Rhode Island Societies and Archives

The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be more generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over.

Rhode Island Genealogical Archives

 

It is wise to acquaint yourself with any repository which you might visit by writing to the appropriate archive or library in advance. Every repository has published materials that introduce its collections and research policy. State archives and historical agencies also have Internet sites that provide the same information. Some even have downloadable databases for some or parts of their collections.

• Rhode Island State Archives, 337 Westminster Street, Providence, RI 02903; (401) 222-2353, FAX (401) 222-3199, mailto:reference@archives.state.ri.us

Historical & Genealogical Societies

 

Because family history research relies greatly upon records found at the county level, many local societies represent counties. Organizations also form around shared interests. Ethnic or religious origins account for many groups, such as the Polish Genealogical Society of America and P.O.I.N.T. (Pursuing Our Italian Names Together). Societies also form around common locales of origin for members’ ancestors; hence, the Palatines to America and Germans from Russia societies. To locate these and other societies, consult Juliana Szucs Smith’s The Ancestry Family Historian’s Address Book. It lists addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and Internet addresses of thousands of organizations throughout the United States.

For almost every state there is a state genealogical society, a state genealogical council, or both. In addition to their own work, state-level groups sometimes help coordinate the efforts of local societies within the state. Their publications, newsletters and quarterlies, supplement those produced by the local societies.

• The League of Rhode Island Historical Societies, 39 Forsythia Lane, Cranston, RI 02920;(401) 942-3015
• American-french Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 2113, Pawtucket 02861-0113
• Little Compton Historical Society, P.O. Box 577, Little Compton 02837
• Italian Genealogy Society Of America, P.O. Box 8571, Cranston 02920-8571
• Rhode Island Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 433, Greenville 02828
• Rhode Island Black Heritage Society, 46 Aborn Street, Providence 02903
• Rhode Island Historical Society, 110 Benevolent St, Providence 02906-3103
• Charlestown Historical Society, P.O. Box 100, Charlestown 02813-0100
• Cranston Historical Society, 1351 Cranston Street, Cranston 02920
• Newport Historical Society, 82 Touro Street, Newport 02840
• Rhode Island Labor History Society, 36 Upper College Rd. Hart House, Kingston 02881
• Ri Jewish Historical Association, 130 Sessions Street, Providence 02906
• Westerly Historical Society, P.O. Box 91, Westerly 02891
• Rhode Island Mayflower Descendants, 128 Massasoit, Warwick 02888

Rhode Island Genealogical Publications

See specific county page for Individual County List

Many town and city libraries have manuscript collections consisting of personal and business papers both from the broader community and professional genealogists. The three largest of these are at Rhode Island Historical Society, Newport Historical Society, and Brown University, John Hay Library, 1 Prospect St., Providence, RI 02912, the latter being particularly strong in nineteenth-century material. Statewide or regional publications include the following:

• Search The PERiodical Source Index
• Rhode Island Roots - is the quarterly of the Rhode Island Genealogical Society. Transcriptions of early Rhode Island records and family genealogies are the focus of its material.
• Rhode Island Genealogical Register - is an independent journal (P.O. Box 585, East Princeton, Massachusetts 01517) devoted to publishing original source material for Rhode Island.
• The Newport Historical Magazine (1880-84)
• Rhode Island Historical Society Collections (1827-1914)
• Rhode Island Historical Society Publications (1893-1900)
• The Rhode Island Historical Magazine (1844-87)
• Rhode Island Historical Tracts (1877-96)
• Newspapers & Periodicals - The Newspapers & Periodicals Collection lets you discover a wealth of information about your ancestors from many historical newspapers, magazines, and other periodicals. These types of sources can often supplement public records and provide information that is not recorded anywhere else. Here, you can learn more about your ancestor's possible daily activities by placing them in the context of their time.
• Directories & Member Lists - Directories and member lists are typically compilations of information about people who belonged to various associations and groups or lived within city boundaries. They can be thought of as the predecessors to the modern-day phone book and usually list names, addresses, and sometimes the occupations of your ancestors.

Rhode Island Newspapers

 

The first newspaper, the Gazette, was published in Newport in 1732. Because of Rhode Island's unique position as one of the early "jumping off" points in a highly mobile community moving west and south, its newspapers tended to carry marriage and death notices for many former residents. Arnold's volumes 12 through 21 carry abstracts of many of these records.

The Rhode Island Historical Society is the official repository in the state for all published newspapers; however, abstracts of vital records from them may be found in several other repositories. The Rhode Island Historical Society itself has some abstracts and indexes. One is a microfilm card index to the Providence Journal and the Providence Bulletin

While records of birth, marriage, and death are the most commonly sought and the most consistently helpful records, only the genealogist’s imagination and resourcefulness limit newspapers’ usefulness in supplying clues about historical events, local history, probate court and legal notices, real estate transactions, political biographies, announcements, notices of new and terminated partnerships, business advertisements, and notices for settling debts.

Newspapers can provide at least a partial substitute for nonexistent civil records. For example, a person’s obituary may have appeared in a newspaper even when civil death records for that person do not exist. And newspapers are an important source of marriage records, particularly in those states where civil recording of marriages was essentially nonexistent until the twentieth century.

Unlike official records, newspapers are not limited to a particular geographical area. They often include reports of the weddings of local citizens (even those that occurred in a neighboring county or another state), and they sometimes report visits of geographically distant relatives or the visits of former local residents. They often published death notices of individuals who had left the area long before but who still had local family or friends as well. In each case the newspaper account can identify the date and place of an event, thus opening the possibility of turning up additional documentation in other sources.

The first step in searching a newspaper is to identify those which served the area of interest and which have survived. The three most necessary tools are bibliographies (What was published?), inventories of library and depository holdings (Where is it?), and indexes (How do I find what I want in it?).

• Newspapers & Periodicals - The Newspapers & Periodicals Collection lets you discover a wealth of information about your ancestors from many historical newspapers, magazines, and other periodicals. These types of sources can often supplement public records and provide information that is not recorded anywhere else. Here, you can learn more about your ancestor's possible daily activities by placing them in the context of their time.
• Find your family history In The World's Largest Newspaper Archive! Find News, Births and Deaths - Find tens of millions of historical newspaper articles, dating back to 1759. Search for newspaper articles about a deadly earthquake or one that mentions a past relative. Newspaper articles are easily accessible with online research tools.
• Find Obituaries in The World's Largest Newspaper Archive at NewpaperArchive.com! - Find thousands of obituaries to help you research your family history. Search for a newspaper obituary about your ancestor or a celebrity. Begin your search today and find death notices and funeral announcements printed in newspapers throughout the world.
• Search Historical Newspapers (1690 - 1980) - Quickly find names and keywords in over 450 million articles, obituaries, marriage notices, birth announcements and other items published in over 2,800 historical U.S. newspapers. New content added monthly!