Rhode Island Vital Records, 1500s-1900s

This data set includes images of the pages of 20 volumes of the Rhode Island Genealogical Register and 13 volumes of Rhode Island Vital Records, New Series. Edited by Alden Beaman and later by his daughter Nellie, the vital records contained within these volumes were extracted from a great variety of sources including probates, local cemeteries, town, church and land records, and family histories.

These records are especially valuable because they were extracted from unique sources and cover a period of time during which vital records were not recorded in civil records. Mr. Beaman calculated, for example, that only about one in seven marriages that took place in South Kingston, Rhode Island between 1800 and 1850 was recorded in civil records. He also estimated that as many as fifty percent of the births and marriages that occurred in all of Rhode Island are documented in his Rhode Island Vital Records, New Series alone.

In compiling Rhode Island Vital Records, New Series, it was the author's intention to augment James N. Arnold's series of books called Vital Record of Rhode Island. This series includes births, marriages, and deaths compiled from civil records, churches, and newspapers. In addition, each of the 13 volumes includes a preface detailing where the records came from and how to make the best use of them.

Similarly, Beaman's Rhode Island Genealogical Register includes abstracts of birth records, probates, land records and cemetery inscriptions as well as complete family histories. The Register includes a 60-part series called They Left Rhode Island with information on individuals who moved from Rhode Island to other states. This information was extracted from wills, cemetery records, census records, military records, vital records, and from the certificates required in the 1700s for a person to move from one town to another.