Barbara Jean Mathews received a B.A. in Physics from the University of Connecticut in 1971, and a Masters in Human Services Management from the Florence Heller School at Brandeis University in 1981. She spent eighteen years working in high tech as a writer for computer hardware and software companies, and six years on the front line in a crisis shelter and as a new program developer for a state social services agency.
In 1984 Barbara took up genealogy as a hobby. She specializes in colonial Connecticut and Massachusetts families, but her work as a lineage genealogist gave her experience in locales across the U.S. and in periods from colonial to modern. She worked as a Course Facilitator in the Boston University Genealogical Certificate Program, a Verifying Genealogist for the Massachusetts Society of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, and the Genealogist for the Welles Family Association. Her volunteer work focuses on records: she serves as ASG’s representative to the Records Access and Preservation Committee, and as Federal Records Director of the Massachusetts Genealogical Council.
Barbara does not take on new clients. She can be reached through her website demandinggenealogist.com.
Selected Publications:
Books:
Philo Hodge (1756-1842) of Roxbury, Connecticut (Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1992).
The Descendants of Gov. Thomas Welles of Connecticut Through Daniel5 and Hezekiah5 Wells of Stratford, Connecticut (Lexington, Mass.: the author, 1998).
[as editor and co-author with Dr. Harold Wilkins] The Descendants of Thomas Lamkin of the Northern Neck of Virginia. (Boston: Newbury Street Press, 2001).
The Descendants of Gov. Thomas Welles of Connecticut and his Wife, Alice Tomes, vol. 1, 2d ed. (Wethersfield, Conn.: Welles Family Association, 2013). [now in a 3rd ed.; the 2nd ed. received the Donald Lines Jacobus Award in 2014.]
The Descendants of Gov. Thomas Welles of Connecticut and his Wife, Alice Tomes, vol. 2, part A (Wethersfield, Conn.: Welles Family Association, 2015).
The Descendants of Gov. Thomas Welles of Connecticut and his Wife, Alice Tomes, vol. 2, part B (Wethersfield, Conn.: Welles Family Association, 2015).
The Descendants of Gov. Thomas Welles of Connecticut and his Wife, Alice Tomes, vol. 3, part C (Wethersfield, Conn.: Welles Family Association, 2015).
Selected Articles:
“Frances2 and Sarah (Craggen) Nurse of Reading, Massachusetts, with Notes on John1 and Sarah (Dawes) Craggen of Woburn, Massachusetts, and Benoni Mackrest of Salisbury, Massachusetts,” The American Genealogist 69(1994):81–85.
“The Wives of Joseph2 and Joseph3 Darwin/Durrin/Derrin of Guilford, Wallingford, Litchfield, and Branford, Connecticut,” The American Genealogist 71(1996):28–35.
“More Wives for Joseph2 Darwin and Samuel2 Darwin of Connecticut,” The American Genealogist 73(1998):194–95.
With co-author Dr. Harold Wilkins, “The Legatees of Hannah (Cox) (Lamkin) Demourvel/Demonville, 8 Sept. 1744, Westmoreland County, Virginia,” The Virginia Genealogist 49(1999):83–101, 200–17.
“Reporting on a Brick Wall: The Genealogical Travelogue,” Association for Professional Genealogists Quarterly 17(2002):129–32.
“Michael Cox1 Timpany and his wife Mary Mead of Cos Cob, Greenwich, Fairfield County, Connecticut,” Connecticut Ancestry 47(2004):206–10.
“The Families of Mr. Richard Fairman and Richard Fairman, Jr., of Newtown, CT, with Notes on the Estate of Seth Austin of Suffield, CT,” Connecticut Ancestry 48(2006):122–28.
“Anne Francis/Frances and Hannah (Nott) Collins, Wives of Dr. Samuel5 Steel(e) of Wethersfield, Newington, and Kensington, Connecticut,” The American Genealogist 81(2006):105–9.
“The Birth Date of Elizabeth Ely Gridley: Ancestor of President Gerald R. Ford,” The American Genealogist 83(2008):100.
“Stephen5 and Anne (Rossiter) Bidwell of Litchfield, Connecticut, and the Family of Josiah and Patience6 (Bidwell) Hollister of Freehold, New York,” The Connecticut Nutmegger 42(2010):290–300.
“Sorting Out Two Men Named Charles Goodrich Born in 1720 in Connecticut, and Their Wives,” The American Genealogist 84(2010):300–7.
“Identifying Wives and Parents for Two Men Named Daniel Baldwin Marrying in Newtown, CT, in the 1750s,” Connecticut Ancestry 56(2013):49–52.
“The Children of Kezia Judd of Farmington, Connecticut, and Ebenezer Combs of Farmington and Simsbury, Connecticut, with Each Other and with their Spouses Zadock Orvis, Kezia Alderman, and Margaret Young,” The Connecticut Nutmegger 47(2014):25–39.