ROBERT M. GERRITY
M.A., M.P.A.

Born and raised a Nutmegger, I am a graduate of Staples High, Westport CT, of Beloit College, Wisconsin, and of the University of Maine at Orono. There I took an Master in History degree with a thesis on "The Pejepscot Proprietors: A Case Study of Absentee Land Ownership on the Maine Frontier, 1714-1819". After completing a Masters in Public Administration, I returned with my family to Massachusetts to work for non-profit and healthcare organizations. Combining my love of history with my verbal skills, I am a Licensed Concord Guide, running tours for the Concord Visitor Center.

For forty-plus years, I have conducted research using all types of New England records as part of my work on "The Descendants of Ralph Pain of Freetown, MA". (Several chapters are available on this website.) I am also revising my Pejepscot thesis for eventual publication. (These Boston entrepreneurs were responsible for opening settlement along Maine's Androscoggin River. I am honored that my thesis is still used for training docents at the Pejepscot Historical Society in Brunswick!)

I am building an ALL-NAME database on Concord Massachusetts Families up through 1800 as part of research for a new history of colonial Concord: The Yeomen and Their World. Lemuel Shattuck covered Concord's original settlement and growth better than could be expected in his 1835 town history. However, recent work such as Brian Donahue's The Great Meadow (2005) shows what can be done now. As always, Robert A. Gross' estimable The Minutmen and Their World (1975) is both a resource and a spur to further research.

I am member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, as well as several other state historical societies. NEHGS is a top research platform both at the building and on-line.

Your FREE Two-hour Consultation is just an email away. Use the Contact Form to reach me. Send me key details, noting specific dates, locations AND issues where you can. Please include a list of ALL sources you have already checked. I'll tell you what your next step needs to be and may even be able to answer you question on the spot.

LOOKING TO PUBLISH?

I am also developing plans for a Co-Operative Publishing Program under the "Yankee Ancestry Press" logo. Services will include editing and layout for soft-cover books on genealogy, family history, memoirs and non-fiction with a New England orientation. Look for a separate page later on.

Updated 11/25/2006

Revised 1/24/2023

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