Scope and arrangement
This collection consists of genealogical research materials on the Phelps and Stokes family, who were primarily New England and New York bankers and merchants, compiled and collected by Anson Phelps Stokes and his daughter, Helen Phelps Stokes, focusing on the distant English ancestors of the families.
Materials in this collection consist of correspondence with professional researchers and Stokes family members, numerical files (profiles on family members, arranged by number, mostly from the sixteen, seventeenth and eighteenth century, with a few later nineteenth century family member profiles, some of which are accompanied by original documents). Background research materials include copies and transcripts of documents such as court records, indenture documents, patent rolls, estate inventories, newspaper articles, bible records and wills, and genealogical writings and family trees. Manuscripts for genealogical works by Anson Phelps Stokes and Helen Phelps Stokes include the Stokes Records (1910), by Anson Phelps Stokes as well as other writings on the family by Helen Phelps Stokes, many of which have corresponding family trees. Original documents in the collection date back to 1709 and correspondence of William E. D. Stokes, who inherited the research materials are from as late as 1960, but the bulk of the collection, created by Anson Phelps Stokes and Helen Phelps Stokes dates from 1870-1940.
The Stokes family genealogical research papers are arranged in four series:
-
1873-1940
This series consists of correspondence, 1873-1940, of Anson Phelps Stokes and, to a lesser extent, Helen Phelps Stokes concerning research on their family history. Their correspondents include other family members and professional researchers such as Ruth T. Sperry and Lothrop Worthington.
-
1824-1911
This series consists of 186 profiles on family members, mostly from the sixteen, seventeenth and eighteenth century, with a few from the nineteenth century, arranged by number. These profiles were compiled and maintained ca. 1895-1905. The numerical files for Anson Phelps Stokes, James Stokes, Isaac Newton Stokes, Thomas Stokes and Anson Greene Phelps include original documents created by the individuals, dating from 1824-1911.
-
1709-1958
This series consists of materials collected for background research, including copies and transcripts of documents pertaining to the family members, such as court records, indenture documents, patent rolls, estate inventories, newspaper articles, bible records and wills from the twelfth though eighteenth centuries in England and Connecticut. Other background research materials include family trees and charts, pamphlets, and genealogical notes. This series also includes published pamphlets and essays (1903-1941) on the history of the Stokes family and their connections, not written by Anson Phelps Stokes and Helen Phelps Stokes.
-
1771-1960
This series contains manuscripts of genealogical works by Anson Phelps Stokes and Helen Phelps Stokes. These works include full length histories, mostly drafts of the Stokes Records, by Anson Phelps Stokes, published in 1910, and its unpublished continuations and family trees made by Helen Phelps Stokes to accompany these works. Also included are original documents and copies of documents and photographs collected as background research for specific volumes and writings. This series also includes manuscripts for Notes on the Norman-English Peck Families by Edwin Roberts Peck.