to find out as much about them as possible, since so many of them are so easily lost to time the further back one goes in the records.