Source:Abbott, Charlotte Helen. Abbott Genealogies

About This Collection

From the website:

"Andover genealogist Charlotte Helen Abbott wrote these unpublished genealogies. Earlier versions of some genealogies were published in the Andover Townsman, the local newspaper. They generally cover older Andover families through the late 19th century. Miss Abbott's genealogies are subjective and rich with anecdotes, but list few sources."

A collection of over 200 genealogies has been digitized and is available at the website of the Memorial Hall Library here. They are organized by family name.

About Charlotte Helen Abbott

Excerpts from a short biography of Charlotte Helen Abbot by Marcia W. Lindberg found in Essex Genealogist, Vol. 24, p. 45:

"Genealogist, Dressmaker, Naturalist" Born Andover 1844, d. 1921. At times a teacher in local schools, a dressmaker. Genealogy began as a hobby but became her profession as she wrote columns for the Andover Townsman, the Boston Transcript and others. Member of Andover Historical Society, Andover Natural History Society, and Women's Relief Corps.

Comments

CHA appears to have good familiarity with many Andover families, greatly increasing the cross fertilization of her over 200 genealogies. One would presume that she inspected most published and unpublished Andover records, and there is a reference in one paper about much of the data being based on family Bibles.

However, CHA worked at a time when things were accepted on the authority of the writer, and so she does not explain the basis for her knowledge. In this day of unsourced websites full of ludicrous assertions, this tends to make her work somewhat obsolete since it leaves us not knowing where some of her assertions come from, and forces us to recreate the research needed to support them.

Researches into a couple of cases has shown mostly good results, though not unanimously so. In the general case, her accuracy seems good, but there are a small number of errors, and one cannot unquestioningly rely on her being always right. On the other hand, she provides some surprising assertions that did turn out to be correct, so she is worth consulting, as long as one retains one's critical faculties.

I wonder how often as a teacher, she assigned students the task of compiling their family genealogies?

Online Facsimiles

• Volume 1: Early Arrivals in Ballardvale, South Parish, Frye Village, and West Parish. [Internet Archive]

• Volume 2: Ten Generations of Abbotts in America; Early Records of the Abbott Family of Andover; The Abbott Family (On the Immigrants). [Internet Archive]

• Volume 3: Early Records of the Allen, Ames, Averill, and Bailey Families of Andover. [Internet Archive]

• Volume 4: Early Records of the Baker, Ballard, Bannister, and Barker Families of Andover. [Internet Archive]

• Volume 5: Early Records of the Barnard, Berry, Blanchard, Beamsley, Bean, Bell, Berwick, and Birdsall Families of Andover. [Internet Archive]

• Volume 6: Early Records of the Blunt, Bodwell, and Bragg Families of Andover.

• Volume 7: Early Records and Notes of the Brown Family of Andover, Ipswich, Hamilton, Reading, Boston-Tewksbury, Cambridge, Charlestown, Chelmsford, Gloucester, Hampton, Haverhill, Salem, Watertown, Rowley, Sudbury, and Salisbury. [Internet Archive]

• Volume 8: Early Records of the Burtt, Buswell, Callahan, Carleton, Carter, Chadwick, Chandler, Chapman, Clark, Clement, and Cochrane Families of Andover. [Internet Archive]

• Volume 9: Early Records of the Cogswell, Colby, Cole, Cooper, Corey, Cornell, Crosby, and Cummings Families of Andover. [Internet Archive]

• Volume 10: Early Records of the Dane, Earle, Eastman, Eddy, Edes, Edgeston, Edmonds, Edson, Edwards, and Emery Families of Andover. [Internet Archive]

• Volume 11: Early Records of the Farmer, Farnum, Farrington, Faulkner, Ferien, Fish, Fiske, Flood, Follansbee, Foster, Fowler, Friend, and Frost Families of Andover. [Internet Archive]

• Volume 12: Early Records of the Frye, Gage, Gilchrist, Gleason, Gledhill, Godfrey, Goffe, Goldsmith, Goodhue, and Gould Families of Andover. [Internet Archive]

• Volume 13: Early Records of the Grainger, Graves, Gray, Green, Griffin, Grow, and Gutterson Families of Andover. [Internet Archive]

• Volume 14: Early Records of the Haggett, Hall, Harding, Hardy, Harnden, Hart, Hatch, and Haywood Families of Andover. [Internet Archive]

• Volume 15: Early Records of the Hazen, Heard or Hurd, Henry, Herrick, Hidden, Hill, Hitchens, Holt, Hooper, Houghton, Howarth, Howe, Hoyt, Hubbard, Hunt, and Hutchinson Families of Andover. [Internet Archive]

• Volume 16: Early Records of the Ingalls, Jameson, Jaques, Jaquith, Jefferson, Jenkins, Jennings, Johnson, Jones, Jordan, and Joscelyn Families of Andover. [Internet Archive]

• Volume 17: Early Records of the Kemp, Kimball, Kilham/Killem, Kimball, Kittredge, Kneeland, Lacy, Lamson, Lane, Lee, Lemon, Lindsay, Livingston, Locke, Long, Lord, and Loring Families of Andover. [Internet Archive]

• Volume 18: Early Records of the Lovejoy, Lowden, Lowe, Luscomb, and Lynde Families of Andover. [Internet Archive]

• Volume 19: Early Records of the Mann, Manning, Marble, March, Marland, Marshall, Marston, Martin, Mason, Mears, Merrill, Messer, Millett, Mills, and Mitchell Families of Andover. [Internet Archive]

• Volume 20: Early Records of the Montgomery, Mooar, Morrison, Morse, Murray, Newman, Nichols, and Noyes Families of Andover. [Internet Archive]

• Volume 21: Early Records of the Osbourne, Osgood, Parker, Parker, and Peabody Families of Andover. [Internet Archive]

• Volume 22: Early Records of the Peters, Phelps, Pierson, Pillsbury, Poor, Preston, and Punchard Families of Andover. [Internet Archive]

• Volume 23: Early Records of the Russe, Russell, Sabin, Sanders, Seaton, Sessions/Sutchens, Shedd, Stacy/Stacey, Standish, Stark, Steele, Stevens, Stimpson, Stone, Sutton, Swain, Swan, Swift, Sylvester, and Symmes Families of Andover. [Internet Archive]

• Volume 24: Early Records of the Townsend, Trow, Trull, Trumbull, Tuck, Tyler, Valpey, Whiting, Wiley, Wilson, Wood, and Woodbridge Families of Andover. [Internet Archive]
  
  

WeRelate Source Organization

In an attempt to organize this large number of related sources, they are being created as subpages of this main page. Comments about CHA and her work in general should go on this page, comments about the individual papers should be placed on the subpage. Cite the subpage when you wish to cite individual papers, so page numbers will be appropriate to the correct paper.

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