English Capitves & Prisoners Remaining in New France by Roger Lawrence (American-Canadian Genealogical Society, Manchester, NH 2015)
Professor Roger Lawrence has spent 30 years researching the New England captives taken by Indians allied with New France during the French and Indian War. In this new volume he covers the stories of 110 captives including six new individuals which he discovered in his research. His work builds on previous analysis by C. Alice Baker and Emma Coleman.
Each captive is dicussed in a biography and, in most cases, the author includes the original residence, circumstances of their capture, the trip to Canada and some details on their lives there. His data is pulled from previous studies, research in many major repositories, notarial records, parish registers, hospitialization records and contracts. Usually an ancestry of the captive is given back a few generations and children of the captives are identified – as well as the spouses of these children.
The book has 474 pages and includes an index with over 2100 names associated with these captives. There are extensive footnotes and a list of sources for each biography. It also includes tables of summary data on captives and an extensive bibliography.
This work is a great addition to our library and will be a valuable resource for any of us with New England ancestors who were carried to Canada.
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