This is a collection of free vital records books, otherwise known as “Tan Books” for Massachusetts towns. Generally, these records go up to 1849/1850 at which, the genealogist can use the census records to assist in identifying the family connections further. Included with this article is an account of why and how these manuscripts were published along with links to all 198 books which can be freely read or downloaded.
The writer who seeks to portray the life and advancement of a people-no matter how far he may be under the control of theories pointing otherwise-must at last come to the individual and seek his best material in the lives and records of those by whom the works he would describe have been performed. Thus biography becomes not merely a side light to history, but the very essence and vitality of history itself. In the story of the man of affairs you tell that of his times as well. Viewed thus, it does not need be said that the true … Read more
The Massachusetts Tax Valuation List of 1771 contains the names and descriptions of taxable property of nearly 38,000 individuals who resided in 152 Massachusetts towns in 1771
HON. HENRY W. CORBETT. – The reminiscences of the early pioneers of the Pacific Northwest must ever posses a peculiar interest for all who can look back to the days when the wigwam of the Indian was seen on every hand, and when the old log cabins of the founders of this great section of the union were few and far between. Pioneers of civilization constitute no ordinary class of adventurers. Resolute, ambitious and enduring, looking into a great and possible future of the undeveloped country, and possessing the sagacious mind to grasp true conclusions, and the indomitable will to … Read more
A Narrative of the captivity of Nehemiah How, who was taken by the Indians at the Great Meadow Fort above Fort Dummer, where he was an inhabitant, October 11th, 1745. Giving an account of what he met with in his traveling to Canada, and while he was in prison there. Together with an account of Mr. How’s death at Canada. Exceedingly valuable for the many items of exact intelligence therein recorded, relative to so many of the present inhabitants of New England, through those friends who endured the hardships of captivity in the mountain deserts and the damps of loathsome prisons. Had the author lived to have returned, and published his narrative himself, he doubtless would have made it far more valuable, but he was cut off while a prisoner, by the prison fever, in the fifty-fifth year of his age, after a captivity of one year, seven months, and fifteen days. He died May 25th, 1747, in the hospital at Quebec, after a sickness of about ten days. He was a husband and father, and greatly beloved by all who knew him.