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This Family Archive CD contains electronically searchable text of the First and Third series of William Cutter's popular compendium New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial. The eight volumes that make up these two distinct series contain about 2,000 genealogies and refer to approximately 20,000 related individuals.

Between 1913 and 1916, William Richard Cutter, one-time corresponding secretary of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, published four separate four-volume series of books entitled New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial. The First Series, published in 1913, featured genealogical and biographical essays on 1,000 New England families. The Second Series (1914), while containing some families not found in the 1913 series, is substantially similar to its predecessor. The Fourth Series (1916) is essentially a collection of biographies and does not command quite the same level of interest among genealogists as the other series. The Third Series (1915), however, is comprised of 1,000 additional genealogical and biographical essays not found in the First Series, and thus the First and the Third series--the two most genealogically significant series--are included in this Family Archive CD.

The content and arrangement of the two series are very similar. Each sketch provides the derivation of the surname featured in the sketch. The family history is then traced forward from the earliest known ancestor to the family member featured in the sketch, for whom, in turn, a biography is provided. This is followed, frequently, by additional genealogical lines linked to the subject of the essay. In general, the essays cover the length and breadth of New England ancestry from the colonial period through the early twentieth century, and they also serve to illustrate the influence of New England in the settlement of states to the west. While many of these sketches trace family lines back to 16th-century England and others brim with Mayflower connections and ties to the early Puritan settlers of the region, this collection is a totally unique assemblage of New England genealogies.

System Requirements: You must have a CD-ROM drive, and in order to read the CD you must use either the Family Archive Viewer (version 4.0 or higher), which is available as a free download at http://www.genealogical.com/content/dlfav6.html, or Family Tree Maker for Windows, version 4.0 or higher (Family Tree Maker software can be ordered from www.FamilyTreeMaker.com).

To access information on our Family Archive CDs using the Family Archive Viewer:

1. Install the Family Archive Viewer CD or download it from http://www.genealogy.com/dlfav6.html.
2. Start the Viewer if it is not already running
3. Insert the CD you wish to view into the CD-ROM drive. If you have 2 or more CD-ROM drives, the CD must be placed in the first one.
4. The CD should open automatically, but users of later versions of the Family Archive Viewer must click the CD/magnifying glass icon in the top toolbar (above the template in some versions) to read the CD.
5. When the screen entitled “About this Family Archive" appears, click OK where prompted.

To access information on our Family Archive CDs using Family Tree Maker:

1. Start your Family Tree Maker and open a Family File. (If the program is already running, skip to Step 2.)
2. Insert the CD in your computer's CD-ROM drive. (If you have 2 or more CD-ROM drives, the CD must be placed in the first one.)
3. From the View menu, select Family Finder, or select the Family Finder icon from the toolbar.
4. For FTM 2005, FTM 2006, or Version 16, you must go to the View menu, select Data CD, then View CD. For FTM 2008 or higher, you must download the Family Archive Viewer.

To search the CD for names, select the Search Expert button in the top right of your screen, then select "Search this archive for someone NOT from your Family File." You can also search for names by using the Index.

Note: If a window opens that contains a list of files on the CD, simply close it.