Wilma Kidd collection

As with most genealogical research, the Wilma Kidd Collection is most useful to the researcher interested in Wilma Kidd’s bloodline, going back in some cases to the arrival of the Mayflower in the Americas. Coverage of the collection is largely dependent on the extent of Mrs. Kidd’s research, which focused more extensively on certain family lines (notably the Armstrong, Fretter, Herron, Stevens, and Wilson families) than others. The collection also gives some insights into the amateur genealogy community of the 1970s and 1980s and how they conducted their work, particularly through the correspondence found in the first series of the collection.

The names of the majority of the key families represented in Kidd’s line are noted as subject files in the first part of the subject file series (Boxes 3-5). It might be most productive to begin research with the more refined work product of Mrs. Kidd’s research, the family binders found in Boxes 7-12 of the collection. After reviewing this work, the subject files referenced above (Boxes 3-5), which contain a great deal of raw research data, might be more useful.

Also of particular use is the Relative Report for Wilma (Johnson) Kidd, which may be found in Box 4, Folder 21. This item, which compiles research taking Kidd’s ancestry back through her paternal lines, is perhaps the most consolidated genealogical product in the collection.