USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Needham > History of Needham, Massachusetts, 1711-1911 : including West Needham, now the town of Wellesley, to its separation from Needham in 1881, with some reference to its affairs to 1911 > Part 18
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Wellesley > History of Needham, Massachusetts, 1711-1911 : including West Needham, now the town of Wellesley, to its separation from Needham in 1881, with some reference to its affairs to 1911 > Part 18
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58
On October 4, 1762, the town voted to use the balance of the rates collected to supply the pulpit, and a committee of five was chosen to provide preaching for "Part of this year". It was also voted to pay "M" Thair one of the Tutors at the Colledge" (the Rev. Ebenezer, Harvard 1753, A.M.) for preaching one Sabbath "for m' Townfend wilft he Lay in his Laft Sicknefs".1 The Rev. Bunker Gay, A.M., of Dedham, Harvard 1760, also preached one Sunday. On March 14, 1763, Capt. Eleazer Kingsbery, Josiah Eaton and Timothy Newell were chosen to provide preaching. After the death of Mr. Townsend the ministers who came to Needham to supply the pulpit usually stopped with his family, and "Madame Townfend" was paid four shillings per week by the town for entertaining them. In the spring of 1763 the Rev. Zabdiel Adams, A.M., Harvard 1759, officiated eight Sundays and on a Fast day for £I. 4s. per day, which seems to have been the usual price for "supplies". On September 12 the town "by Paper Votes" added Deacon Fisher, William Smith, Amos Fuller, Jr., and Aaron Smith, Jr.,2 to the committee to provide preaching, and instructed them to engage the Rev. Samuel West for another month. On December 5 "The Town have Concured with the Churches Choice that they have made of mª Samuel West
1 From the town treasurer's book.
This was "Hawk" Aaron, who took the place of his uncle, Lieut. Aaron, as 2 the latter declined.
y
1, er
n a
ven ilt, ere on, ter .in m, ty- ap he th de of of in
he er 9. ed ts al at ed n. at i-
234
THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
to take the Paftoral Charge of them by Forty Seven Votes: And there was Fourteen that Did not Concur with the Church in there Choice of my Samuel West". The town also voted Mr. West a settlement of £133, 6s., 8d., of which one half was to be paid the first year, and the other half the second year. His salary was to be £73, 6s., 8d., and Jonathan Deming, Josiah Newell, Esq., and Nathaniel Fisher were chosen to "wait on mr. West".
During the year 1763 and the early part of 1764 the min- isters stopped over Sunday at the house of Amos Fuller, Jr., and the town paid him 3s., 4d. per week. Mr. Fuller's house, the Fuller-Ritchie-Newell house, is about half a mile east of the old meeting-house site, and was built about 1754. Others who preached in Needham at this time, ac- cording to the town treasurer's book, were: the Rev. Samuel Cotton, A.M., Harvard 1759, four Sundays in October, 1762, the Rev. Edward Brooks, A.M., Harvard 1757, seven Sundays in November and December, two in May, 1763, and two in June, the Rev. Edward Russell, A.M., Harvard 1759, four Sundays in January and February, 1763. Mr. Gay, previously mentioned, had officiated four Sundays in December, 1762, and January, 1763, the Rev. Mr. "Door" one Sunday in March, and the Rev. Joseph Bowman, A.M., Harvard 1761 and at Dartmouth 1802, eight Sundays, dates uncertain.1
THE REV. SAMUEL WEST'S MINISTRY
On March 12, 1764, the town voted to ordain Mr. West on April 25, and chose Ensign Eliakim Cook, Lieut. Amos
1 From the Account Books of William Mills, born 1718, we learn that the Rev. Mr. Childs preached May 29, 1763, and again on August 21. This was presumably Stephen Childs, A.M., Harvard 1738, as his first name under the second date is not entirely illegible. The Rev. Mr. Haven preached June 10, 1763, and the Rev. Samuel West took his first text in Needham, June 19, 1763, from John III, 3d verse.
