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The following county pages has beginning dates and locations of Massachusetts deeds, probates, and court records. Inquiries for land records should be addressed “Registry of Deeds” at the county (or district) seat. In some counties division of the Registry of Deeds became necessary to make the location closer to the land involved in the transaction. Make sure the deed information sought falls in the appropriate district for the time period and geography involved.
The “Probate Court Clerk” at county seat should be addressed for probate records; and “Clerk of Courts” for civil court records. Choose from the counties below to view the county information.
Town Resources
Nearly all of the vital records have been microfilmed and are available either through the FHL, Massachusetts State Archives, Berkshire Athenaeum, or Boston Public Library. In addition, only a handful of towns do not have some of their births and marriages included in the latest (1988) IGI.
Early records of town meetings have been published for a number of Massachusetts towns and some are interspersed in the original vital record books on microfiche distributed by Archive Publishing, 57 Locust Street, Oxford, MA 01540. Those for Middlesex County towns are at the Boston Public Library, New England Historic Genealogical Society, or can be acquired through Early Massachusetts Records, Inc., 1154 Boylston, Boston, MA 02215. A descriptive guide to the collection was published in 1976 and can be obtained from that address.
The researcher should assume that vital records, whether in separate books or in town records, begin with the formation of the town, as do the town records. See parent towns for earlier records; and the county (see County Resources) for beginning dates of deeds, probates, and court records. Clerks respond to inquires regarding vital records, since most have indexes available, but unindexed town records with details of town life - officers, tax lists, freeman's lists, cattle and hog marks, voting lists, warnings out, overseer's of the poor accounts, school records - must be searched in person either through microfilm or at the town's office.
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