Royal Hinman collected information on every
seventeenth-century immigrant to New England, and then concentrated on those
immigrants who came to Connecticut, tracing many of the lines into the
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, providing information on thousands of
Connecticut settlers.
The author used a wide range of sources, frequently setting forth much
biographical data on his subjects, even some of those who were not so prominent.
On the genealogical side, he did not limit himself to vital records, but made
extensive use of the probate records as well, not a common practice among
genealogists of his time.
Hinman's project was too ambitious, and he only reached into the letter D in his
sweep through the alphabet of New England settlers. At some point, he must have
realized that he would not finish his study, for he appended to the portion he
did complete a detailed account of the Hinman family.
Despite the fact that he only made it about a
quarter of the way through the alphabet, his massive efforts in behalf of
Connecticut families make this an important reference for the families of that
colony.
Hinman's frequent references to coats of arms should in most cases not be taken
to mean that these heraldic achievements actually belonged to the New England
settlers.
The CD includes high-quality images of every
page as originally published (not just a transcript) and is fully searchable
using Adobe Acrobat Reader (version 4 or later recommended) on any Windows,
Macintosh, or Unix computer. The data on this CD is completely self-contained,
and requires no installation.