"Mr. hollihock " officiated June 12, and the Rev. Mr. Bowman preached September 14. The Rev. Jason Haven, A.M., is probably the minister referred to. On the 16th of some month in 1764, date illegible, "A mr Word preacht at Capt Canrackf"; this doubtless refers to the house of Captain Kenrick.
235
THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
Fuller, Capt. Eleazer Kingsbery (who declined), Nathaniel Fisher, and Capt. Ephraim Jackson a committee "to Pro- vide for the Council the Church Shall Send for to Ordain mª Samuel Weft:" On the 16th Capt. Caleb Kingsbery took the place of Capt. Eleazer. Captain Jackson was granted £5, Is., Iod. "for providing for the Council". Mr. West's letter of acceptance, dated February 4, 1764, was addressed "To the Church and Congregation in Needham". At the ordination there were present the Rev. Thomas West of Rochester, father of the Rev. Samuel, the Rev. Thomas Balch of Dedham, the Rev. Andrew Tyler of Dedham, the Rev. Samuel Woodward of Weston, the Rev. Amos Adams of Roxbury, the Rev. Jason Haven of Dedham, First Church, and the Rev. Samuel West of Dartmouth. Mr. Tyler began with prayer, Mr. West of Dartmouth preached, Mr. Thomas West gave the charge, Mr. Woodward prayed, and Mr. Balch gave the right hand of fellowship.
Owing to the large attendance the ordination took place in the open air. Mr. West had been graduated from Har- vard College in 1761, and was twenty-six years old when he came to Needham, and unmarried. From June 19, 1763, he had frequently preached in the town, and had boarded with Lieut. Aaron Smith on the South Road.1 On February 23, 1769, Mr. West was married to Priscilla Plimpton of Medfield, and April 28 he purchased for £200 the house and lands of his predecessor, Mr. Townsend, with the ex- ception of about seven acres of outlands. Mr. West later increased his outlands from thirteen acres to thirty-five, and he also had the use of the Ministerial land. On Thurs- day, April 17, 1769, he brought his young wife to the old parsonage; the day was cold and gloomy, and he had to leave her and go half a mile to procure fire from the nearest neighbor, probably either Amos Fuller or Oliver Mills. Mr.
1 In his autobiography, which was formerly in the possession of Mr. John J. May of Boston, Mr. West describes the Lieutenant's wife, Martha (Ware), as one "who possessed all the virtues which piety without refined education could furnish to a mind or person to whom nature had been peculiarly indulgent."
el r,
's
ad
s: ch ed lf
t
3, d
n-
a it
re
d
d d it
y is
S
S
236
THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
West employed from four to six carpenters for two months, at a cost of fioo, to repair the house, as it was then in a poor condition. This house continued the home of Mr. West as long as he remained in Needham, and here his four children were born.
He was a scholarly and faithful minister, very courteous and discreet. While in Needham it was his custom to have meetings in private houses for people unable to attend the regular services, and by his good judgment and tact these meetings were successful. For particulars of his patriotic efforts at the time of the Revolution, and of his acceptance in 1788 of the call to the Hollis Street Church, Boston, when he had previously declined other calls, see Mr. West's autobiography. The excellent memoir of him by the Rev. Thomas Thacher, and Felt's Annals of the American Pulpit, in which latter work Mr. West is classed with the pioneer Unitarians, may also be referred to. The writer has seen only a copy of the autobiography, but the sketch by Mr. Thacher is not a rare publication. Eight pamphlets, in- cluding nine sermons, and some articles in the Columbian Centinel are all of the printed contributions made to litera- ture by Mr. West.1
While at Needham so much of Mr. West's time was con- sumed in preparing boys for college, in carrying on his farm and in pastoral duties, that he got into the habit of preaching without notes, and his people grew to prefer to have him do so. For many years pupils boarded and studied with Mr. West, and the large west chamber is still called "the school room", and on its walls, beneath the modern paper, are ample evidences of its ancient use. The Rev. Stephen Palmer, Mr. West's successor, had students at his house, and it is said that the Rev. Mr. Townsend, 1720-62, increased his slender income in the same way.
