Thank youAs 2011 winds down, I'd like to thank all of you who use this site. It is especially gratifying when people let me know that they have found a lost ancestor.The work on finishing up the conversion to the new look has been slower than I had hoped. This is dependent on how much time I can spend adding indexing information to the records. This is the given name of the person, date and the person's gender. There are three people who are helping to add more indexing capability. This is the addition of the names of parents and spouses. It is done with files that I have added the previous indexing. The work on the new surname index is progressing. Conceptually, it is easy. Programming it is an entirely different matter. This year also has seen the start of indexing the Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors & Marines of the Civil War. There are over 14,700 names indexed, so far. There are four people working on this. Three are doing the Army and one is doing the Navy and Marines. After that will be the Revolutionary War. When complete, I will consider adding links into the vital records. There are two people who are helping with transcribing. I hope to be adding more transcribers in 2012. This is the most important part of the project. None of the indexing can be done until the transcriptions are done. One lady is working on Nantucket. This town is, by far, the hardest to transcribe. Finally, I'd like to thank the 28 people who made monetary contributions. This totalled $695.00. There was one for $250.00. With that, I extended the domain registration to Aug. 19, 2017. There was one contribution of $150, two of $100, one of $40, eighteen of $25, two of $20 and three of $10. This all helps me in doing things with the project. Without them, the project would have been dead a long time ago. (For more info, see the FAQS page. Anyone wishing to help with the project can contact me at project admin or my personal address. I am also the webmaster for the USS Ranger History & Memorial site. My partner and I recently changed hosts and that is paid for three years. He and I are trying to get funding that will allow us to extend hosting and domain registration for at least the next ten years. |
n the late 19th and early 20th centuries several towns and agencies compiled the vital records of over 200 Massachusetts towns and cities. Using the town records, church records, private records, gravestone inscriptions and newspaper articles, one of the finest collections of published vital records was produced. These came to be known collectively as the "Tan Book" series. These records generally comprise all of the known records from the earliest times to about 1850.
he Massachusetts Vital Records Project, in an ongoing effort, presents here the transcriptions of over 1,500,000 records from over 150 of those towns. Indexed by town and by surname, the transcriptions provide genealogists with an easy to use interface to search for their roots in Massachusetts. For proper documentation the project also provides the images of the books from which the transcriptions are done.There are two ways to search the vital records transcription. Start by selecting from one of these two links or the links in the Navigation Bar at the top of the page.
On 12 Apr 1861, 150 years ago, the first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter, Charleston, SC. It would be four bloody years, that saw the deaths of over 600,000 American men, until the cessation of open warfare on 9 Apr 1865. Massachusetts sent her share of men in an effort to save the Union. Those men are listed in the Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors & Marines of the Civil War. As an added part of the Massachusetts Vital Records Project, these books are going to be slowly indexed and available for research here. Anyone who would like to help, should write John.
- Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors & Marines of the Civil War 10/14/11
- By Towns, (latest update - 11/07/11) or
- by Surnames. (latest update - 6/7/09)
by Family lists - 
Some modifications of the files is in progress. These modifications are necessary to get ready to convert to the new format and also to get ready for new indexing.
There are several printing companies specializing in genealogical/historical books that do reprints of the books now in the public domain. You can acquire your own reprint copies of the books in hardcover or softcover. See list of books for a complete list and prices from Higginson Books. This is not to be considered an endorsement. Higginson is simply the only printer that would provide me with a list of their available books.
The Genealogical Gleaner's Award page provides links to other sites with vital records. Jane Devlin and Ray Brown also have excellent sites for genealogists.
