Press Releases PRESS RELEASE
3 November 2011 Genealogical Society Donates Money to Help Restore Early Town Meeting Records
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Cherry Bamberg (left) presents City Archivist Paul Campbell and City Clerk Anna Stetson with a check for $1,000. |
Cherry Bamberg, co-editor of Rhode Island Roots, a quarterly journal published by the Rhode Island Genealogical Society, arrived
at the Providence City Archives with a check today for $1,000 to help with the restoration of Providence Town Council and Town Meeting records that date from the Revolutionary War period.
The donation by the Genealogical Society will allow a professional bookbinder to repair torn pages, resew the books' signatures,
and rebind the books in leather. Bamberg cited Archivist's Paul Campbell's knowledge and enthusiasm as an important factor in
the society's decision to contribute to the effort. "The City Archives holds a vast amount of valuable historical records and I am
drawn back there time and again to do my research," Bamberg said. "There is so much here, once you see the actual records
you want to come back for more." Archivist Paul Campbell stated that with limited city resources, "this very generous
contribution will allow these irreplaceable records to be preserved for use by future generations of researchers. This gift by the
Genealogical Society encourages us to work even harder to serve those who visit us and redouble our effort to protect these valuable records."
Bamberg also said that many of her colleagues are excited about the improvements at the City Archives. For those who are
unaware, the Rhode Island Genealogical Society is not a historical society. It is a group that conducts regular meetings
throughout the state to promote genealogical research and members contribute articles to their quarterly journal, Rhode Island
Roots. Some of the six hundred or so members are even from foreign countries. Established in 1975, the members continue to
find much of their information from archival records and would not be able to create their family trees without them.
The City Archives is located on the fifth floor of City Hall at 25 Dorrance Street in Providence. Hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30
p.m. Monday through Friday. The nearly 40,000 cubic feet of records provide researchers a variety of information that span the
period from 1636 to the present day. For more information contact archivist Paul Campbell at (401) 421-7740 ext. 558. You can also send an e-mail to archivist@providenceri.com.
PRESS RELEASE
3 November 2008
from Helen S. Ullmann, hsullmann@comcast.net
Tillinghast Genealogy Wins the Jacobus Award At their meeting in Annapolis, Maryland, on 1 November 2008, the American Society of Genealogists voted to give their annual Donald Lines Jacobus Award to
Wayne G. Tillinghast for his book, The Tillinghasts in America, The First Four Generations.Published in 2006 by the Rhode Island Genealogical Society (www.rigensoc.org
), this work is a classic genealogy, tracing the descendants, both male and female, of Elder Pardon Tillinghast (ca. 1622–1718), who settled at Providence in or before 1645.
Despite the subtitle of the book, many descendants in the fifth and sixth generations are treated. Intermarriages with other Rhode Island families make this genealogy almost a Who's Who
of colonial Providence. Thoroughly documented, extensive biographical detail includes much Rhode Island history and corrects previous errors. As noted in a review in The New England
Historical and Genealogical Register (161 [2007]:73), "The discussion of difficult problems is impressive."
Mr. Tillinghast graduated with honors from the University of Connecticut School of Law, and practices in Norwich, Connecticut.
He has authored several historical and genealogical articles for legal publications as well as for Rhode Island Roots.
The Donald Lines Jacobus Award was established in 1972 to encourage sound scholarship in genealogical writing. It is presented
to a model genealogical work published within the previous five years. A list of the books receiving the award in previous years appears on the American Society of Genealogists website (www.fasg.org
). Anyone planning to publish one's own research, especially as a compiled genealogy or family history, would do well to study the format and style of these books. |
