Massachusetts Genealogical Archives

   It is wise to acquaint yourself with any repository which you might visit by writing to the appropriate archive or library in advance. Every repository has published materials that introduce its collections and research policy. State archives and historical agencies also have Internet sites that provide the same information. Some even have downloadable databases for some or parts of their collections.

• National Archives - Northeast Region, Boston, Frederick C. Murphy Federal Center, 380 Trapelo Road, Waltham, Massachusetts, 02452-6399; Phone: (781) 663-0130, Fax: (781) 663-0154, E-mail: waltham.archives@nara.gov (Serves Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.)
• Commonwealth Museum and State Archives Building, 220 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, MA 02125; (617) 727-2816, fax 288-8429
  As the Massachusetts State Archives, the repository holds all state copies of vital records (1841-95); passenger lists for the Port of Boston (1848-91); federal census records (state copies, 1850-70, with 1880 on microfilm) with all supplemental federal schedules and state censuses for 1855 and 1865; legislative records from the General Court with land grants, petitions, tax records (1643-1787); Eastern land records for the settlement of Maine; human service institution records,; all military records for the state through the Revolution; records of human services institutions; and Judicial Archives beginning with colony era courts to mid-nineteenth century courts.
• Berkshire Athenaeum, 1 Wendell Avenue, Pittsfield, MA 01202
  The Cooke Collection of eighteenth and nineteenth century church and cemetery records here also includes abstracts of newspaper notices of marriages and deaths; the personal records of ministers; and vital records which supplement the Systematic Series. Serves Massachusetts, Vermont, and Hudson Valley, New York, as well, since the area was a major conduit for movement north and west. The Berkshire Family History Association, Box 1437, Pittsfield, MA 01201, is connected with the Athenaeum and provides a research service in the collections for its members.

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Historical & Genealogical Societies

   "Genealogists are generally positive and energetic, and most are ready to share their findings or research experience with anyone they can help. There are hundreds of genealogical societies at the grass-roots level. Knowledge of the genealogical community will place you in the midst of much activity, increase your productivity, and alert you to the importance of research standards and etiquette."
Sandra Hargreaves Luebking, Editor of FGS Forum,
Co-editor of The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy

   Because family history research relies greatly upon records found at the county level, many local societies represent counties. Organizations also form around shared interests. Ethnic or religious origins account for many groups, such as the Polish Genealogical Society of America and P.O.I.N.T. (Pursuing Our Italian Names Together). Societies also form around common locales of origin for members’ ancestors; hence, the Palatines to America and Germans from Russia societies. To locate these and other societies, consult Juliana Szucs Smith’s The Ancestry Family Historian’s Address Book. It lists addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and Internet addresses of thousands of organizations throughout the United States.
For almost every state there is a state genealogical society, a state genealogical council, or both. In addition to their own work, state-level groups sometimes help coordinate the efforts of local societies within the state. Their publications, newsletters and quarterlies, supplement those produced by the local societies.

• Massachusetts Library Directory
• New England Historic Genealogical Society, 101 Newbury Street, Boston, MA 02116-3087
  Founded in the mid-nineteenth century, the society is an extremely active center for New England family research, with an extensive collection of local and family histories, educational programs, and superior publications, including the Register, a quarterly periodical, and Nexus, a bi-monthly newsletter, both distributed to the membership. Library facilities of open stacks (except for manuscripts and rare books) and microfilm collections of New England town and vital records are available on a per-day basis for a $10 fee (free for members). The book loan department makes materials available by mail to members for a small fee, a four-volume catalog provides access to the circulating books. A research service is available to the general public for a fee.
• The Pilgrim Society, 75 Court Street, Plymouth, MA 02360
  Connected with the Pilgrim Hall Museum which holds the Plymouth County Court Record Books from 1686-1859, the collection focuses on the Pilgrim experience in Plymouth.
• General Society of Mayflower Descendants, Four Winslow Street, Plymouth, MA 02360
  As the national headquarters for state organizations of descendants of Mayflower Pilgrims, it presently publishes the Mayflower Quarterly and the five-generation project. There is a research library available.
• Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02215; Main number: (617) 536-1608.
  Although not a genealogical library, the collection includes rare books, personal papers, manuscripts, particularly the Thwing Collection of Early Bostonians, and rare books focusing particularly on Boston, Massachusetts and New England.
• American Antiquarian Society, 185 Salisbury Street, Worcester, MA 01609
  Superior collection specializing in printed sources of American history prior to 1877.
• Massachusetts Society of Genealogists, Inc., PO Box 215, Ashland, MA 01721-0215; Phone: 508-892-1225
• State Library of Massachusetts, 341 State House, Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02133; Ph: 617.727.2590
  Its genealogical collection includes extensive newspaper collections and indexes; town and county histories; town and county maps and atlases; and city directories back to 1787.
• Essex Institute Library, 132-134 Essex Streetm, Salem, MA 01970
  Largest collection of Essex County original source material and a good collection of published genealogies and town histories for Essex County. This private library, open to annual membership or for a daily fee, currently has the pre-1800 Essex County Court records. There is no fee charged for patrons using only the Essex County court records.
• Boston Public Library, Copley Square, Boston, MA 02117
  Both the Social Science Reference Department and Microtext Department have important collections for genealogical research. The former holds family genealogies and vertical file material not found elsewhere. Microtext has an extensive collection of census records for New England; copies of National Archives' Boston ship passenger arrival lists 1820-91; and indexes for 1848-90; 1899 and 1902-6; probate records for Middlesex, Suffolk, and Hampshire counties; Suffolk Court of Common Pleas; town records; newspapers, including the Boston Evening Transcript and indexes; and city directories from over 200 cities and towns in the United States.
• Massachusetts Valley Historical Museum Library and Archives
  Springfield Library Genealogy Department, 194 State Street, Springfield, MA 01103
  Serving the western portion of the state extremely well, this collection (formerly at the Springfield Public Library) holds an excellent local archives for Springfield and vicinity starting in 1636. This is one of the better collections of ethnic materials available-French Canadian, Irish, and black. Volunteers answer mail inquiries. Western Massachusetts Genealogical Society, Inc., Box 80206, Forest Park Station, Springfield, MA 01108, is a membership organization functioning in connection with the museum

