Essex County Massachusetts Probate Records 1665-1674

Sample Last Will and Testament

The “Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay” established a judicial system in 1628, with a General Court in Boston and quarterly courts in major towns like Salem and Ipswich by 1635. These courts managed probate matters, and after Essex County’s formation in 1643, individual probate courts were later established in 1692. These are the probate records from 1665 to 1674, sourced from various original documents, including detailed wills and estate settlements.

Ashfield Massachusetts Vital Records

Main Street, Ashfield, Massachusetts

Alphabetical indexes to the vital records of Ashfield, Massachusetts, up to the year 1850, supplemented by information from bible records, church registers, cemetery inscriptions and other sources. PDF file is free to read and download.

Brown Genealogy

Brown Genealogy

In 1895, Cyrus Henry Brown began collecting family records of the Brown family, initially with the intention of only going back to his great-grandfathers. As others became interested in the project, they decided to trace the family lineage back to Thomas Brown and his wife Mary Newhall, both born in the early 1600s in Lynn, Massachusetts. Thomas, John, and Eleazer, three of their sons, later moved to Stonington, Connecticut around 1688. When North Stonington was established in 1807, the three brothers were living in the southern part of the town. Wheeler’s “History of Stonington” contains 400 records of early descendants of the Brown family, taken from the town records of Stonington. However, many others remain unidentified, as they are not recorded in the Stonington town records. For around a century, the descendants of the three brothers lived in Stonington before eventually migrating to other towns in Connecticut and New York State, which was then mostly undeveloped. He would eventually write this second volume of his Brown Genealogy adding to and correcting the previous edition. This book is free to search, read, and/or download.