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Thomas Clemence of Providence, Rhode Island and his descendants to the year 2007
by Jane Fletcher Fiske
Hard cover, 433 pages, 2007.
NM: $35.00   M: $31.00

This book was commissioned by the late Roberta Stokes Smith in 2001 and funded by the Dean C. and Roberta Smith Foundation, which is donating the full print run (250 copies) to RIGS.

This book covers all that can be learned of the immigrant Thomas Clemence who arrived in Providence ca. 1644, roughly the same time as Pardon Tillinghast. Readers who enjoyed Tillinghasts in America, The First Four Generations by Wayne G. Tillinghast will welcome the patient exploration of the Clemence family at that time in Rhode Island history. The discussion of Thomas Clemence's English background and possible connections with other settlers is particularly fascinating. The book does not stop with the very early generations but includes accounts of Thomas Clemence's descendants in the male line to the twelfth generation, right down to the present day. Marriages for Clemence daughters are given, with information about children, but the married names are not carried forward. Descendants include many families still in the Providence area, as well as concentrations in Kansas, Maryland, and elsewhere in the United States.

Woven into the genealogy of this family is the story of America. Although well educated, early Clemence settlers were principally farmers. In Rhode Island, as time progressed, many descendants left farming to work in the textile mills, to jewelry and clockwork manufacturing, and to  transportation (such as Providence streetcars), leading to several engineers and airline pilots in more recent generations. Among more unusual accomplishments by family members are those of an astronomer (whose picture with Albert Einstein appears in the book), a deputy director of the U.S. Bureau of the Census, a Radio City Music Hall Rockette, a Wellesley Economics Professor, and a woman watchmaker. We follow the generations through King Philip's War to the Revolution, the Civil War, and twentieth century conflicts.

Illustrations include numerous photographs of ancient documents, people, and gravestones, as well as genealogical charts and maps. There is an every-name index.
 

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Rhode Island Roots, 1975 to 2004
CD, 2007
NM: $39.95   M: $31.00

This CD replaces the previous one which contained issues only to the year 2000. Redesigned and easier to use, it makes Rhode Island Roots, the quarterly journal of the Rhode Island Genealogical Society, available to all researchers.
 

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The Tillinghasts in America, The First Four Generations
by Wayne G. Tillinghast
Hard cover, 788 pp., 2006.
NM: $39.00   M: $35.00

Researchers of early Rhode Island genealogy can rejoice over this rich new source of genealogical information on the Tillinghast family. Pardon Tillinghast, his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren played major roles in the life of the colony and young state. Since they married into all of the leading families of Rhode Island, this genealogy reads like a Who's Who of colonial Providence. The author, an eleventh generation descendant of Elder Pardon, traces both male and female lines with abundant detail and meticulous documentation. Families in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts are also studied in depth.

Based on patient archival research, the book includes far more than names and dates. Through this one family we see people's reactions to various events in Rhode Island history, including the burning of the Gaspee, the Revolution, religious controversies, the maritime trade, the slave trade, the issuance of paper money, inoculation, containment of smallpox and yellow fever, business successes and failures, and financial and romantic heartaches.

The genealogical detective work, especially on the male lines, is superb. A number of longstanding confusions between people of the same name are carefully resolved. Knotty genealogical problems—ones that baffled even the people who experienced them firsthand—are clearly explained. The extensive index is a delight to use.

Henry Hoff, reviewing this book in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (January 2007), commented: "Any genealogist planning to write a book – or even just an article – on a Rhode Island family should look at this work as a model."
 

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Historical Cemeteries of South Kingstown, Rhode Island
by John E. Sterling and James L. Wheaton, IV, ed. by Cherry Fletcher Bamberg
Hard cover, 653 pp., 2004.
NM: $39.00   M: $35.00

A comprehensive recording in the Association for Gravestone Studies format of more than two hundred cemeteries and information on fifty more that are now missing, this massive work is illustrated with hundreds of sketches of fieldstones and a wealth of photographs. Gravestone information is supplemented by entries from "Nailer Tom" Hazard's diary and Daniel Stedman's journal that enrich our understanding of the person buried under the gravestone. Stedman noted, for example, the death of Daniel R. Clarke, who drowned at the age of 25 in 1855: "Drowned Daniel Ransome Clarke in the Saltpond oversot having a heavy Load of fish and the wind bloed very hard.

Writing in the Association for Gravestone Studies Quarterly (Spring 2005) Vincent Luti, author of Mallet and Chisel, Gravestone Carvers of Newport, Rhode Island in the 18th Century, notes that: "Anyone, any town, any state doing cemetery/gravestone documentation should own this model book. Genealogists of Rhode Island Plantations will surely add it to their libraries. Historical societies, genealogy centers, and research institutes will be more serviceable with this exemplary book."
 

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North Burial Ground Providence, Rhode Island Old Section 1700-1848
by John E. Sterling
Hard cover, 480 pp., 2001.
NM: $39.00  M: $31.00

John Sterling, the dean of Rhode Island gravestone studies, not only recorded thousands of inscriptions in the oldest cemetery in Providence, but also detailed its history and recreated lots within the cemetery by painstaking research into the records. The Association for Gravestone Studies format provides an abstract of the biographical information on the stone, data about the gravestone itself (material, condition, location). The natural order makes it easy to identify family groups within the cemetery. Introduction, richly illustrated with photographs and maps, every name index, maiden name index.
 