Mrs. West was blamed by the people of Needham for her husband's leaving town. The change greatly improved their
1 See the American Quarterly Register, Vol. VIII, p. 53, 1836.
237
THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
circumstances. Although Mr. West's salary was raised to £80 in 1786, he "forgave" his people at different times nearly £250, and in 1774 he had no salary at all. On November 4, 1773, the town voted "that mr Weft Should Preach Near where the Meeting Houfe Stood: Provided it be no Coft to the Town for a place to Preach in". Dart- mouth College conferred the degree of S.T.D. (D.D.) on Mr. West in 1798. He lived to 1808.
By the census of 1765 Needham contained 129 houses, 168 families, and 945 inhabitants, of whom 14 were negroes. -
THE REV. STEPHEN PALMER'S MINISTRY
After Mr. West left, the pulpit in the First Church was supplied by Messrs. Oliver Dodge, Jacob Coggin, Hezekiah Packard, Hendricus Dow, Emerson Foster, Nathan Under- wood, Thomas Adams, Thaddeus Mason Harris, Solomon Spalding, Smith, Alden Bradford, Joshua Chamber- lain, and perhaps others. Most of these preachers were recent graduates of Harvard, and while in Needham boarded with Thomas Hubbard Townsend, who had purchased Mr. West's home. Mr. Dow received a call to Needham, August 2, 1790, which he declined.
On October 30, 1791, the Rev. Stephen Palmer, A.M., Harvard 1789, first preached in Needham, and on June II, 1792, he received a call here, which he accepted August 5, and was ordained on November 7, an ideal day. The Rev. Mr. Newell of Stow, a native of Needham, began the ordi- nation with prayer, the Rev. Jason Haven of Dedham preached from 2 Timothy II, 2, the Rev. Joseph Jackson of Brookline made the ordaining prayer, the Rev. John Ellis of Rehoboth gave the charge, the Rev. Roland Green of Mansfield prayed, and the Rev. George Morey of Walpole gave the right hand of fellowship. Thus began the ministry of one of the best men and most influential ministers that our town has known. Some of the older people say that he was the ablest that the Church has had. The friendship
238
THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
between the young minister and the aged Colonel McIntosh began when Mr. Palmer boarded at the McIntosh home- stead, on what is now Great Plain Avenue. It perhaps led to the call, and lasted through life. Mr. Palmer bought the place where his predecessors had lived, and on May 28, 1794, when he took possession, he found his parishioners gathered there, and preparations for his comfort made. His home coming appears to have been much more satisfac- tory than that of Mr. West. Mr. Palmer's salary had been fixed at £80, settlement £130, and he was to have his fire- wood, and the use of the "Ministerial Land". From 1797 his salary varied from $300 to $333.33. Although an Ortho- dox minister in good standing, he was so liberal that when a Unitarian succeeded him, it seemed no radical departure.
Mr. Palmer was a large, stout man, and when in the pulpit he wore a great deal of lace at his throat. He never entered the meeting-house for a regular service until the people were seated, when he bowed to right and left as he passed up the aisle. He prayed with his eyes wide open, and fixed on the top of a certain window.
The christening basin, still in use, was his gift, and was first used May 5, 1816. That year the Parish bought, from the proceeds of wood sold on the Ministerial land, four silver plates and eight cups, which were first used July 21, 1816. The earlier communion vessels, with the exception of a silver tankard given by the will of Thomas Hubbard Townsend in 1810, were of pewter.1 In 1803 Mrs. Catharine Palmer presented the folio Bible, now in the Sunday School library. Thirteen years earlier the Church had received a now forgotten legacy under the will of Mrs. Elizabeth? Cook, wife of Ensign Eliakim Cook.2 Mrs. Catharine Elizabeth (Smith) Fuller, born September 30, 1820, was the last child baptized by Mr. Palmer, and the last survivor of the large
1 For a full account of the silver of the First Church and Parish see the book known as Clarke's Wellesley Epitaphs.
2 The Probate records of the Counties of Suffolk and Norfolk fail to supply any trace of Mrs. Cook's estate.
239
THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
number baptized by him. She died March 20, 1907, the day the 187th anniversary of the Church was observed.
