New Hampshire State Facts & Information

New Hampshire, one of the six New England states and one of the smaller states of the United States. The state is bordered on the north by the Canadian province of Québec, on the east by Maine and the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Massachusetts, and on the west by Vermont. Concord is the capital of New Hampshire. Manchester is the largest city.

Settled only three years after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts, New Hampshire was one of the original 13 colonies. As the ninth state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, New Hampshire cast the decisive vote on June 21, 1788, that put the Constitution into effect.

New Hampshire has within its boundaries the highest mountains in New England, countless lakes, hundreds of streams and brooks, and large areas of unspoiled woodlands. Tourists have flocked to New Hampshire since the late 1800s. Despite its rural appearance, New Hampshire has long been an industrial state. Two of its early industries, the manufacture of shoes and of textiles, started in the homes of the earliest settlers.

New Hampshire is known as the Granite State because of its extensive granite formations and deposits. The state was named by Captain John Mason, who in the early 17th century received one of the first land grants in what was to become New Hampshire. He named the area after the English county of Hampshire, where he had spent time as a youth. The Official State Website is http://www.nh.gov/

The first permanent European settlements in what is now New Hampshire occurred along the Piscataqua River in 1623, when two groups of families associated with the Fishmonger's Company of London located on Dover Neck and Little Harbor (now part of Portsmouth). It is highly probable that European fishermen had visited the Isles of Shoals and adjacent parts of the mainland for many years prior to 1623. Following these two settlements, towns sprang up in Exeter (1637) and Hampton (1638). For many years, New Hampshire consisted of these four communities. As their populations grew, the large tracts of land that comprised the four towns were subdivided until they included the many coastal communities seen today. The lands not claimed by the towns were covered by various patents granted to English entrepreneurs, whose heirs were still struggling over the titles decades later.

New Hampshire was a Royal Province until 1771 except for two short periods, 1642-79 and 1690-92, when it was under the control of Massachusetts. Because of New Hampshire's status as a Royal Province, it was in the peculiar position of separating the two parts of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, present-day Maine and Massachusetts.

People began migrating at a very early date from Middlesex and Essex counties, Massachusetts, into the seacoast area and the Merrimack River Valley, while settlers from New Hampshire and central and western Massachusetts were pushing their way up into what is now Cheshire County, with many settling as far inland as the interior parts of Grafton County.

A significant number of Ulster Scots settled in south central New Hampshire in 1718 and again in 1723. They had close familial ties with other Ulster Scots settlements in New England and Cherry Valley, then on the New York frontier, southwest of Albany. Originally settling in the old town of Londonderry, they spread out to found numerous other towns across the southern tier of New Hampshire.

Settlement of the interior of New Hampshire was effected largely by two waves of migrations. People from the seacoast were primarily responsible for settling the Lakes Region, the Upper Merrimack Valley, and "along the edge of Maine," whereas settlers from southern New England were primarily responsible for settling western and southwestern New Hampshire, with a mixture of both groups peopling the North Country. The settlers with seacoast origins had a further tendency to continue westward out of New Hampshire.

By the middle of the nineteenth century, French-Canadians began to move southward into New Hampshire to work in the mill towns and in the lumber industry. Migration from Quebec and later from the Maritime Provinces became very heavy between 1880 and 1920 and now accounts for over one-third of New Hampshire's population. Large numbers of Irish settlers came to the larger towns and cities following the potato famine and now comprise a significant portion of the population, while migrations of other ethnic groups to particular areas, often to work in specific trades, have added to the rich mosaic of New Hampshire's population. Such groups include the Poles of Franklin, the Greeks of Manchester and Laconia, as well as the Italians brought to New Hampshire to work as masons or road builders.

Native American - The early history of New Hampshire is filled with conflict between settlers and Native Americans. Little remains in the provincial records for reclaiming specific family information on native inhabitants who lived in New Hampshire or participated in those conflicts, beginning in 1675 with King Philip’s War. Those who survived were eventually pushed west and north into Canada. See Vermont for possible resources.

• Newspapers & Periodicals - The Newspapers & Periodicals Collection lets you discover a wealth of information about your ancestors from many historical newspapers, magazines, and other periodicals. These types of sources can often supplement public records and provide information that is not recorded anywhere else. Here, you can learn more about your ancestor's possible daily activities by placing them in the context of their time.
• Stories, Memories & Histories - Stories and histories compiled by others researching a person or area can be an amazing source of information about your ancestors. Not only do they generally contain dates and places of vital events like birth, marriage, and death, but they often relate stories and memories that help you really get to know the character of your ancestors.
• Family Trees - Ancestry has thousands of family trees shared by other members. They can help you identify how ancestors are related and give you clues about birth, marriage, and death information. Family trees are an excellent resource for filling in gaps in your research or even to simply know where to begin.
• Pictures - One of the more exciting discoveries in doing family history research is finding a photograph of your ancestors or their residence. Finding historic postcard photos and drawings of towns and important events throughout history can also give you a visual look into your ancestors lives.
• Reference Materials & Finding Aids - Reference materials, including dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other how-to books, can be tremendously helpful in finding and interpreting historical documents. Many of these books can help you learn where to look for more information and how to use what you've already found to uncover more clues.

New Hampshire County List

 

New Hampshire deeds and probates are recorded on the county level. An act forming counties was passed in 1769, but the Province continued to record deeds and probates until 1771. Strafford did not organize as quickly as the other original counties, beginning its functions in 1773. After 1771, deeds are located at the county registry of deeds and probate records are located at the county registry of probate. Both registries are located at the county seat. Deeds and probate records on microfilm at the New Hampshire Historical Society and at the New Hampshire Division of Records and Archives go through 1771, with Rockingham County deeds at the archives through 1824. At the FHL and the New England Historic Genealogical Society they go from inception to ca. 1850. Later records are only available at the appropriate county office unless otherwise indicated in the following pages.

Choose from the counties below to view the county information.

New Hampshire Burned Courthouses

 

The destruction of courthouses greatly affects genealogists in every way. No only are these historic structures torn from our lives, so are the records they housed: marriage, wills, probate, land records, and others. Once destroyed they are lost forever. Even if they have been placed on mircofilm, computers and film burn too. The most heartbreaking side of this is the fact that many of our courthouses are destroyed at the hands of arsonist. However, not all records were lost.

Below is a list of New Hampshire Counties and the years the Courthouses were subjected to a disaster. This does NOT mean that ALL RECORDS were lost. Often, folks took their documents again in for recording after a disaster and later deeds will contain long chains of title, etc.

• Coos County - Fire damaged thirty-three volumes of the pre-1887 deeds and all of the probate records before that date. Damaged deeds were transcribed when possible and are retained in the courthouse. Seven volumes of Grafton deeds relating to Coos County before formation are kept in a separate series with separate indexes covering 1772–1803.
• Sullivan County - Early deeds were damaged by fire in 1827. A separate series of “burned deeds,” consisting of copies of surviving portions of the burned volumes with a separate index, is at the registry.