I was very excited to arrive home last night and find a rather large package waiting for me from Jennifer at the Rhode Island Historical Society [Link].

A few weeks back at the Genealogy Roadshow I had met with Jennifer, one of the RIHS researchers and showed her the ledger journals. She collected a bunch of information from me and the family tree, and you could tell that she was already working on the connection in her head.

While I haven’t had the chance to delve completely through the photocopied records she sent, I thought that I would share a quick list of the contents.  Jennifer and I have also exchanged several e-mails and she sent me an extensive excel sheet of family connections.

• A photograph from a card catalog entitled Simmons Family Papers 1759 – 1869 along with a wonderful little thank you note
• A ‘Find a Grave’ [Link] record for James Fowler Simmons, a US Senator from Rhode Island
• A Will and Probate record for Ebenezer dated 1743 – 1761 (from Ancestry.com)
• A list of births in the town of Dighton [MA] from about 1700 to 1899 compiled in 1983, covering several families but including Pitts, Simmons, Young, and several other names
• A list of Dighton Marriages from 1700 to 1899 covering many of the same names
• A list of married women listed by their maiden names from Dighton 1700 – 1980 compiled in 1984
• A list of Dighton deaths, 1700 to 1980 compiled in 1984
• A listing out of the ‘DAR Patriot index’ for both Pitts and Simmons which covers about four pages worth of names
• Some photocopies out of ‘Vital Records of Swansea Massachusetts’ – 1850 Copies out of vital records of Rhode Island 1636 – 1850, birth marriages and deaths for the Simmons Family
• Alphabetical index of the births marriages and deaths recorded in Providence from 1636 to 1850 volume 7 Friends and Ministers
• Vital records of Rhode Island 1636 – 1850, Volume 4 Little Compton
  A book entitled ‘Some descendants of Peter Pitts of Taunton Mass’ by Frances Davis McTeer
• A handwritten book entitled ‘Simmons Genealogy’ compiled by Sarah Chandler
• A chronological history of the Simmons Family copied exactly as recorded by Robert S Phillips
• A handwritten genealogy of the Simmons Family of Tiverton, Rhode Island
• Last but certainly not least a select pages from the book, ‘Ancestry of John Simmons, founder of Simmons College’

Rhode Island Historical Society
www.RHIS.org
www.facebook.com/RIHistoricalSociety