Alicia Crane Williams (b. 1947) inherited her interest in family history, as well as all of the family papers, antiques and photographs, from her maternal grandmother, who, in the 1950s, typed four carbon copies of their genealogy for her four grandchildren. Alicia first followed a love of horses and earned a B.S. degree in Animal Husbandry at the University of Connecticut in 1969, but with few employment opportunities went on to earn a certificate from her mother’s alma mater, Katharine Gibbs Secretarial School, Boston, in 1970. She worked as a secretary at Claiborne Farm, a world-renowned Thoroughbred horse breeding establishment in Paris, Kentucky, where one of her responsibilities was typing five-generation charts of the horses’ pedigrees. Returning to Massachusetts in 1972, Alicia worked for Honeywell Information Systems, where she was exposed to the infant world of computers while working toward a M.A. degree in Historical Agencies and Administration from Northeastern University, Boston, attained in 1982. In 1979 she became Executive Secretary of the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants and editor in 1985 of the revived periodical, Mayflower Descendant. She has also served as Historian of MSMD and as Assistant Historian General of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants. Alicia was editor of the first three volumes of Esther Woodworth-Barnes’ work on Mayflower Families Through Five Generations for the John Alden family, and of the fourth volume with John Bradley Arthaud, FASG. In 1982 she combined skills and specialized in providing genealogical research, editing and book production services for clients while caring for her parents. In 2013 Alicia became Lead Genealogist of the Early New England Families Study Project for the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston. The project’s mandate is to prepare accurate, documented treatments for nearly 30,000 post Great Migration families identified by Clarence Almon Torrey in Early New England Marriages Prior to 1700.
Books
Middleborough, Massachusetts, Vital Records, edited by Barbara Lambert Merrick and Alicia Crane Williams, 2 vols. (Boston, 1986-90).
Stone-Gregg Genealogy: The Ancestors and Descendants of Galen Luther Stone and His Wife Carrie Morton Gregg, prepared for Barbara Stone Chase, edited by Alicia Crane Williams (Baltimore, 1987).
Chase-Wigglesworth Genealogy, Ancestors and Descendants of Philip Putnam Chase and His Wife Anna Cornelia Wigglesworth, prepared for Barbara Stone Chase, edited by Alicia Crane Williams (Baltimore, 1990).
Gateway Families: Ancestors and Descendants of Richard Simrall Hawes III and Marie Christy Johnson, by Christy Hawes Bond, edited by Alicia Crane Williams (Concord, Mass., 1994).
History and Genealogy of the Jewetts of America: A Record of Edward Jewett, of Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, and of His Two Emigrant Sons, Deacon Maximillian and Joseph Jewett, Settlers of Rowley, Massachusetts, in 1639, by Theodore Victor Herrmann, “in consultation with” Alicia Crane Williams (Rowley, Mass., 1995).
Harlow Family: Descendants of Sgt. William Harlow (1624/5-1691) of Plymouth, edited by Alicia Crane Williams, publication sponsored by the Harlow Family Association (Baltimore, 1997).
Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, Vol. 16, John Alden, 3 vols., compiled by Esther Littleford Woodworth-Barnes, edited by Alicia Crane Williams (Plymouth, Mass., 1999-2004).
The Crane Family of Dalton, Massachusetts: Descendants of Zenas5 Crane and His Line of Descent from Henry1 Crane of Milton, Massachusetts, compiled by Josephine Boardman Greene, John Kittredge, and Judith Hill Kittredge, edited by Alicia Crane Williams (Dalton, Mass., 2005).
The Babson Genealogy, 1606-2017, Descendants of Thomas and Isabel Babson who first arrived in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1637, by Alicia Crane Williams, 2 vols. (Gloucester, Mass.: Babson Historical Association, 2017).
Early New England Families, 1641-1700, edited by Alicia Crane Williams, vol. 1 (Boston, 2016).
Articles
[Review] “Five Generations Project,” The Mayflower Descendant [MD] 38 (Jan. 1988): 83-88.
“John Alden: Theories on English Ancestry, Part One” MD 39 (July 1989): 111-12.
“John Alden: Theories on English Ancestry, Part Two,” MD 40 (July 1990): 133-36.
“Reed Families of Middleborough, Swansey, and Dartmouth,” MD 40 (July 1990): 123-32
“Alden Notes: Sarah Alden, Wife of Joseph Crossman,” MD 42 (July 1992): 125-28 [research by Neil D. Thompson, FASG].
“Alden Notes: Henry, the Non-Mayflower Alden,” MD 43 (Jan. 1993): 21-30; 44 (Jan. 1994): 27-30; 44 (July 1994): 181-84; 45 (Jan. 1995): 9-12 [with Esther Littleford Woodworth-Barnes].
“Descendants of Joseph Wormall of Scituate,” MD 43 (July 1993): 153-60 [with Donna Valley Russell]
“Hepzibah Alden’s Silver Box, the Scandal of Ann Sargent Gage, and Some Descendants of Nathaniel3 (John2-1) Alden,” MD 45 (Jan. 1995]: 1-8.
“John Wood, Alias Atwood,” of Plymouth, Massachusetts,” MD 44 (July 1994): 137-42; 45 (Jan. 1995): 9-12; 45 (July 1995): 127-30; 46 (Jan. 1996): 15-20.
“Stephen Wood, Alias Atwood, of Eastham, Massachusetts,” MD 46 (July 1996): 131-36; 47 (Jan. 1997): 33-40; 47 (July 1997): 123-30.
“The Alden Family: A Look at the First Four Generations,” 48 (July 1998): 107-10.
“Henry Wood, Alias Atwood, of Middleborough, Massachusetts,” MD 48 (Jan. 1998) 13-20); 48 (July 1998): 135-40; 49 (Jan. 2000): 55-61; 49 (Summer 2000): 119-24.
“Unrecorded Will of Jabez Fuller, Husband of Edward Doty Descendant Hannah5 Pratt,” MD 60 (Autumn 2011): 179-80.
“The Family Bible of Edward Bartlett: Providing Additions to Mayflower Families, Vol. 18, Part 3, Richard Warren,” MD 62 (Spring 2013): 52-54.
“A Failed Attempt to Document Claimed Descendants of Reuben4 Paddock of Yarmouth, Massachusetts,” MD 62 (Spring 2013): 92-97.
“Clements Township, Annapolis County, Nova Scotia, Deeds,” The American Genealogist [TAG] 55 (Jan. 1979): 32-62.
“Ancestor Table: CCXXIX, Alicia Crane Williams,” TAG 57 (July 1981): 171-72.
[Review] Massachusetts Genealogical Research, by George K. Schweitzer, TAG 66 (July 1991): 187-88.
[Review] East Greenwich, Rhode Island, Historical Cemetery Inscriptions, by Bruce Campbell MacGunnigle, TAG 67 (July 1992): 189-90.
[Review] An Emerson-Benson Saga, by Edmund K. Swigart, New England Historical and Genealogical Register 149 (July 1995): 315-17.
“The Early New England Families Study Project,” American Ancestors 14 (Spring 2013): 16-18.