Rhode Island Historical Societies

This directory lists 14 historical societies, museums, and archives in Rhode Island, among them The Preservation Society of Newport County, which maintains the Newport mansions and their archives. Rhode Island is small enough that a researcher can reach the State Archives, the Rhode Island Historical Society, and most town halls in a single day, and this guide is organized to make that day productive.

Providence was settled in 1636, the colony received its royal charter in 1663, and Rhode Island was the last of the thirteen original states to ratify the Constitution, on May 29, 1790. The state has five counties (Bristol, Kent, Newport, Providence, and Washington), but they are little more than judicial districts: deeds, vital records, probate, and tax lists have always been kept by the 39 cities and towns, not by the counties. Statewide vital registration began in January 1853, early for the United States, and the state took its own census seven times between 1865 and 1935, so Rhode Island genealogy is unusually well supplied with name lists once you know to look at the town level.

Featured Historical Societies

Major repositories in Rhode Island

• Rhode Island State Archives, 33 Broad Street, Providence, a division of the Department of State. Free and open to the public weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., it holds more than 10 million letters, photographs, and state documents, including colonial records, military rolls, and the older statewide vital records, which can be searched online with an option to request certified copies. Its ArchivesSpace catalog is at catalog.sos.ri.gov, and research appointments can be booked through sos.ri.gov/divisions/state-archives.
• Rhode Island Historical Society, 110 Benevolent Street, Providence. Its Mary Elizabeth Robinson Research Center holds over 100,000 printed books, 110,000 photographs, more than 1,100 manuscript collections, 3,400 maps, and 20,000 prints, plus the state's largest newspaper collection (rihs.org). The society recently moved to a new catalog system, so contact the library if an older catalog link fails.
• Providence Public Library, downtown Providence. Its Rhode Island subject guide indexes the library's local collections and databases, and its Special Collections department runs the digital lab behind the Rhode Island Digital Newspaper Project (provlib.org/subject-guides/rhode-island).
• John Hay Library, Brown University, Providence. Brown's special collections library, with manuscripts and printed Rhode Islandiana (library.brown.edu/hay).

All four are within about a mile of each other on the East Side and downtown, which makes Providence one of the easiest research trips in New England.

Rhode Island vital records: 1853 registration and the 100-year rule

Rhode Island began statewide registration of births, marriages, and deaths in January 1853, and compliance was general by 1915. Before 1853 the town clerk is the only official source, and town registers in some communities reach back to the 1630s.

• Current custodian: the Rhode Island Department of Health's vital records office at 3 Capitol Hill, Providence, holds all records since 1853 and issues certified copies (health.ri.gov/records). Town and city clerks can also issue copies for events in their own town.
• The 100-year and 50-year rule: births and marriages become public 100 years after the event, and deaths after 50 years. Records within those windows are available only to the person named, immediate family, or others with a legal interest.
• Older records at the State Archives: once records pass the public threshold they are transferred to the Rhode Island State Archives, which has put them into a searchable online vital records index with images and certified copy ordering. Start there for any 19th-century or early 20th-century event.
• Before 1853: James N. Arnold's Vital Record of Rhode Island, 1636 to 1850 (21 volumes, published 1891 to 1912) abstracts town registers, church records, and newspaper notices for the whole state. It is indexed, widely reprinted, and on FamilySearch and Ancestry, but always confirm an entry in the original town book.
• Divorces: early cases are in supreme court records; from 1905 onward the Clerk of the Family Court, 1 Dorrance Plaza, Providence, holds them.

Land evidence records: deeds are held by the town, not the county

Rhode Island is a state-land state with no federal land records. The earliest grants were made by the colony and by town proprietors, and those colonial records are known as land evidences; proprietors' records survive from as early as 1659 for the Narragansett country. The term stuck: to this day Rhode Island towns call their deed books Land Evidence Records, and the official who keeps them is the town clerk or, in the larger cities, a Recorder of Deeds within the clerk's office.

Because the county has no role, you must know the town: a farm that straddled a town line will appear in two sets of books. Many towns have placed their land evidence indexes online through a vendor; for the rest, the town clerk's vault is open during business hours.

• Colonial land evidences: the original colony-level records are at the Rhode Island State Archives.
• Town deed books on microfilm: FamilySearch holds copies of Rhode Island town records to about 1880 and 218 reels of town deeds and mortgages for 1677 to 1901, which you can view at a FamilySearch center without visiting every town hall.
• Proprietors' records: for the initial division of a town's land among its first purchasers, ask the town clerk and the Historical Society; the proprietors' book is often separate from the land evidence series.

Our guide to tracing a property's deed history applies directly; just substitute "town clerk" wherever it says "county recorder."

Rhode Island newspapers and city directories

The Rhode Island Digital Newspaper Project is a partnership formed in 2019 between Providence Public Library and the Rhode Island Historical Society under the National Digital Newspaper Program. With a $250,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress, the two institutions committed to digitizing more than 50,000 pages of historic Rhode Island newspapers from the Historical Society's microfilm and contributing them to Chronicling America, where Rhode Island titles now run from 1777 into the early 20th century (rinewspapers.org). The project site keeps an updated list of digitized Rhode Island titles and links to each one.

For titles not yet digitized, the Rhode Island Historical Society's newspaper collection is the state's deepest, and Providence Public Library holds microfilm of the Providence dailies. Local societies in Newport, Westerly, Woonsocket, and Bristol often hold their own town paper.

