Acquisition Policy

What we collect

• Papers and records of professional/amateur genealogists and family associations
• Personal records in the form of correspondence, diaries, bible records, family registers, journals, wills, deeds, photographs, and other records
• Town and church records and functions (transcriptions or originals)
• Manuscript genealogies, notes or charts
• Corporate or professional records that contain valuable genealogical or historical information
• Transcriptions or other copies of documents of the national governments (i.e., naturalization, immigration, census, military, and ship records)

How we obtain manuscripts

Making a Gift to NEHGS
NEHGS, like many institutions, prefers gifts to include the transfer of any rights a donor may possess in the original material. This is requested so that NEHGS may, at its discretion, exhibit or reformat/reproduce (for preservation and/or publication) all or part of a collection in the media of our choice.

Per IRS regulations, monetary appraisals cannot be undertaken by any representative of NEHGS. All monetary appraisals will be done at the donor's expense.

Donors are asked to provide information about the collection's creator(s) or compiler(s) to assist us with cataloging.

Placing Collections on Permanent Deposit
Permanent deposits are discouraged because NEHGS must expend its limited resources towards maintaining and preserving fully donated manuscripts. In rare instances when such collections are accepted, they must be central to the acquisition policy and should have a defined limit at which time they become the property of NEHGS.