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Massachusetts Genealogical Publications

Search The PERiodical Source Index

   A large number of periodicals is published concerning Massachusetts families and history. Statewide or regional publications include the following:
 [ see specific county page for individual county list ]

• The New England Historical and Genealogical Register
  published since 1847 by the society, serves all of New England and sets a standard for professional research with genealogies, local history, vital, church, and cemetery records and important book reviews. Each volume has an every-name annual index. A cumulative index across volumes is available
• The Mayflower Descendant: A Quarterly Magazine of Pilgrim Genealogy and History (1899-1936; 1985-present) and
  The Mayflower Quarterly (1935-present)
  are excellent for family articles and abstracts, particularly of vital and probate records. The Mayflower Descendant is indexed in separate volumes, in addition to a consolidated index for 1899-1936. The Mayflower Quarterly has only annual indexes. They are both published by the Mayflower Society
• The Essex Genealogist: (Essex, Mass., 1980-present)
  published by the Essex Society of Genealogists, c/o Lynnfield Public Library, 18 Summer Street, Lynnfield, Massachusetts 01940.
• Berkshire Genealogist: (1978- present)
  a quarterly devoted to western Massachusetts, published by the Berkshire Family History Association, Box 1437, Pittsfield, Massachusetts 01201.
• The American Genealogist (TAG)
  (Dept. A, 128 Massasoit Drive, Warwick, RI 02888) an independent quarterly founded by Donald Lines Jacobus in 1922, its primary focus is New England.
• Essex Institute Historical Collections (1859-present)
  and Essex Antiquarian
  A Quarterly Magazine Devoted to the Biography, Genealogy, History and Antiquities of Essex County, Massachusetts (1897-1909) cover considerable primary and secondary source material for Essex County.
• Other periodicals, now longer publishing, with historical material include:
• The Historical Collections of Danvers Historical Society: (Danvers, Mass., 1913-67)
• The Dedham Historical Register: (Dedham, Mass., 1890-1903)
• The Medford Historical Register: (Medford, Mass., 1898-1940)

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Massachusetts Newspapers

Search Historical Newspapers

   Besides proclaiming the events of the world, Massachusetts newspapers include some notices of deaths and marriages since 1704. A good number of these have been indexed in either published or typescript form.

The largest collection of microfilm copies of newspapers in the state can be found at the Boston Public Library at Copley Square and the Massachusetts State Library. But perhaps the most important newspaper for genealogical purposes, and one which should not be overlooked in Massachusetts research, is the Boston Evening Transcript. It offered, between 1895 and 1941, a genealogical column of queries, answers, and notes. Indexes to these valuable columns are available at the Boston Public Library along with those of the Hartford Times.

   While records of birth, marriage, and death are the most commonly sought and the most consistently helpful records, only the genealogist’s imagination and resourcefulness limit newspapers’ usefulness in supplying clues about historical events, local history, probate court and legal notices, real estate transactions, political biographies, announcements, notices of new and terminated partnerships, business advertisements, and notices for settling debts.

   Newspapers can provide at least a partial substitute for nonexistent civil records. For example, a person’s obituary may have appeared in a newspaper even when civil death records for that person do not exist. And newspapers are an important source of marriage records, particularly in those states where civil recording of marriages was essentially nonexistent until the twentieth century.

   Unlike official records, newspapers are not limited to a particular geographical area. They often include reports of the weddings of local citizens (even those that occurred in a neighboring county or another state), and they sometimes report visits of geographically distant relatives or the visits of former local residents. They often published death notices of individuals who had left the area long before but who still had local family or friends as well. In each case the newspaper account can identify the date and place of an event, thus opening the possibility of turning up additional documentation in other sources.

   The first step in searching a newspaper is to identify those which served the area of interest and which have survived. The three most necessary tools are bibliographies (What was published?), inventories of library and depository holdings (Where is it?), and indexes (How do I find what I want in it?).

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