GRANTS

New Hampshire Society of Genealogists Grant Program Intent to Apply

The New Hampshire Society of Genealogists is pleased to offer an annual competitive grant round with a maximum amount of $1000. Grant(s) will be awarded to projects that most closely align themselves with the society’s mission:

To provide education in genealogical research techniques;
To bring together all persons interested in genealogy;
To publish and make available genealogical material; and
To ensure public access to records and promote records preservation.

Entities applying for grants must be located within the state of New Hampshire and be at least one of the following:

A non-profit registered with the State of NH
An agency of state, county, regional or town government
A public library
An historical society
A house of worship

A letter of intent to apply for the grant must be sent no later than December 31, 2025 to grants@nhsog-board.org.

2025 Award

To Fiske Free Library in Claremont for an Early Claremont Newspapers Digitization Project.

“These reels were selected specifically to augment the National Eagle newspapers we have already digitized {1834-1933). In selecting these 15 reels we will be able to make digitally available some history from a decade earlier and augment and flesh-out the current coverage with content that is both new and overlapping.” (From the grant application.)

The committee felt that these early newspapers of Claremont would have appeal for our membership, especially since Claremont during that time was an economic hub, a large factory town and had a higher population than it does now.

2024 Award

To the Portsmouth Athenaeum for scanning and indexing two sets of records: 1) Rockingham County Court of Common Pleas and Middle Street Baptist Church. Rockingham County Court of Common Pleas dates 1782-1845 and fills in gaps on FamilySearch with 550 individual names. Records confirm place of residence, occupation and other details. 2) Middle Street Baptist Church dates back to 1828 and contains church membership records with names, birthdates, baptismal date, town of parish relocating from or to and date of death. It lists individuals visiting Portsmouth briefly before heading to Western territories. It also contains members of the People’s Baptist Church of Portsmouth in 1893, New Hampshire's first African-American Church.

2023 Award

To the Dover Public Library for digitizing the old microfilm of the Foster’s Weekly Democrat from 1894-1905. The newspaper covered the communities of Dover, Somersworth, Rochester, Portsmouth, and Newmarket, Barrington, Durham, Lee, and Berwick, Maine. They are a valuable source of genealogical information for the Seacoast area of NH. By digitizing the newspaper, this resource will become free access from any web browser.

2022 Award

To the State Library’s Park Street Foundation for the purchase of a laptop computer to be loaded with state purchased software. The laptop will be lent to NH public libraries for the digitization of historical records held by their towns and to make them available online through the State Library’s digital platform.

The computer character recognition software can convert typewritten text into computer searchable documents, providing valuable time saving and state-of-the-art preservation of historical documents.

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