The old Tufts Kinsmen Newsletter is great source for blog stories. I have recently begun to re-read Herb Adams Tufts Kinsmen newsletter and the Volume 1, Number 1, dated spring 1975, was a full six pages. In later editions, Herb ran a “giant query” in the final two pages where he listed families with blanks for members to fill out and return to him. 

In Volume 1, he explained how returns from his first edition book were positive as he was unsure how they would be received. There is an article about black Tufts families, an article on Jennie Makepeace of Maine, Norm Tufts of Ontario, Charles H. Tufts of Connecticut, and others in a world news article.

Jennie Makepeace
Herb’s article about Jennie Makepeace is interesting. His interest seems to be in what a great genealogist she was. I wonder what has become of all her research notebooks. I am sure a lot of the information contained in the Tufts notebook Herb borrowed found its way into the book.

Norm Tufts

I met Norm Tufts at one of my first Tufts Kinsmen Association meetings. He was very interested in testing DNA to see if his family was related to Peter Tufts’ family detailed in Tufts Kinsmen. We were not able to make the connection by testing our DNA but it is possible there is a more distant link. Please visit the DNA page to learn more about DNA for genealogy. There is some great history associated with this family that Norm has shared. Some work was done by Herb Adams to complete a detailed genealogy for Norm’s family. It can be researched at the Tufts University Digital Collections and Archives.

A set of the newsletters is included in the Tufts Family collection at Tufts University Digital Collections and Archives for researchers to view. https://dca.tufts.edu/

https://dl.tufts.edu/concern/eads/0v8389783/fa
(The link above leads to a more descriptive page about the collections.)