EXPLANATIONS

The following records of births, marriages and deaths include all entries to be found in the books of record kept by the town clerks; in the church records; in the returns made to the Salem Quarterly Court; in the cemetery inscriptions; and in several private records found in family Bibles. These records are printed in a condensed form in which every essential particular has been preserved. All duplication of the town clerk's record has been eliminated, but differences in entry and other explanatory matter appear in brackets. The copy of the original records made for the town in 1886, by William A. Stone, town clerk, has been used only when it has supplied entries now missing in the original. Parentheses are used when they occur in the original record; also to show the difference in the spelling of a name and to indicate the maiden name of a wife.
When places other than Manchester and Massachusetts are named in the original records, they are given in the printed copy. Marriages and intentions of marriage are printed under the names of both parties. Double-dating is used in the months of January, February and March, prior to 1752, whenever it appears in the original and also whenever from the sequence of entry in the original the date may be easily determined. In all records the original spelling of names is followed and in the alphabetical arrangement the various forms should be examined, as items about the same family may be found under different spellings.

ABBREVIATIONS
a age inf infant
abt about int intention of marriage
b born jr junior
bef before m male; married; month
bp baptized rec recorded
ch child s son
chn children sr senior
Co county TC town copy of records made in 1886 by William A. Stone, town clerk
CTR court record, Essex Co. Quarterly Court unm unmarried
d daughter; day; died w wife; week
Dea deacon wid widow
dup duplicate entry widr widower
h husband y year

CHURCH RECORDS
CR church record

CEMETERY RECORDS
GR Old Cemetery

PRIVATE RECORDS
(Bibles, Family Records, Etc.)
PR1 Bible record, now in the possession of the Manchester Public Library and presented by Mrs. Hooper Allen
PR2 Bible record now in the possession of William H. Allen
PR3 Record furnished by Joseph A. Torrey
PR4 Bible record now in the possession of William J. Johnson


Copyright ©2005-'07 by John Slaughter & Jodi Salerno
Last Updated: 26 September, 2007