With the start of the new school year comes many opportunities to explore social history through the offerings of local history and genealogy societies, living history villages, and repositories.
A great way to meet new people and be exposed to all aspects of genealogy and history, including records you can use in your social history research, is to join a local history or genealogy society. Here is a list of historical societies and genealogy societies in Massachusetts.
The Mass Moments website publishes an article each day on something significant in Massachusetts history that occurred on that day.
The Boston Public Library’s fall local and family history series is on Colonial Research. Two talks per month are scheduled on Wednesday evenings.
The American Antiquarian Society is sponsoring a one-woman show portraying boarding house life in Lowell in 1843. Check out this site for other upcoming events.
The Massachusetts Historical Society sponsors brown bag lunches, speaking events and seminars throughout the year. Most are free and open to the public. They also offer 5 seminars that are free and open to the public over the 2013-14 semesters. If you pay $25 you have access to the reading in advance. More information can be found here. The 5 seminars are: Early American History, Environmental History, Immigration and Urban History, and History of Women and Gender. All are focused on the Boston area.
There are several living history villages in the area that have fall programming. I have always wanted to go to the Harvest Dinner with the Pilgrims at Plimoth. Maybe this will be the year that I will make it down there.
Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, NH
Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, MA
Historic Deerfield in Deerfield, MA
Plimoth Plantation just outside of Plymouth, MA
Olde Mistic Village in Mystic, CT
bridgingthepast.com 