The Genealogy of a Town

Matthew Keough, in the Billerica Minuteman (TownOnline.com), writes about the Billerica Historical Society’s (Massachusetts) publishing endeavors regarding the history of Billerica, specifically it’s founders.

Shirley Moore Barnes put together the biographies of the town’s founders: (excerpts from the article)

President Bob Kinsman said the society’s latest project involves something new – creating a publishing company to finance and distribute a new book, entitled, “Pioneers of Billerica: Settling the Shawsheen Wilderness 1654-1660.”

Authored by town resident Shirley Moore Barnes, “Pioneers of Billerica” tells the story of the 45 founding fathers and their families. Kinsman said the 218-page-book, which is replete with illustrations and maps of early Billerica, will serve as a companion piece to author Henry Hazen’s “Hazen’s History of Billerica,” the chronicle of the town’s beginnings originally published in 1883.
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Barnes said she wrote the book as a way to indulge in genealogy, which she was said was one of her favorite hobbies, as well as a way to educate residents. Barnes said conducting a genealogy on one’s hometown can be just as eye-opening as conducting research on family.

Forty-five families in the 1600s…chances are they have a huge number of descendants, and with genealogy as popular as it is, some of the descendants are bound to be into genealogy, and they are about to hit the jackpot, if they hear of this book.

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