Mr. Palmer was a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and contributed to its publications. His printed sermons number fifteen, and include two "Charges" and two offerings of the "Right Hand of Fellowship". His revision of "Watts Psalms and Hymns, with occasional Hymns", 1811, was published, and used in many churches. His "Century Sermon" is referred to elsewhere in this volume. The few of his funeral discourses which have come down to us are admirable, particularly that on the death of Colonel McIntosh, who died January 3, 1813. For a more complete list of his writings, see the American Quarterly Register, Vol. VIII, p. 53, 1836. Mr. Palmer wrote an autobiography, a copy of which, or of a portion of it, is in the possession of the Dedham Historical Society.
His son, Dr. Joseph Palmer, was also a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and presented the Church in.1837 with the mahogany Communion table, which is still in use.
Mr. Palmer died of paralysis, and breathed his last in the lower north room of his house, on October 31, 1821, aged fifty-five years, and was buried in the Palmer-McIntosh tomb, but his remains were later removed to a lot. The people of his charge bore the expense of his funeral. During his illness, which lasted two years, the pulpit was supplied by Messrs. Read, Lemuel Capen, A.M., Everett, and Thomas Rich, who were paid from seven to ten dollars per Sunday.
LATER MINISTERS
The Rev. William Ritchie, Dartmouth 1804, was installed as Mr. Palmer's successor December 12, 1821, and died February 22, 1842, aged sixty-one years, and was buried in Needham, his flock bearing the expense. Mr. Ritchie's salary was to be $474, and, according to ancient custom, he
240
THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
was to have ten cords of oak wood and ten of pine "brought to his door yearly", but by agreement made in 1824 sixty- five dollars was to be given him annually in lieu of the wood. As a matter of fact his parishioners continued to bring him six cords of oak wood and six of pine, the latter split; he also had the use of the Ministerial land north of the meeting- house. In 1829 he gave up his rights in this land. That year no tax for his salary was levied, and subscriptions were relied upon. In 1832 "the subscription [was] offered to ladies". In 1834 the law authorizing taxation of all prop- erty in a parish for the support of the minister was finally repealed, having been much weakened by amendments subsequent to 1800. Mr. Ritchie's salary in 1840 was but $400. The cost of entertaining the Council at Mr. Ritchie's installation was $69. At first he boarded with the widow of his predecessor, but as he had a family, which included some noisy boys who disturbed Mrs. Palmer, he began soon to consider a home of his own. He purchased the Amos Fuller house, on Nehoiden Street, later the home of Artemas Newell, Esq., and lived there the remainder of his life. The house was struck by lightning on March 22, 1835. On April 24, 1836, he preached twice at the last services held in the Second Meeting-house.
The Rev. Lyman Maynard was installed September 7, 1842, and was the minister for four years. His pastorate was uneventful, but by vote of August 26, 1844, unfermented wine was to be used at the communion. In 1859 "the fruit of the vine" in an even milder form was substituted, and later sweetened water was used. Mr. Maynard bought of Galen Orr in 1844 two acres of land with buildings on Central
Avenue, and made his home there. Mr. Orr had built the house on the premises in 1843, and had removed there a portion of the old Fairbanks barn, from what is now Great Plain Avenue, near Greendale Avenue, and made the exist- ing barn from it. Mr. Maynard sold this property in 1847 to George Revere, who also owned the Townsend estate and
24I
THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
the Nehoiden Block. Mr. Revere sold the Maynard place in 1859, and the Nehoiden Block property ten years later, and in 1905 and 1906 both these properties were again ac- quired by the owner of the Townsend estate. Mr. Maynard weighed two hundred pounds, and appeared like a farmer. Mr. Tucker relates that one hot summer day Luther Morse, the blacksmith, who lived on Nehoiden Street, loaned the minister a small horse for harrowing, and was indignant when he learned that the parson was riding horse-back. Mr. Maynard died October 7, 1862, aged sixty-one years and eight months.
