The Helberg Collection consists of three Vermont farm ledgers (1806-1842); Underwood family Vermont land records (1792-1836); Bliss and Woodward-Underwood family genealogies; T.J. Edson Iowa and Wisconsin land records (1856-1867); and, T.J. Edson's Civil War correspondence, other Civil War papers and pension records (1867-1916).

Five New England families: the Blisses, the Edsons, the Tylers, the Woodwards and the Underwoods, are represented in this collection. The Bliss family lived at Fairlee, Orange County, Vermont, while the Tylers evidently lived and farmed slightly to the north in the vicinity of Bradford (1806-1834). Nothing is known of their relationship to the other families represented in this collection save that all apparently originated in the same area of east central Vermont, for John Underwood Jr. likewise lived and farmed in the vicinity of Bradford (1819-1841). In the next generation, T.J. Edson fought with the 38th Iowa Infantry during the Civil War in the course of which he was stationed at Vicksburg, Miss. and later at Brownsville, Tex. Edson wrote copiously throughout the War to his family in Iowa. He was married (1858) to Amine Woodward whose family had intermarried with the Underwoods and had been friendly with the Blisses. Some members of these families had evidently moved from Vermont to Johnstown Center, Wisc., where Amine Woodward's family lived, sometime after 1840.

Collection is open for research.