Vermont Periodicals, Newspapers, and Manuscript Collections
This entry was originally written by Scott Andrew Bartley and Alice Eichholz, Ph.D., CG for Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources.
Periodicals
Vermont History is published quarterly by the Vermont Historical Society (see Vermont Archives, Libraries, and Societies) and has excellent articles on Vermont history, rarely genealogy. It is indexed annually.
Vermont Genealogy (1996' ; formerly Branches and Twigs, 1972'95) is published quarterly by the Genealogical Society of Vermont (see Vermont Archives, Libraries, and Societies). The Index to Branches and Twigs, 1972'1995, edited by Robert M. Murphy (St. Albans, Vt.: Genealogical Society of Vermont, 2000), covers all of the years of its publication under that title.
Rooted in the Green Mountains is a quarterly newsletter focused on Addition and Rutland counties, available from Danielle Roberts, P.O. Box 81, Fair Haven, Vermont 05743.
(See also The American Genealogist; and The New England Historical and Genealogical Register.)
Newspapers
The microfilm collection of all known newspapers covering Vermont since 1781 is at the Vermont Department of Libraries, State Office Building, 109 State St., Montpelier, VT 05609. Under 'Newspapers,' the card catalog lists the location of publications and all issues available. Some local libraries in the state have extant copies of other newspapers not in the microfilm collection, notable the Swanton Public Library's collection of Swanton Courier (1877'1953). Vital records are occasionally included'births rarely. Obituaries are not prominent until well into the twentieth century. A catalog bibliographic listing of available Vermont Newspapers can be found at online.
Two books offer published access to some of this material:
- Bailey, Diana Hebert. Extracts from 'The Repertory, 9 Mar 1826'29 Dec 1831. Published at St. Albans, Franklin County, Vermont. Bloomington, Minn.: C. Mertz, 1991. Includes marriage and death notices from those issues.
- Rising, Marsha Hoffman. Vermont Newspaper Abstracts, 1783'1816. Salt Lake City: Ancestry, Inc., 2001. Includes 11,000 references from the Vermont Gazette, The Vermont Gazette: Epitome of the World, Epitome of the World, The World, and The Green-Mountain Farmer.
An index to the Burlington Free Press in typescript form (1848'70) is in the 'Vermont Room' at the state library. As a subject index, it is still essential for genealogical research since accidents and deaths, for example, can be located by topic with the names of people involved listed alphabetically.
The University of Vermont Bailey-Howe Library also has a good newspaper collection with copies of the typescript to the index, Burlington Free Press (1848'70).
Copies of the Boston Evening Transcript genealogy column (See Massachusetts Newspapers) for some years are held at the Vermont Historical Society in scrapbook form.
Manuscripts
The Vermont Historical Society Library, Special Collections at the Bailey-Howe Library of the University of Vermont, and the Vermont State Archives (see Vermont Archives, Libraries, and Societies) all have excellent, well-cataloged manuscript collections. The Brigham Index at the Vermont Historical Society is a thorough subject and topic index including letters to and from individuals in the collections. Bailey-Howe's collection is thoroughly cataloged and includes church records, an extensive map collection, and business and shipping records for the Lake Champlain region.
Part of Vermont State Archives' collection is every-name indexed for early documents (see Vermont Archives, Libraries, and Societies) before ca. 1830. The extensive holdings in the Henry Stevens, Sr., collection (1732'1901) can be accessed through its guide by Eleazer D. Durfee and Gregory Sanford, A Guide to the Henry Stevens, Sr. Collection at the Vermont State Archives (Montpelier, Vt.: Vermont State Archives, 1991), available from the archives. In addition, they published an out-of-print booklet entitled 'A Guide to Vermont Repositories,' indicating the location of many of Vermont's excellent collections of manuscript materials at such places as the Bennington, Shelburne, and Sheldon museums, and local libraries and historical societies. The archives will answer mail and phone inquiries regarding information in this booklet.
There is also a statewide online searchable Catalog of Vermont Archives and Manuscripts updated through the University of Vermont.
