Dear friends and cousins, The following article is from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 2003 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at http://www.RootsForum.com. I wrote earlier this week about this CD. Many Sisson families can trace their Sisson ancestry back to Rhode Island, and can trace other families back to that state as well. This CD sounds great to me. David Arne Sisson Records of the Colony and State of Rhode Island on CD-ROM The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) keeps cranking out CD-ROM disks of high-quality genealogy data, almost faster than I can keep up with them. This week I had a chance to use their new Records of the Colony and State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, edited by John Russell Bartlett. This CD is similar to many of the other NEHGS CD disks in that it features transcribed records obtained from original sources. In this case, the records were originally published between 1856 and 1865 in ten volumes as Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and Records of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England. These volumes cover over a century and a half of information on the inhabitants of the Ocean State, from its earliest settlement in 1636 until the end of the Revolutionary era in 1792. Information in the CD-ROM includes: early settlers of towns, those who served in the colonial militias and during the Revolutionary War, individuals who petitioned the General Assembly for grievance, those involved in probate and court matters, persons receiving payment for service to the colony and state, and much, much more. This information has been available in the books for almost 150 years, but finding a copy of those books can be difficult, not to mention searching the volumes. The new CD-ROM will provide convenient access for many who otherwise would never discover this treasure house of information. Best of all, the Records of the Colony and State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations CD operates on both Windows and Macintosh systems. The Rhode Island CD-ROM uses Folio Views as its software, a good choice in my opinion. You do need to install software. On a Windows PC, simply insert the disk, click on Start, then on Run, and then enter X:\STARTUP.EXE. (Substitute your CD's drive letter in place of "X:.") Alternatively, you can use Windows Explorer to find SETUP.EXE on the CD and then simply double-click on that. Installation on a Macintosh is equally simple: Insert the disk and then double-click on the Corbin Collection icon that appears on the desktop. You then follow the on-screen directions. During installation on Windows or on Macintosh, you may specify to copy the entire application to the hard drive or else use a "minimal installation" in which the executable software is put onto the hard drive but all data remains on the CD-ROM. There are lots of CD-ROM disks today that are "electronic copies" of old books. Most of them simply contain images created by scanning the pages of the original books. Because they are in image format, you cannot search for words within those pages. The Rhode Island and Providence Plantations disk is quite different, however. It contains text, not scanned images. As such, you can search for words inside the book. In fact, full Boolean searches are available, supporting the following Boolean operators: And, Or, Not, Exclusive Or (XOR), Phrase (a string of words), single wildcards, multiple wildcards, ordered proximity, unordered proximity, record proximity, sentence proximity, paragraph proximity, stem (word form), thesaurus, contents, partition, rank, fields, range (less than X but more than Y), highlighters, pop-ups and notes, headings or levels. The Rhode Island and Providence Plantations CD is full of genealogy information although not listed in neat columns of birth, marriage and death information. The information in this collection of old records varies widely, but most of it is narrative text. Much of it is derived from court records and acts of the provincial General Assembly (legislature). For instance, this entry proves the name of the would-be wife of Daniel Wilcocks: Proceedings of the Generall Assembly held for the Collony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, at Newport, by adjournment from Providence, March the 23d, 1696-7. Voted, That the House of Magistrates is resolved into a Committee. Mr. William Gibson, Assistant, being impeached by Capt'n Jeoffrey Champlin, Assistant, for marrying Daniel Wilcocks and Mary Wordell, of Kingstown, contrary to the law of this Collony, said Gibson pleaded not guilty; but also confessed the said parties were not published according to the law of our Collony, to his knowledge. The Committee having heard both parties, and upon serious debate, do find that the marriage with Daniel Wilcocks and Mary Wordell, was done contrary to the law of this Collony; therefore do declare said marriage to be illegal. One hopes that the couple was legally married later. However, the same Daniel Wilcocks seemed to have other legal difficulties in nearby Massachusetts as well. From the Proceedings of the Generall Assembly held for the Collony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, at Newport, November the 21st, 1699.: .complaining that one Daniel Wilcocks, of Little Compton, within the said county, having been convicted before his Majesty's Justices of As-size, and generall jail delivery, of high misdemeanor, and sentenced to pay a fine of £150 to the King, and to find sureties for the good behaviour for twelve months time, and to stand committed untill he performed the said sentence; the said Wilcocks had made his escape, and fled over into the government of Rhode Island notwithstanding a demand made of the Governor of Rhode Island, by Mr. Stoughton, the Lieut. Governor of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, a copy whereof was produced. While this CD-ROM is an excellent source of genealogy information, it also provides a fascinating glimpse into the lives of these men and women, including many of the hardships and challenges that they endured. For instance, I never realized that wolves were a problem in Rhode Island until I read the following in the records of the General Court of Election, held in Newport on the 16th & 17th of March, 1642: It is further ordered, that he that shall kill a Wolf vpon the ysland, shall have thirty shillings for every Wolf he Kills; also, it is ordered, that the Magistrates of each Towne shall procure two men for each Towne to range the Woods for the Kill them; who shall also agree to satisfie them by the day, besides the thirtie shillings a head, which money or payment shall be made the Moitie out of each Threasurie. You will note that the above excerpts were copied-and-pasted from the CD-ROM into the word processor used to write this newsletter. Copying data from this CD was as easy as copying data from any other Windows or Macintosh document. Printing was also very easy as this CD-ROM contains text, not scanned images. In short, this is an excellent resource for genealogists and historians alike. It has very few birth, marriage, or death records, but it gives a great insight into the times in which your Rhode Island ancestors lived. Until now, the limited availability of these volumes has left them a much-underutilized resource. This fully-searchable format will be of immense use to genealogists and historians alike. The Records of the Colony and State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, edited by John Russell Bartlett is available from NEHGS' safe and secure online order system. Click here to see it.

The link at the end of Dick Eastman's article did not transfer. Here is the page you'll need. http://www.newenglandancestors.org/rs1/store/browse/product.asp?sku=470746551&dept_id=26 David Arne Sisson ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Sisson" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, July 04, 2003 11:09 AM Subject: [SISSON-L] Records of the Colony and State of Rhode Island on CD-ROM > > Dear friends and cousins, > The following article is from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 2003 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at http://www.RootsForum.com. > > I wrote earlier this week about this CD. Many Sisson families can trace their Sisson ancestry back to Rhode Island, and can trace other families back to that state as well. This CD sounds great to me. > > David Arne Sisson > > Records of the Colony and State of Rhode Island on CD-ROM > > The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) keeps cranking out CD-ROM disks of high-quality genealogy data, almost faster than I can keep up with them. This week I had a chance to use their new Records of the Colony and State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, edited by John Russell Bartlett. > > This CD is similar to many of the other NEHGS CD disks in that it features transcribed records obtained from original sources. In this case, the records were originally published between 1856 and 1865 in ten volumes as Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and Records of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England. These volumes cover over a century and a half of information on the inhabitants of the Ocean State, from its earliest settlement in 1636 until the end of the Revolutionary era in 1792. Information in the CD-ROM includes: early settlers of towns, those who served in the colonial militias and during the Revolutionary War, individuals who petitioned the General Assembly for grievance, those involved in probate and court matters, persons receiving payment for service to the colony and state, and much, much more. > > This information has been available in the books for almost 150 years, but finding a copy of those books can be difficult, not to mention searching the volumes. The new CD-ROM will provide convenient access for many who otherwise would never discover this treasure house of information. Best of all, the Records of the Colony and State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations CD operates on both Windows and Macintosh systems. > > The Rhode Island CD-ROM uses Folio Views as its software, a good choice in my opinion. You do need to install software. On a Windows PC, simply insert the disk, click on Start, then on Run, and then enter X:\STARTUP.EXE. (Substitute your CD's drive letter in place of "X:.") Alternatively, you can use Windows Explorer to find SETUP.EXE on the CD and then simply double-click on that. Installation on a Macintosh is equally simple: Insert the disk and then double-click on the Corbin Collection icon that appears on the desktop. You then follow the on-screen directions. > > During installation on Windows or on Macintosh, you may specify to copy the entire application to the hard drive or else use a "minimal installation" in which the executable software is put onto the hard drive but all data remains on the CD-ROM. > > There are lots of CD-ROM disks today that are "electronic copies" of old books. Most of them simply contain images created by scanning the pages of the original books. Because they are in image format, you cannot search for words within those pages. The Rhode Island and Providence Plantations disk is quite different, however. It contains text, not scanned images. As such, you can search for words inside the book. In fact, full Boolean searches are available, supporting the following Boolean operators: And, Or, Not, Exclusive Or (XOR), Phrase (a string of words), single wildcards, multiple wildcards, ordered proximity, unordered proximity, record proximity, sentence proximity, paragraph proximity, stem (word form), thesaurus, contents, partition, rank, fields, range (less than X but more than Y), highlighters, pop-ups and notes, headings or levels. > > The Rhode Island and Providence Plantations CD is full of genealogy information although not listed in neat columns of birth, marriage and death information. The information in this collection of old records varies widely, but most of it is narrative text. Much of it is derived from court records and acts of the provincial General Assembly (legislature). For instance, this entry proves the name of the would-be wife of Daniel Wilcocks: > > Proceedings of the Generall Assembly held for the Collony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, at Newport, by adjournment from Providence, March the 23d, 1696-7. > > Voted, That the House of Magistrates is resolved into a Committee. > > Mr. William Gibson, Assistant, being impeached by Capt'n Jeoffrey Champlin, Assistant, for marrying Daniel Wilcocks and Mary Wordell, of Kingstown, contrary to the law of this Collony, said Gibson pleaded not guilty; but also confessed the said parties were not published according to the law of our Collony, to his knowledge. > > The Committee having heard both parties, and upon serious debate, do find that the marriage with Daniel Wilcocks and Mary Wordell, was done contrary to the law of this Collony; therefore do declare said marriage to be illegal. > > One hopes that the couple was legally married later. However, the same Daniel Wilcocks seemed to have other legal difficulties in nearby Massachusetts as well. From the Proceedings of the Generall Assembly held for the Collony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, at Newport, November the 21st, 1699.: > > .complaining that one Daniel Wilcocks, of Little Compton, within the said county, having been convicted before his Majesty's Justices of As-size, and generall jail delivery, of high misdemeanor, and sentenced to pay a fine of £150 to the King, and to find sureties for the good behaviour for twelve months time, and to stand committed untill he performed the said sentence; the said Wilcocks had made his escape, and fled over into the government of Rhode Island notwithstanding a demand made of the Governor of Rhode Island, by Mr. Stoughton, the Lieut. Governor of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, a copy whereof was produced. > > While this CD-ROM is an excellent source of genealogy information, it also provides a fascinating glimpse into the lives of these men and women, including many of the hardships and challenges that they endured. For instance, I never realized that wolves were a problem in Rhode Island until I read the following in the records of the General Court of Election, held in Newport on the 16th & 17th of March, 1642: > > It is further ordered, that he that shall kill a Wolf vpon the ysland, shall have thirty shillings for every Wolf he Kills; also, it is ordered, that the Magistrates of each Towne shall procure two men for each Towne to range the Woods for the Kill them; who shall also agree to satisfie them by the day, besides the thirtie shillings a head, which money or payment shall be made the Moitie out of each Threasurie. > > You will note that the above excerpts were copied-and-pasted from the CD-ROM into the word processor used to write this newsletter. Copying data from this CD was as easy as copying data from any other Windows or Macintosh document. Printing was also very easy as this CD-ROM contains text, not scanned images. > > In short, this is an excellent resource for genealogists and historians alike. It has very few birth, marriage, or death records, but it gives a great insight into the times in which your Rhode Island ancestors lived. Until now, the limited availability of these volumes has left them a much-underutilized resource. This fully-searchable format will be of immense use to genealogists and historians alike. > > The Records of the Colony and State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, edited by John Russell Bartlett is available from NEHGS' safe and secure online order system. Click here to see it. > > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 >