Clarence Almon Torrey, FASG (1869-1962), is the 2022 inductee into the National Genealogy Hall of Fame. He was nominated for this honor by the American Society of Genealogists, and the announcement was made at NGS’s 2022 Family History Conference dinner held in Sacramento, California, on May 27, 2022.

A native of Manchester, Iowa, Torrey was educated at Cornell University and the University of Chicago. He then worked as a librarian for the University of Chicago for a few years before relocating to Massachusetts in 1921, from which point he dedicated himself wholly to genealogical research of New England families. Torrey was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists in 1942 as number 22 on the roll.

Mr. Torrey’s reputation as one of the giants in the pantheon of genealogy rests on his magnum opus: “New England Marriages Prior to 1700,” a twelve-volume manuscript (of which the original is held at the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston) that he compiled and annotated throughout his 41-year genealogical career. It lists approximately 37,000 New England couples whose marriages occurred prior to 1700, drawn from many thousands of references from printed sources. It was first published (without the references) in 1985, and has gone through many printings. It was released on CD-ROM, with the references, in 2001, and finally in book form, complete with the copious references, in 2011. Sixty years after Torrey’s death, his monumental index remains an indispensable bibliographical and demographic resource for anyone researching New England colonial families.

In addition to his compilation of colonial couples, Mr. Torrey published over fifty articles, nearly all in The American Genealogist. He specialized in uncovering English origins and identifying the maiden names of the wives of early New England and Long Island colonists. He was a careful, meticulous researcher. His long and extensive labors in the field of New England genealogy made him a kind of “elder statesman” to whom other genealogists could appeal for aid and counsel, according to his obituary written by his long-time genealogical colleague Donald Lines Jacobus in 1962. Torrey’s monumental compilation of New England marriages, as well as his individual studies of early colonial families and couples, continue to be cited regularly by scholars.

Clarence Almon Torrey, and all members of the National Genealogy Hall of Fame, are listed on the website of the National Genealogical Society.

Clarence Almon Torrey has been added to the list of Fellows named to the National Genealogical Society Hall of Fame.