Discovering 300 Years of Emery Family History

Sarah Emery (1782-1855) is my 4th great-grandmother. She was born in Sanbornton, Belknap County, New Hampshire, in 1782 and married my 4th great-grandfather Joseph Huse (1783-1856) around 1803 in Newbury, Essex County, Massachusetts. In fact, though Sarah lived most of her life in New Hampshire and Vermont, she came from a long line of Emery’s that had been living in the Newbury, Massachusetts, area since the early 17th century.

I was researching Sarah’s grandfather Moses Emery (1715-1789) in GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives when I came across a fascinating article about the publication of the Emery family history.

According to this article:

“‘The Genealogical Records of Descendants of John and Anthony Emery of Newbury, Mass.’ recently issued from the Salem Press by Emery Cleaves, is one of the most complete genealogies ever published. It comprises over 600 pages…”

Referencing Sarah’s family tree, I noticed that John Emery (1599-1683) was Sarah’s 4th great-grandfather. According to his FamilySearch page, John was born in Romsey, Hampshire, England, in 1599 and immigrated to America on the James in 1635. By 1641 he was living in Newbury, Essex County, Massachusetts, where he worked as a carpenter, tavern keeper, and clerk of the market.

John died in Newbury in 1688 and is interred in the Burying Ground of the First Settlers.

Interested in finding this book on John and Anthony Emery’s family line, I found that it is available on the Internet Archive.

I easily found them listed on page 67 of this family history. I like using the old published family histories as a road map for our online family tree – verifying all of the facts in GenealogyBank and other online sources.

Genealogy Tip: Newspapers have the clues and details of our family history. Find your ancestors and their stories at GenealogyBank.com.