Grant Helps Scholars Mine Church Records For Hidden History

BOSTON - A project to digitize the records of Congregational churches across New England has received a major boost with a more than $300,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
 
The churches date to the time of the Pilgrims and were the focal point of communities across Colonial New England. Their records from 1630 to 1800 contain details not just about religious life, but of everyday matters.
 
They're being put online by the Boston-based Congregational Library and Archives Hidden Histories project.
 
Some records are already online. James Cooper, director of the Hidden Histories project, says the grant announced on Monday will allow the project to digitize an additional 18,000 documents and transcribe about 7,000 of them.
 
Cooper has spent decades searching for the records.