The Rev. Charles Henry Appleton Dall, A.M., Harvard 1837, Divinity School 1840, commenced preaching in Need- ham October 1, 1846, and was installed February 7, 1847. In 1847 the parsonage west of the graveyard was built for his use at a cost of $2500, but he occupied it only from March I, 1848 to the end of 1849, when he closed his ministry. He was for many years a noted missionary in India, the first that the Unitarians had there. His wife, Caroline Wells Healey Dall, who is living in 19II at an advanced age, is widely known as an authoress, and is a remarkably strong char- acter. Mr. Dall died in India July 18, 1886, aged seventy- one years, after a service there of more than forty years.
The Rev. Nathaniel Gage supplied the pulpit for 1850, the Rev. James Francis Hicks, Meadville, was ordained over this Church July 14, 1852, and was the minister to January 2, 1853, and the Rev. George Gibbs Channing sup- plied the pulpit in the years 1853 and 1854.1 The Rev. Andrew Napoleon Adams, Harvard Divinity School 1855, began to preach in Needham in June, 1855, was ordained November 21, 1855, and concluded his ministry in 1857, engaging soon afterward in a business career. He died in Fair Haven, Vermont, his birthplace, March 13, 1905, in his seventy-sixth year. Prior to going to the Harvard Divinity
1 Mr. Channing boarded with the widow of Dea. Jonathan Newell, on Central Avenue; the house is now owned by Mr. Johnson.
242
THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
School he had studied at Meadville Theological School. The Rev. John Stetson Barry, A.M., Tufts 1861, honorary, was installed October 13, 1858, and resigned March 12, 1860. He died in St. Louis December II, 1872, in his fifty-fourth year. The Rev. George Homer Emerson, D.D., supplied the pulpit to December, 1866, and was a Universalist as were his immediate predecessors, Adams and Barry. The Rev. Dr. Emerson received his D.D. from St. Lawrence University, Canton, N. Y., 1871. He died in Salem, Mass., March 24, 1898, aged seventy-six years.
Dr. Noyes wrote in his diary, under date of 1830, "Uni- versalist meeting in East Needham - Balch preached - "
The Rev. Albert Buel Vorse, Meadville Theological School 1862, was the minister from March 14, 1870 to April 8, 1871, when he resigned to accept the call of the newly organized Unitarian Society in Grantville. The Rev. Solon Wanton Bush, Brown 1845, Harvard Divinity School 1848, was the minister of the First Church and Parish in Needham for nearly eighteen years, and preached his farewell sermon February 17, 1889. He was greatly interested in the welfare of his people, kind and patient, and much beloved. It is reasonably certain that either he or Mrs. Bush was the unknown donor of $500 toward paying for the vestry or Parish. House, which was erected and dedicated near the close of his ministry. He died in Boston on March 19, 1898, in his eightieth year. The Rev. Charles Adams Allen, Harvard 1858, Meadville Theological School 1864, succeeded Mr. Bush in October, 1889, but was not installed, and his last sermon as the minister of this Church was preached May 14, 1893. Mr. Allen is a scholarly and able man. The Rev. Philip Slaney Thacher, Meadville Theo- logical School, became the minister April 26, 1894, when he was installed. He preached his last sermon as the pastor of this Church April 29, 1901. In the afternoon the seventy- fifth anniversary of the Sunday School was observed, and fourteen young people united with the Church. The Rev.
243
THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
William Willett Peck, Wesleyan 1895, preached his first sermon in Needham on December 8, 1901, after he had accepted a call, and his farewell discourse on February 9, 1908. His ministry had been successful, but he received an attractive invitation to go to Winchendon, and his people in Needham were unable to offer any great advance in his salary. Before he went to Wesleyan Mr. Peck had been a student in the Hartford Theological Seminary, and subse- quent to 1895 he took courses in the Harvard Divinity School. The Rev. Joseph Adams Puffer, A.B., Wesleyan, S.T.B., Boston University 1900, began to preach regularly on June 21, 1908, having accepted a call given him on May 19, and was at Needham till the close of 1911.
