FROM EASTMAN'S ONLINE GENEALOGY NEWSLETTER - Families of the Pioneer Valley CD-ROM Do you have ancestors who lived in the Springfield, Massachusetts area during the 1600s? If so, you will probably be interested in a new CD-ROM that is about to be released. This week I had a chance to use the new "Families of the Pioneer Valley" CD-ROM produced by Regional Publications. I used it on Windows NT, but the same disk should also work on Macintosh systems. "Families of the Pioneer Valley" actually is a collection of several old books that have previously been available in hard copy, including: * "Springfield Families" by Thomas B. Warren - This 5 volume set contains 785 pages and was completely re-typed for this CD- ROM. * "Pynchon Birth, Marriages & Deaths 1638-1696" - This 96-page volume contains records that were kept privately by William and John Pynchon. It also was completely re-type for this CD- ROM. * "Pynchon Court Records 1638-1696" - This 111-page volume contains the court records recorded by William Pynchon, his son-in-law Elizur Holyoke and William's son John Pynchon. It was scanned for inclusion in the CD-ROM; the images were "electronically cleaned." * "Pynchon Manuscripts" - This 6-page addendum contains names and dates missing from the Pynchon Birth, Marriages and Death records manual mentioned above. It was scanned and "electronically cleaned." These books are hard to find. One vendor does have hard copies of "Springfield Families" by Thomas B. Warren available, but the 5- volume set costs $171.00. The CD-ROM version obviously is much more cost-effective. Using the "Families of the Pioneer Valley" CD-ROM is easy. If you already have Adobe Acrobat software installed on your PC or Macintosh, you simply insert the new CD-ROM and double-click on any of the files on the disk. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat installed, you can install it from the disk. The version I used this week is a "pre-release" version of the "Families of the Pioneer Valley" CD-ROM and only had the Windows version available. However, the producers plan to add the Macintosh version of Acrobat onto the disk as well. I suspect this has already been done by the time you read these words. The file you select first displays the title page on the screen. You can then "thumb" through the book one page at a time, or you can search for specific words. I did a search for my own surname and found several occurrences. Here is a typical record entry as found in "Springfield Families" by Thomas B. Warren: 110 RICHARD BLISS (George & Abigail), b 12 May 1811, m 18 May 1837 Sarah P. Eastman of Longmeadow Children Richard, bp 30 Aug. 1842 Abigail, b 4 Jan. 1846 Copying text from this CD-ROM was easy. For instance, here is another "cut-and-paste" from the introduction of "Pynchon Court Records 1638-1696": William Pynchon, the founder of Springfield, Massachusetts, began keeping a record of matters coming before various courts held for Springfield and the vicinity during the period from February 14, 1638/9 to Junuary 8, 1701/2. His son-in-law Elizur Holyoke and his son John Pynchon participated in the keeping of these records and the manuscript of these records have become known as the Pynchon Diary or the Pynchon Magistrate'' Book. All court records are not included in Pynchon's Magistrate books but what is in the Magistrate books is included here except for vital record entries. The original of this small manuscript is in the Treasure Room of the Law School of Harvard University. I was impressed with the clarity of the volumes that were scanned. I also found that I could cut-and-paste text even from the scanned volumes. These are not scanned images; they appear to be OCR (Optical Character Recognition) scans. As you may have noticed from the misspelling of "January" in this excerpt, OCR scanning can produce occasional errors. The reader will want to check any critical information against the original text to see if a questionable spelling is due to the scanning technology or the effort of the original author. Here is a typical example of a court record as found in "Pynchon Court Records 1638-1696": October .1. 1640. John Woodcoke not appearinge to give satisfaction to Mr. Moxon accordinge to the liberty tendered to him: Therefore I ordaine the execution as followeth. To John Searles Constable of Springfeild Thes are in his Majesties name to require you presently upon the receite hereof That you attach the body of John Woodcoke uppon an execution granted to Mr. George Moxon by the Jury against the said John Woodcoke for an action of slander: and that you kepe his body in prison or irons untill he shall take some course to satisfie the said George Moxon: or else if he neclect or refuse to take a speedy course to satisfie the said execution of 6£ 13s 4d granted by the Jury January 2d 1639 [1640]. That then you use what meanes you can to put him out to service and labor till he make satisfaction to the said Mr. George Moxon for the said 6£ 13s 4d and also to satisfie yorselfe for such charges as you shall be at for the keeping of his person: And when Mr. Moxon and yourselfe are satisfied, Then you are to discharge his person out of prison: faile not at your perill. Springfeild this 5 October 1640 Per William Pynchon "Families of the Pioneer Valley" on CD-ROM is an excellent genealogy resource. It was produced by a few dedicated genealogists and made available to others for a reasonable cost, much cheaper than purchasing the same information on paper. It was created for genealogists, but I suspect that historians will also be very interested. "Families of the Pioneer Valley" costs $49.95 (U.S. funds), which includes shipping. For more information, or for ordering information, go to: http://www.regionalpublications.com