New England Historic Genealogical Society

Review of mail document/​records service. (Genealogy)
Friendly, courteous, professional. They went out of their way to be helpful. Highly recommended.

For beginners investigating New England genealogy this is the place to start… but it is becoming quite over-​run by the ever-​expanding capabilities at FamilySearch. NEHGS has a history and an academic-​level journal that goes back years and years. Their innovation a few years ago of a less academic magazine was a brilliant decision!
The hidden treasure of NEHGS are the library and manuscripts, but they are very difficult to access unless one goes in person… and I’m not even sure how easy it is at that point since I’d have to travel 3000 miles to find out. Sure, they offer «staff genealogist» support but folks like me want to do the research not just hear about the results. This, for me, is their failing.
Knowing how difficult it is to support this kind of infrastructure I’ve always been sympathetic with the NEHGS development efforts… right up until a nice lady called regarding the current development drive. Nice lady, but way too pushy. After getting to the point (she wasted a lot of time verifying address, and being understatedly sneaky about the nature of the call)… but then started only hearing what she wanted to hear, repeating a script that sounded good but not what I’m interested in, and then putting words and commitments in my mouth. Typical behavior of «development call center folks». It did not make me feel too much better about an organization that isn’t supporting my research needs at the moment.

I’m a on again — off again member of the NEHGS, toggling between it and the RIHS mainly to conserve funds.
It’s a great place to visit for the day, they have a small store right off the lobby and have unique books and products for family and friends that are into history, genealogy. You can use their library for a small day fee, the best way to get full use of of the society though is to take a tour or even better a beginner’s genealogy class there.
They have an amazing collection of old family bibles which contain family trees, old manuscripts, memoirs, etc. Even if they don’t have the ancestor you are looking for they might have something on the neighborhood they lived in, or their cousin, etc which might you a bit closer to finding them.
Alsways worth checking out especially in the winter or a rainy day.

I did a search of genealogy in the Boston area just to see what turned up, and I was quite surprised when NEHGS did.
Located on Newbury Street, you’ll have to fend your way past hipsters and tourists to make it in the door of NEHGS’s library, but once you do, you’ll be amazed at what awaits you here. Almost every time I mention a visit here to someone who lives in the area, they have asked me questions about it, and I’ve even been asked questions by people who spied me reading one of their publications on the T. I imagine these questions are a decent sample of what people in the area would like to know, so let me post the answers to the most common questions here:
1) «When are they open?»
They are open Tuesdays to Saturdays, mostly 9 – 5 except on Wednesdays when they are open till 9 p.m. Sometimes they are closed near a holiday (for example, the Saturday before Memorial Day) so if you’re coming to Boston or to downtown solely to visit them, it’s worth checking in advance.
2) «What can you find here that you can’t find in online databases?»
Lots and lots and lots of books, journals, manuscripts and archival materials. Books of published genealogies; books of indexes; atlases; books on background information; reference books; more books. Lots of genealogical and historical journals, from country-​wide ones to ones devoted to a particular town; in some cases they have from X date to the present, and in other cases only select issues. They also have a very large collection of manuscripts and other archival materials, much of which is fairly readily accessible, though more obscure items are often stored in the vault and take some time to access.
But just as important as all of this, there are actual professional genealogists, librarians and archivists on hand to help you. They’ll help you a little with many things, and for a fee they will help you for a longer period of time.
3) «Do you have to be a member to access the library?»
No, you don’t. There are free tours of the library every so often that are open to both members and non-​members (the dates/​times are posted on the website and on their little marquee board on-​site), and non-​members can also pay for a day pass. They also have lectures and other events regularly, which you usually don’t have to be a member to attend; some are free and some aren’t. Their event schedule is also listed on their website.
4) «What’s it like meeting with one of their staff members to discuss one’s research?»
Really nifty! No, seriously, it’s interesting, informative and very helpful. Staff members know things computers just don’t — for example, that a particular family is discussed in a particular genealogical book that they’re not catalogued as being in because the family isn’t one of the main subjects of the book; or how to find (or whether one even can find) a particular record in a particular time and place that would take some time for a person to dig up on their own.
5) «Do they have things that aren’t related to New England despite their name?»
Yes! They have a lot of material that’s not specifically about New England. Their New York collection is very large, and they also have especially large collections for some other countries (such as England and Canada) and for some specific groups, such as African-​Americans, Jews, and Italians.