This compilation is the result of a 26-year, masterful reconstruction of the 1698 census of New York by the esteemed genealogist and librarian Kory Meyerink. In this effort, Mr. Meyerink was aided by not only the “surviving” portions of the 1698 census but also the statistical summaries of the census which have survived the passage of time. The fact is that we know exactly how many men, women, and children (all free whites) and slaves (usually black, and sometimes Native American) were counted in the census. With these numbers in hand, Mr. Meyerink was able to locate more or less contemporary substitute sources (e.g., militia lists, tax lists, church records, town minutes, etc.) and reconstruct the residents of the missing counties, towns, and manors. In a number of cases, he was able to find the names of the same New Yorkers on multiple lists, thereby enhancing the accuracy of the reconstruction. In other cases, he assembled lists as “composites” from multiple sources (e.g., Easthampton, Rye, etc.). In all, he has identified by name 96% of the men, 50% of the women, and at least 40% of the children alive in the colony of New York in 1698.

New York in 1698 is arranged alphabetically by county and thereunder by town, ward, or manor. Mr. Meyerink begins each county chapter with a detailed discussion of the reconstruction variables: original source(s), spelling, layout of the original information, statistical recap, a brief history of the area under investigation at the time of the census, and a bibliography for further research on that county. The chapter-by-chapter lists of persons are arranged to conform to the earliest known transcription of the 1698 census, or substitute. The volume concludes with a complete name index of 13,700 and, owing to the significant New Netherland heritage of turn-of-the-17^th century New York, a substantial listing of Dutch names with their English versions. Mr. Meyerink’s historical and methodological Introduction to the book–which also contains a separate bibliography–not only provides insight into the “missing” census itself but also is must reading for any genealogist or historian planning to conduct research into this fascinating period.

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The Grampian Highlands were mostly controlled by landowners such as the Earl of Aboyne or the Earl of Airlie, or heads of families or clans such as Forbes, Gordon, Farquharson, Burnett, Irvine, Douglas, Lindsay, Carnegie, Ogilvie, Spalding, Stewart, and Robertson. These families were generally Royalist and supporters of the House of Stuart, notably in the Jacobite Wars of 1689, 1715, and 1745.

Most seventeenth-century Highlanders, however, were Protestants (Presbyterian and Episcopalian), with a few Roman Catholics in remote glens, such as around Braemar.  Emigration from the Grampian Highlands did not occur until the early eighteenth century, apart from prisoners of war banished to the Plantations.

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If the Barbour Index is unquestionably the starting point for Connecticut research, we can now say with equal confidence that it must share the spotlight with a new publication: Linda MacLachlan’s Finding Early Connecticut Vital Records: The Barbour Index and Beyond. The product of a 10-year examination of Connecticut vital records, this identifies the original sources of the millions of early Connecticut vital records abstracted in the Barbour Index. It names hundreds of books, manuscripts, and articles not referenced by Barbour, and points the researcher to thousands of additional sources for early Connecticut births, deaths, and marriages. Finding Early Connecticut Vital Records is, in fact, a complete inventory of Connecticut vital records, and no collection can be complete without it.

Finding Early Connecticut Records contains a town-by-town bibliography of both Barbour’s actual sources for the information in his Index and all vital records not in the Barbour Index that may be in church and cemetery records, town records, and published sources. For each town we are given the Family History Library (FHL) film numbers for derivative and original sources that have been microfilmed, and other source information for those that have not. These town chapters also note (in bold face) discrepancies and other town records that Barbour did not abstract. Later sections list other sources for birth, marriage, and death information, such as church records, cemetery transcriptions (including those found in the famous Hale Collection), and available print sources, including secondary compilations of town vital statistics from multiple sources.

This new reference work, available in both print and hardcover editions, also includes equivalent information for six other pre-1851 Connecticut towns that Barbour did not index: Cromwell, Easton, New Britain, New Fairfield, Seymour, and Trumbull. Many of the vital records substitutes cited in the work and not included by Barbour quote the applicable catalog description of the record’s contents. A final component of each chapter includes compilations of divorce records and Bible records, as well as compilations containing Connecticut vital records. A work as complex as this one would not be complete without a substantial Introduction explaining the history and nature of the Barbour Index and its limitations, and a detailed subject index.

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Wilma Moore returns as the compiler of the thirty-sixth volume in the Barbour series, which covers the towns of Portland, Prospect, Redding, and Ridgefield and encompasses 30,200 persons.

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The contents of Volume 38 are devoted to Saybrook and Sharon, Connecticut, and together encompass the vital records of some 34,000 inhabitants.

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Volume 39 marks the first of three new volumes from series general editor Lorraine White. It covers the towns of Sherman and Simsbury to the tune of 22,000 references.

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The fortieth volume of the Barbour Collection covers the aforementioned four additional Connecticut towns, altogether referring to 29,500 early inhabitants.

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Volume 41 is devoted to Sterling and Stratford, Connecticut, and it brings together vital references to more than 24,500 individuals, some of them from the 17th century.

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Volume 42 collects the vital records of the town/city of Stamford–for more than 200 years. References to 30,500 persons may be found herein.

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