Providence city directories run annually from the mid-1800s, and Newport, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, and Westerly directories start later in the century. Ask Providence Public Library and the Historical Society which years they hold; a Providence directory is frequently the only record that places an immigrant family on a specific street between censuses. See our article on old city directories for how to read them.

State censuses and statewide indexes

Rhode Island took seven state censuses: 1865, 1875, 1885, 1905, 1915, 1925, and 1935. From 1885 onward they list every household member, and the 1905 to 1935 enumerations are especially valuable because they fall between the federal counts and because the 1890 federal census is lost. All are indexed on FamilySearch, Ancestry, or both, and the originals are held in Rhode Island.

• 1774 colonial census: heads of household for the whole colony, indexed on Ancestry.
• 1777 military census: a wartime count of men able to bear arms, indexed with images on Ancestry.
• Federal censuses: 1790 through 1950, with Rhode Island present from the first.
• State Archives vital records index: the online search described above, covering public births, marriages, and deaths from 1853.
• Arnold's Vital Record: the standard pre-1853 compilation, 21 volumes.

For military research, start with the State Archives for colonial and Revolutionary War rolls and the Historical Society's manuscript catalog for Civil War regimental papers. Because so many Rhode Island families worked at sea, ask the Historical Society about maritime and shipping records, which can stand in for census records for seafaring households.

Researching a house or building in Rhode Island

The state historic preservation office is the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission, established in 1968 (preservation.ri.gov). It conducts the statewide survey of historic buildings and sites, nominates properties to the National Register of Historic Places and the Rhode Island State Register, administers grants and historic tax credits, and reviews projects for their effect on cultural resources.

Its most useful product for a house researcher is the series of survey reports, one for each of the 39 cities and towns plus several neighborhoods and thematic studies. Staff historians compiled them property by property in the field, and the reports are posted as free PDFs on the commission's website. If your building is in one, you already have an architectural description and an estimated date; if it is not, the report's historical overview still tells you when your street was developed.

• Deeds: the town's Land Evidence Records, as described above.
• Maps: Sanborn fire insurance maps cover Rhode Island's cities and mill towns; check the Library of Congress's online Sanborn collection and Providence Public Library. Nineteenth-century atlases with owners' names are among the Historical Society's 3,400 maps.
• Tax and probate: both are town records; a probate inventory often describes the house room by room.

Our guides on dating a house and researching an old building walk through the sequence, and finding a burial helps with the small family cemeteries that dot rural Rhode Island.

Working with Rhode Island's town historical societies

Rhode Island's societies follow the town map, and several towns have more than one because villages keep their own. Expect limited hours and collections that are strongest in photographs, family papers, and village business records. Newport is the exception, with a cluster of professional institutions led by the Preservation Society. When a town society cannot help, the town clerk's vault and the Rhode Island Historical Society's manuscript catalog are the next two places to look, and for anything older than 1853 the clerk is usually the better bet.

Additional Rhode Island History Resources

• Rhode Island State Archives - 33 Broad Street, Providence; colonial records, military rolls, public vital records with online search
• Rhode Island State Archives Catalog - ArchivesSpace catalog of collections and digital materials
• Rhode Island Department of Health Vital Records - Birth, death, and marriage certificates from 1853 to the present
• Rhode Island Historical Society - Robinson Research Center, 110 Benevolent Street, Providence; manuscripts, maps, newspapers
• Rhode Island Digital Newspaper Project - List of Rhode Island titles digitized for Chronicling America
• Providence Public Library: Rhode Island subject guide - Local history collections, directories, and databases
• Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission - State Historic Preservation Office; survey reports for all 39 cities and towns
• John Hay Library, Brown University - Special collections including Rhode Island manuscripts
• FamilySearch Wiki: Rhode Island Land and Property - Explains town-held land evidence records and available microfilm

Frequently Asked Questions

When did Rhode Island start keeping statewide birth, marriage, and death records?

In January 1853. Compliance was general by 1915. The Department of Health holds records from 1853 forward and issues certified copies, while births and marriages more than 100 years old and deaths more than 50 years old are public and have been transferred to the Rhode Island State Archives, which offers an online search with images. For events before 1853, use the town clerk's registers and Arnold's 21-volume Vital Record of Rhode Island, 1636 to 1850.

Why can't I find a Rhode Island deed at the county courthouse?

Because Rhode Island counties do not record deeds. Land records, called Land Evidence Records, have been kept by each of the 39 cities and towns since colonial times, and colonial-era grants (the original land evidences) are at the State Archives. Go to the clerk of the town where the property lies, or view FamilySearch's microfilm of town deeds, which covers 1677 to 1901.

Which Rhode Island state censuses survive?

Seven: 1865, 1875, 1885, 1905, 1915, 1925, and 1935, plus a 1774 colonial census of heads of household and a 1777 military census. The 1885 and later censuses name every household member. All are indexed on FamilySearch or Ancestry.

Where can I read old Rhode Island newspapers online?

On Chronicling America, where the Rhode Island Digital Newspaper Project (Providence Public Library and the Rhode Island Historical Society, funded by a 2019 National Digital Newspaper Program grant) has contributed more than 50,000 pages of titles dating from 1777 into the early 20th century. The project website at rinewspapers.org lists every digitized Rhode Island title.