Highlight: Massachusetts Collections

by Amy Johnson Crow

Posted on November 27, 2013

Pilgrims are popular this time of year, but there is a lot more to Massachusetts genealogy. As Thanksgiving approaches, let's take a look at some of the Massachusetts collections on Archives.com.

If you have early ancestors from the Bay State, there are three collections you'll want to check out: Massachusetts Birth Records, Massachusetts Death Records, and Massachusetts Marriage Records, all of which cover 1659-1850.

All three collections have links to images of the published town vital records. Information varies, but usually includes the names of the parents. Occupations and other information (such as "widow of <x>" or "2nd wife") are sometimes listed.

The record for the birth of John Skinner in Mansfield in 1777 tells us that he was the son of Lt. David and Phebe Skinner.

john-skinner.jpg

Clicking through to the image, you can look through the other Skinner births in Mansfield. The records are arranged in alphabetical order, which makes it easy to scan the record for other members of the family in that town. Among Lt. David and Phebe's other children were Jarad, Lucinda, and Phebe. (You should page forward and backward to make sure that you've looked at all of the records for that surname in that town.)

skinner-births.jpg

If you have more recent Massachusetts ancestry, the Massachusetts Death Index covers more than 2 million deaths from 1970-2003. Information, when available, includes the person's name, date and place of death, birth date, and birth place.

You can find a list of all of Archives.com's Massachusetts collections here

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Archives.com!


Amy Johnson Crow is a Genealogical Content Manager for Archives.com. She is a Certified Genealogist and blogs regularly for Roots & Branches, the official Archives.com blog. Amy has deep roots in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states and she has rarely been to a cemetery that she didn't like. 

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