The Clifford Abbott Papers contain family group sheets, charts, notes, and other material related to his own ancestry, or the ancestry of family and friends. Highlights of the collection include research on Abbott families of Massachusetts and Maine, Polish families of Newmarket, New Hampshire, and allied French-Canadian and Irish families. Many folders in the collection contain a brief introduction by Abbott, explaining the contents of the folder and the connections to his own family history.

The collection is organized in four series. The first series includes genealogical research on the Abbott family of Andover, Massachusetts and Fryeburg, Maine. Much of this series focuses on descendants of George¹ Abbott (1615-1681) of Andover, Mass., including Clifford Nelson Abbott (1931-2012), Arthur Ernest Abbott (1916-1990), and the allied families of James Cummings Bundy (1842-1919) and James Emerson (1826-1912), The series also includes folders on the unrelated families of George Abbott (1821-1897) and Florence Abbott Robbins (1899-1994). In addition, the Abbott family series includes research files of notes and annotated published material on the Abbott family, including a copy of “Early Records of the Abbott Family of Andover, Massachusetts,” by Charlotte Helen Abbott. Clifford Abbott also extracted information on Abbotts in Fryeburg, Maine; Conway, New Hampshire; and surrounding towns from vital records, cemetery inscriptions, and census records.

The second series contains research files on the families of Newmarket, New Hampshire. One sub-series includes copies of newspaper clippings, funeral cards, and photographs on Newmarket families. Additional information on most of these individuals and families may be found in other research files in the collection. The next sub-series includes genealogical files on Polish families that settled in Newmarket, New Hampshire. The first Polish family settled in Newmarket around 1893, but the majority arrived between 1900 and World War I. Clifford Abbott’s maternal grandparents, Frank Winiarski and Julianna Grochmal, were among the Polish immigrants who settled in Newmarket in this time period. Abbott conducted one-on-one interviews with many of the immigrants, as well as members of subsequent generations, circa 1979-2003, especially in 1985. He supplemented this information with data from town reports, federal census, obituaries, and naturalization records. Polish families include Bargiel, Biskup, Bresideski, Brongiel, Cichon, Ciolkosz, Dompkowski, Dziedzic, Gazda, Gielar, Glomb, Gonet, Gorski, Grochmal, Hendzel, Homick, Jablonski, Jakubowski, Jarosz, Kartaszewicz, Kieltyka, Kleczek, Korona, Kozol, Kustra, Kuliga, Lizak, Malek, Markowicz, Miesowicz, Olszanowski, Pelczar, Pepek, Piecuch, Piwowar, Polchlopek, Puchlopek, Radwan, Rajchel, Ross, Semple, Shina, Sklarski, Smas, Smerczynski, Sopel, Szacik, Trznadel, Wajda, Wawrzkiewicz, Wiernasz, Winiarski, Wojcik, Wojnars, Zick, Zuk, Zwiercan, Zych, and others.

The third series, French and Irish family connections, includes research on the allied families of Demers, Greaney - Graney, Mullen, Sewall, and Valliere. In addition, the series includes family group sheets, charts, and other material on the French Canadian ancestors of Clifford Nelson’s wife, Marie Blanch Germaine Vilandry, with files on the Vilandry, La Bonte, Camire, St. Hilaire, Champoux, LaLiberte, and Bernier families. The last series in the collection, Other genealogical research, includes research on a line of descent from Thomas¹ Brigham, as well as family group sheets on the ancestry and family of Colleen (Perry) Gracia (born 1971).