Budding Genealogists Warned To Expect Worst-November 8, 1977

Gary Boyd Roberts Opens Five-Week Ancestry Lecture Series at Morrill Memorial Library

“If you are afraid to face possible mortifying acts of your ancestors, genealogy is not for you.” But more than 50 residents of Norwood and surrounding towns were obviously willing to chance mortification as they crowded into the historical room of Norwood’s Morrill Memorial Library to get the facts on tracing ancestors from Gary Boyd Roberts, reference librarian of the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston.

“The past of most families is quite robust and often not quite respectable,” Mr. Roberts added. History, social customs, human peccadilloes, and undercurrents of change all surface as one peels back layers of generations. Mr. Roberts made this clear in the first of a series of five weekly lectures co-sponsored by the library and Norwood’s Aaron Guild Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

The audience represented Italian, Irish, Yankee, French-Canadian, and Slavic ancestries from over a dozen communities, including Quincy, Foxboro, Needham, Milford, Woburn, and West Roxbury. The series features Mr. Roberts, a specialist in Greater Boston genealogy, alongside associate David Curtis Dearborn, who specializes in Essex County and New Hampshire roots.

Practical Advice and Family Discoveries

Mr. Roberts advised beginners to start with their own birth certificates, parents’ marriage licenses, and grandparents’ death records, noting that Massachusetts death records after 1850 are archived in the McCormack Building in Boston. He cautioned against commercial genealogical kits published following Alex Haley’s “Roots”, declaring them unreliable, and encouraged interviewing older family members.

Notable Insights Shared by Mr. Roberts:

• Southern Roots: Most Southerners have some Yankee ancestry, though few will admit it.
• Royal Lineage: Many colonists with royal ties came to America for investment opportunities rather than religious reasons.
• New England Heritage: Most children born in New England since 1950 have Brahmin Yankee strands intertwined with their ethnic heritage.

Local Attendees Tracing Roots:

• Nancy Baxter (Norwood, Secretary): Recently began researching her Irish heritage by writing to Ireland for birth certificates.
• Arthur Payne (Millis, Librarian): Long interested in genealogy, using the series to begin active research.
• Richard Walsh (Norwood, School Teacher): Investigating his Irish and Cape Breton Scotch ancestry.
• Mrs. Jean Hahn (Norwood): Researching her maiden name, Alger, which traces back to regional whaling history.

The lecture series continues Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. at the Morrill Memorial Library with no admission fee. (Photo by Larry Welsh)

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger