Daniel A. Schrader|The Great Migration Begins is a collection of thorough biographical sketches profiling immigrants to New England between the years of 1620 and 1633. The collection provides great detail on nearly 90|0 immigrants to which tens of millions of Americans can trace their roots||Description:|The Great Migration Begins is an ongoing research project conducted by NEHGS and led by professional genealogist Robert C. Anderson. The project includes more than one thousand sketches, including a|n additional 10 sketches as of 16 August, 2001. Each sketch is dedicated to a single immigrant or an immigrant family, arriving in New England between 1620 and 1633. A sketch contains information on t|he immigrant's migration dates and patterns, on various biographical matters (including occupation, church membership, education, offices, and land holding), and on genealogical details (birth, death|, marriages, children, and other associations by blood or marriage), along with detailed comments and discussion, and bibliographic information on the family.||Extended Description:|The Great Migration Study Project (of which The Great Migration Begins is the first phase) aims to investigate all immigrants to New England from 1620 through 1640, with the goal of summarizing all re|search carried out by previous workers, and providing a solid platform which will allow future researchers quickly to assess the status of research on a given family, without having to repeat work alr|eady done, or waste large amounts of time searching the genealogical literature. To this end, the sketches on individual immigrants or immigrant families first review the existing secondary literature|, looking especially for conflicting or missing data. Then the primary sources are examined in order to confirm what has already been written about the family, or to fill in the gaps, or to resolve co|nflicting interpretations and|correct errors. In many instances, of course, gaps and discrepancies will remain, and the sketch will then describe the problem, and perhaps suggest a future course of research. In the end, the Grea|t Migration sketches should permit future researchers to use their time more efficiently, and should also serve as a springboard for new discoveries.||Important Note: The text of the sketches provides abbreviated citations to the primary and secondary sources that were employed in creating the sketches; pop-up links provide the full citations. In ma|ny cases, the sketches also include suggestions for further research on unresolved problems.||Source Information:|Robert Charles Anderson. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633 [database online] Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 2000.|Original data: Robert Charles Anderson. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, vols. 1-3. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995.

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