If you, as I do, sometimes wish you could find out of print, obscure books that pertain to your current historical research project, you might like to try a couple of subsites at Google: Google Books and Google Scholar. You don’t need a Google account to use these sites, but if you do have one you can save links to books you find right in your own account, and best of all, the account and books you download from Google are free.

When I find a document I want to keep in my electronic archive, to document records in my database, or to read in depth later, I like to download the PDF version. Most old books are available as full view copies, meaning they are out of copyright and digitized as complete books. If you find a reference to a book you think should be out of copyright, but there is only a partial copy listed, try another search because sometimes a copy from a different source is available as full view.

Saved PDF files can, of course, be used on your computer, but if you have an ebook reader like the Kindle, Nook or iPad, you can have portable copies on those, too.

While following up on research concerning the military service of Amos Boynton, described in the previous post, I found an ebook online of the orderly book kept by Major Jeremiah Fogg, an officer in the 2nd New Hampshire Regiment, covering the period between 1775 and 1776. This was during the Siege of Boston, after the Battle of Bunker (or Breed’s) Hill.

Another resource that more directly concerns Sergt. Amos Boynton (who only enlisted in the 2nd NH in January 1777, after the period covered by Fogg’s Orderly Book), is a website about the Winter at Valley Forge. There he is shown as ID #NH21074, however the annotation currently on the site describes his first cousin, also named Amos Boynton. This is an error, which I pointed out in an email to the custodians of the website, who promise to correct it. Here is a copy of my email and their reply:

Re: Amos Boynton, ID NH21074
From: Kat Prawl [email address suppressed]
Date: Sat, Jun 12, 2010 at 11:42 AM
To: vafo_muster_roll @ nps.gov

Hello,

I have a correction to your information posted on the Valley Forge Muster Roll website for my ancestor, Amos Boynton of Capt. Clayes’ Co., 2nd NH Regmt. Your site lists him with the ID NH21074.

Your website says this Amos Boynton was b. 20 Sept 1744 in New Hampshire, married Mary Parker, and died 15 Nov 1823. In fact, the Amos Boynton who served in Capt. Clayes’ company, 2nd NH Regiment, was the first cousin of that Amos Boynton. The Amos Boynton at Valley Forge was b. 26 Apr 1742 in Rowley, Massachusetts, son of Ephraim Boynton and Sarah Stewart, and married Sarah Snow in Shrewsbury, Mass., and died in Nov 1810 in Wilkes Co., GA. There is a deed recording a land purchase in Fitzwilliam, NH by Amos Boynton and Sarah Snow “of Shrewsbury”, and several of their children are listed on baptismal rolls in Fitzwilliam, NH. The brother of this Amos (b. 1742), Ephraim Boynton, Jr., is buried in Sullivan, NH, about 15 miles from Fitzwilliam.

The “other” Amos Boynton (there actually were at least three men with that name who served in the American Revolution, all related), b. 1744, was the son of Ephraim Boynton’s brother, Nathaniel, and his second wife, Elizabeth Shedd. He was born, not in New Hampshire, but in Westford, Mass., where his father was town clerk. (His father, Nathaniel, was born in Rowley, Mass.) This Amos served in the 6th Massachusetts Regiment from Westford, not the 2nd NH. I believe this is the Amos Boynton who removed to Vermont after the Am. Rev. War, where he was a merchant in Cavendish, VT.

The third Revolutionary patriot named Amos Boynton was b. 2 Feb 1745 in Newbury, Mass., the son of David Boynton and Mary Stickney. His wife was Polly Libby. This Amos Boynton removed to Machais, Maine in 1766, where he served as 1st Lieut. in Capt. Stephen Smith’s company, in Benjamin Foster’s regiment during the Revolution.

All these Boyntons descend from one or the other of two brothers from Yorkshire, William and John Boynton, who were among the original settlers of Rowley, Mass. in 1639.

I hope this helps clear up some confusion, rather than creating more!

Regards,
Katherine Watson Prawl

I quickly received a reply:

From: Jeffrey Oates [email address suppressed]
Date: Sat, Jun 12, 2010 at 12:58 PM
To: Kat Prawl [email address suppressed]

Hi:

Thank you very much for the correction! You sure have done your research!
I should tell you our database is being amended currently, and when we get
it back, we certainly will make the changes you have listed here. This may
take some time before you see it. when we get it back, we will change
Amos’s status.

Jeff Oates

I just stumbled across a website with an excellent collection of original historical documents and wanted to share information about it. Since I had this blog but hadn’t really done anything with it up till now, I figured a quick review would make a good initial posting.

Footnote.com says they have the “largest collection of original historical documents on the Web”. I don’t know if that’s actually the case, but they do certainly have a very comprehensive, easy to use site. As of this writing, they advertise having over 66 million images.

I was able to find and download 56 page of muster and pay records on one of my Revolutionary War ancestors in just moments. The resulting images are high-quality, and downloaded quickly. Most of these records are transcriptions made “from copy verified in the R. & P. Office, War Department, in Nov. 1895, of an original record borrowed from the State of New Hampshire”, but one was of a hand-written record “Received from Pension Office January 16, 1913″ according to a stamp on the folder enclosing it, signed by Jedediah Jewett and dated “Exeter, Sept. 22nd, 1780″, attesting to the balance due to Sergt. Amos Boynton for depreciation on the pay he received for three years service in the 6th company, 2nd New Hampshire Regiment, in the amount of 46 pounds, eight shillings & one penny.

Footnote.com offers a 7-day free trial. After that, the entire site is available for US$11.95 per month, or US$79.95 per year. A free membership is available for research, but it does not allow you to download everything in the site, only selected “free” images. The free collection consists mostly of public documents, generally not records about individuals. That is not to say that these documents available for free are worthless, though. There are quite a few interesting items included there, from George Washington’s correspondence to the Pennsylvania Archives (1664-1880).

One of the most quirky collections in the free part of Footnote.com are “nearly 13,000 government UFO reports” from Project Blue Book. Who said history can’t be fun?

Welcome to the new History-eBooks blog! We will have more news here soon, but in the meanwhile, feel free to look at our older pages and come back soon to see what kinds of changes are underway.