Sunday services have been held from time to time for eighty years at Charles River Village, or the South Mills, usually on the Dover side in Noanet Hall, often called New- ell's Hall. This hall was burned about 1868, and since then the religious meetings have been in the school-house. In the nineties there was a Sunday School Association, and a Sunday School, and in 1893 the Rev. George W. Andrews of Wellesley preached there. In earlier times the Unitarians and Universalists had services at the South Mills, and the ministers of the First Church in Needham frequently spoke there. It has not been unusual for the pastor of this Church also to have charge of a congregation at the South Mills, or at Dover, which latter town has an old and fully organized Unitarian Church. Mr. Allen organized a small society which worshipped Sunday afternoons in a hall at Newton Highlands. His successor, the Rev. Philip S. Thacher, who was minister at Needham 1894-1901, was also for a portion of those years minister at Dover, where he held services every Sunday afternoon.
In 1876 there were only thirty members of the First Church in Needham, but the First Parish was a larger body, and there were many persons connected with the Society who were members of neither Church nor Parish. The
d V.
9, ns
ol 8, ly on 8, m on
le
re . IS
11-
ol. y, o. th ed as he ce S.,
d, as le 00 ne
244
THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
Sunday School then consisted of eight teachers and seventy- five scholars, and the well-remembered Dea. Otis Morton was the superintendent, and also the Church clerk.
George Kuhn Clarke was elected president of the Norfolk Conference of Unitarian and other Christian Churches in October, 1907, and served to October, 1910, being the first president that Needham has had of this Conference, although it has been in existence since December, 1866.
"TWO HUNDREDTH" ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST CHURCH
On March 20, 1911, the "Two Hundredth" anniversary of the First Church was observed by an old-time service, such as had not been held there since the century before the last. The programme was as follows: Organ voluntary Mrs. Edith Lyman, Welcome by the minister, the Rev. J. Adams Puffer, then a service participated in by the Rev. Mr. Puffer, the Rev. E. Edward Marsh, the Rev. Newton Black, the Rev. William R. Lord, the Rev. William W. Peck, and the Rev. John de La Montaigne Waldron. The "Long Prayer" by Mr. Waldron was impressive and admirable, but limited, however, to fifteen minutes. The Rev. Mr. Lord, an able and accomplished man, read portions of a sermon preached by the Rev. Jonathan Townsend in 1727/8, on the occasion of a Fast to avert the wrath of God. The Historical Tablet was unveiled by Frederick Stillman Kingsbury, a descendant of Josiah Kingsbery, and of other first settlers of Needham. Mr. Kingsbury read the historical inscrip- tion, and the list of ministers which followed on the tablet. He was assisted by his second cousin, Emily Holland Kings- bury, and by Alvin Gay Stevens, the latter representing the Fullers, the Gays, the Eatons, and other old families of this town. George Kuhn Clarke gave an address of about fifteen minutes on "The Beginning of our Church", in which he pictured the conditions existing when the town was incorpo- rated, and the then inseparable union of Church and State. Mr. John Fisher Mills read a portion of his paper on "Music
245
THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
of Ye Olden Tyme". He is a descendant not only of the Mills family, which has been prominent in this locality from its first settlement by the white men, but of the Fullers, the Fishers, the Cheneys, and a number of the other pioneer families. It is singularly appropriate that he is chairman of the parish committee in the bicentennial year. The Rev. Mr. Peck read some extracts from the early Church records, with comments. The Rev. Mr. Lord gave the Benediction. The music was fine, and consisted of a large choir, and a number of instruments. Among the hymns sung were - "Before Jehovah's Awful Throne", "Russia", "Complaint", "David's Lamentations", "Northfield" and "Old Hundred". The evening closed with a social hour, with refreshments, and will be long remembered. The Church was organized on March 20, 1719/20, which would make it one hundred and ninety-one years old on March 31, 19II, according to the calendar now in use. The ob- servance was suggested by the fact that the town is two hundred years old in 1911.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.