The Genealogical and Local History rooms at the Brooks Memorial Library contain approximately 2,500 volumes. Other resources include a photo archives of approximately 3,000 images of Brattleboro and Windham County.

Located on the mezzanine, the rooms are open during regular library hours. Genealogical and local history requests searched for a fee.

Please complete the AncestorAsk form to send an inquiry.

A local area genealogy interest group meets monthly in the room. For more information about joining, please send email to Joann Nichols, jnichols@sover.net.

Below are listed some of the most frequently used items in the collection:

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Brattleboro (Library card required.)

Large collection of the Massachusetts vital record books to 1850;

Many Massachusetts town histories;

Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolutionary War, and in the Civil War;

Many Vermont town histories;

Vermont town cemetery inscriptions by Margaret R. Jenks;

Some Windham Co., VT cemetery listings;

Vermont War indexes;

Vermont State Papers;

Walton's Vermont Registers 1812-1923;

Vermont Year Book 1931-current;

Brattleboro Town Directories starting 1871-72 to present;

Genealogical Society of Vermont Branches & Twigs (missing Vol. 9);

The Vermonter Magazine;

Vermont Life Magazine;

Vermont Historical Society Quarterly and News & Notes;

Vermont State Papers;

Early Brattleboro newspapers [microfilm reader/printer on first floor];

1790 Census, Heads of Families for New England;

1790 and 1800 Census for Vermont and New Hampshire;

1790 to 1920 Windham County Census on microfilm;
See Heritage Quest  for online U.S. Census information. (Library card required.)

Scrapbooks of Brattleboro Local History;

Some NH, CT, RI, ME, NY histories;

Connecticut Nutmegger journals, Vol. 10-25;

American Canadian Genealogical Society Journals from inception to present;

Western New York Genealogical Society Journals;

Boston Transcript queries in notebooks (indexed 1902-1913 and 1930-1940);
others not indexed;

Hartford Times queries in notebooks, not indexed;

Mayflower Descendants vols 1-26 with assorted loose copies;

Mayflower families through five generations: descendants of the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth, Mass., December 1620 to the Fifth Generation Vol. 1, 2, 3;

New England Historical and Genealogical Register to date;
indexes through Vol. 148;

Passenger and immigration lists index: a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers by P. William Filby, volumes through 1992;

American Genealogical Index through Vol. 40;

DAR Lineage books;

Many genealogical research books, how to, etc.;

Many family genealogies, some are in manuscript form;

File cabinets with folders regarding local history and local historical figures;

Old Bibles; most printed in Brattleboro in the early 1800s;

Books printed in Brattleboro and in Vermont;

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