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Graveyards of North Kingstown, Rhode Island
by Althea H. McAleer, Beatrix Hoffius, and Deby J. Nunes
Soft cover, 350 pp., 1992.
NM: $19.95   M: $17.95

A recording of over one hundred forty burial grounds with many photos and maps. The authors provide directions and a small map to guide researchers to each cemetery. A beautiful map of the entire town with locations of cemeteries marked in red is folded into an envelope inside the back cover. Information from previous transcriptions supplements the gravestones found by the authors. Notes provide further information about the history of individual burial grounds and the people buried in them. Introduction, indexed.
 

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Elm Grove Cemetery of North Kingstown, Rhode Island
by Althea H. McAleer
Hard cover, 392 pp., 2001.
NM: $35.00   M: $27.00

The sequel to Graveyards of North Kingstown, Rhode Island, this book offers a transcription of the nearly ten thousand gravestones in North Kingstown Historic Cemetery 26 in the Association for Gravestone Studies format. Although Elm Grove Cemetery was opened in the nineteenth century, it contains many earlier burials as families moved graves from small burial grounds to this garden cemetery. Introduction, photographs, indexes.
 

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Elder John Gorton & the Six Principle Baptist Church of East Greenwich, Rhode Island
by Cherry Fletcher Bamberg
Hard cover, 630 pp., 2001.
NM: $36.00   M: $29.00

John Gorton was elder of the Six Principle Church of East Greenwich from 1753 to his death in 1792, and his papers, now at Rhode Island Historical Society, document the life of the church and the many Rhode Islanders who used its services for baptism, marriage, and burial. His records include the names of luminaries like Nathaniel Greene and Catharine Littlefield, as well as sailors, farmers, tradesmen, Indians, slaves, and black and white soldiers in the Revolution. Gorton preached not only to the solid citizens of Kent County but also to people with a full range of human failings: men who abandoned their wives, pregnant brides, deserters, counterfeiters, and even an insane murderer. Footnotes provide hundreds of carefully researched "mini-biographies" of people mentioned. Introduction, index, illustrations.
 

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Daniel Stedman's Journal, 1826-1859
transcribed by Henry Clay Oatley, Jr., ed. by Cherry Fletcher Bamberg
Soft cover, 464 pp., 2003.
NM: $37.00   M: $32.00

Thirty-four years in the life of a farmer, justice of the peace, and shoemaker from South Kingstown are recorded in his journal and transcribed by Henry Oatley in whose family the journal descended. Daniel Stedman, a neighbor of "Nailer Tom" Hazard, another famous diarist of South Kingstown, recorded the events of his daily life during Rhode Island's transition from an agricultural society to an industrial one. Beyond his family life we follow the emergence of the movements promoting temperance and abolition, hear of the circus—complete with lions, tigers, and elephants—coming to Wakefield, and see the first trickle of Irish immigrants into the community. Blacks and Indians are frequently mentioned. Stedman recorded hundreds of deaths, including a number of suicides. Methods commonly included hanging and cutting one's throat with a razor (among men) and jumping down the family well (among women). A genealogical appendix helps identify members of Daniel's family who are mentioned in the journal. Fully indexed.
 

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Huling Genealogy: Descendants of James and Margaret Huling of Newport Rhode Island and Lewes, Delaware
by Esther L. Woodworth-Barnes, ed. by Jane Fletcher Fiske
Hard cover, 692 pp., 1984.
SPECIAL: $30.00

A classic source in R.I. genealogy, this book traces descendants of James and Margaret Huling through twelve generations up to the date of publication. Linked families, such as the Allens, Arnolds, Browns, Hopkins, Mattesons, Shermans, Smiths, and Spencers, are treated at length. Many early deeds and wills are transcribed. An appendix lists Hulings in other locations in colonial America and unplaced Rhode Island Hulings. Indexed.
 

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The Diary of Capt. Samuel Tillinghast of Warwick, Rhode Island, 1757-1766
ed. by Cherry Fletcher Bamberg
Hard cover, 528 pp., 2000.
NM: $29.00   M: $25.00

An invaluable resource for eighteenth-century Warwick research, this book makes available for the first time a transcription of all three portions of Samuel Tillinghast's diary. A retired sea captain, Tillinghast noted the deaths of hundreds of people during the ten years of his diary, carefully recording the circumstances: Mary Clapp who died with her garters around her neck, the ferryman Nathaniel Hill who drowned off Long Point, old Granny Olney who fell off a lime cart and was run over, the Indian John Absalom who was hanged at Providence for murder, and many more. As many as possible of the people mentioned in the diary are identified in footnotes with substantial genealogical information. Extended introduction, general and name indexes, illustrated with photographs and maps.
 

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Gleanings from Rhode Island Town Records: Providence Town Council Records, 1770-1788 (Special Bonus Issue 2006 of Rhode Island Roots)
by Linda L. Mathew
Soft cover, 152 pp.
SPECIAL: $12.00 postpaid.

Abstracts of genealogical information from Providence Town Council records during a critical period of Rhode Island history, this carefully indexed volume offers a wealth of detail on people hard to discover in other records. Limited quantities.
 

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Gleanings from Rhode Island Town Records: Providence Town Council Records, 1789-1801 (Special Bonus Issue 2007 of Rhode Island Roots)
by Linda L. Mathew
Soft cover, 152 pp.
SPECIAL: $12.00 postpaid.

This issue continues the valuable extracts presented in the first Special Bonus Issue, with particular emphasis on the examination of people in Providence without a legal settlement.
 

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