On the LDS familysearch.org website there are microfilms, under the title "Massachusetts State Archives Collection, colonial period, 1822-1788": there are 3 pages of microfilms listed including the following titles - towns, family relations, ecclesiastical, estates, etc. including the following in particular numbers: MA archives LDS films 2294195-8, 2294417-22, 1781511-12, 1781580-1, 2294223-24, 2294516-21, 2294792, 2295280, 2294846, 2322754-58, 2322914-15, 1838038-40, 1838255-57, 2400542, and several with titles such as: Rev. War misc.; Rev. Council papers, MA archives collection Revolution Resolves. Has anyone ever looked at any of these films? What can I expect? What do they contain? Do they contain things about people not published elsewhere? Is there an index? I am lookng for information on a family that doesn't seem to have left many records in the normal places, mostly in the County of Berkshire, MA so I am getting desparate. I am going to SLC in Sept and have many films to look at hoping to find something new. These would add too many to look at in 3 days - I will probably only get a fraction done anyway. HELP! Do any MA experts out there have an idea what all these films contain - i.e., is it worth looking through them (some day) for obscure information on people from MA. Thank you. Janet Buchanan _http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jbmbtrees/_ (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jbmbtrees/) Researching Beckington/McDougall/Court/Hazelton/Pierce/Lane/Rhoades/Hitchcock Abbot/Ballard/Green/Graves/Chapman/Chandler/Tibbett s/Sears/Smith/Wells/Whittemore

Janet, It may be easier, quicker and less expensive to contact the appropriate town clerks. The four western counties did not get anywhere near as much of their vital records published as the rest of the counties. There were a couple fellows, one was named Corbin, who went around and hand copied the vital records on index cards. NEHGS put these on CDs. However, the formatting leaves one heck of a lot to be desired. You can post a query to the list and there may be someone with the CD who can do a lookup for you. Getting back to the town clerks, it has been law in MA since way back in the 1600s for all town clerks to keep a record of all births, marriages and deaths. This usually included the intentions of marriage. The clerks have sent copies of the records to the State Archives since around 1841. Of course, the Archives has much more than those. I forget the cost but it is prohibitively expensive for all but large companies to buy all of the microfilms from the Archives to do even a single town. NEHGS has most of that. NEHGS has a lot of the microfilms and has transcribed them and put them in databases. Towns that do not appear in the "Tan Book" series are not merged but are in separate searchable databases. It's possible this might provide some information for you. John Slaughter Massachusetts Vital Records Project Administrator - http://MA-VitalRecords.org If you find this site of value - http://MA-VitalRecords.org/Donate.html Quoting Buch419@aol.com: > On the LDS familysearch.org website there are microfilms, under the title > "Massachusetts State Archives Collection, colonial period, 1822-1788": there > are 3 pages of microfilms listed including the following titles - towns, > family relations, ecclesiastical, estates, etc. including the following in > particular numbers: > > MA archives LDS films 2294195-8, 2294417-22, 1781511-12, 1781580-1, > 2294223-24, 2294516-21, 2294792, 2295280, 2294846, 2322754-58, 2322914-15, > 1838038-40, 1838255-57, 2400542, and several with titles such as: > Rev. War misc.; > Rev. Council papers, MA archives collection Revolution Resolves. > > Has anyone ever looked at any of these films? What can I expect? What do > they contain? Do they contain things about people not published elsewhere? Is > there an index? > > I am lookng for information on a family that doesn't seem to have left many > records in the normal places, mostly in the County of Berkshire, MA so I > am getting desparate. I am going to SLC in Sept and have many films to look > at hoping to find something new. These would add too many to look at in 3 > days - I will probably only get a fraction done anyway. > > HELP! Do any MA experts out there have an idea what all these films > contain - i.e., is it worth looking through them (some day) for obscure > information on people from MA. > > Thank you. > > Janet Buchanan > > _http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jbmbtrees/_ > (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jbmbtrees/) > > Researching > Beckington/McDougall/Court/Hazelton/Pierce/Lane/Rhoades/Hitchcock > Abbot/Ballard/Green/Graves/Chapman/Chandler/Tibbett > s/Sears/Smith/Wells/Whittemore > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > MABERKSH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

John has mentioned the possibility of finding the information at NEHGS and I have a membership.  If I can be of help, just let me know.   Judy, in NC --- On Wed, 8/19/09, Buch419@aol.com <Buch419@aol.com> wrote: From: Buch419@aol.com <Buch419@aol.com> Subject: [MABERKSH] Microfilms and Massachusetts Research To: MABERKSH@rootsweb.com, transitional-genealogists-forum@rootsweb.com, APG@rootsweb.com Date: Wednesday, August 19, 2009, 4:01 PM On the LDS familysearch.org website there are microfilms, under the title  "Massachusetts State Archives Collection, colonial period, 1822-1788": there are  3 pages of microfilms listed including the following titles - towns, family  relations, ecclesiastical, estates, etc. including the following in particular  numbers: MA archives LDS films 2294195-8, 2294417-22, 1781511-12, 1781580-1,  2294223-24, 2294516-21, 2294792, 2295280, 2294846, 2322754-58, 2322914-15,  1838038-40, 1838255-57, 2400542, and several with titles such as: Rev.  War misc.; Rev. Council papers, MA archives collection Revolution  Resolves. Has anyone ever looked at any of these films? What can I expect? What do  they contain? Do they contain things about people not published elsewhere? Is there an index? I am lookng for information on a family that doesn't seem to have left many records in the normal places, mostly in the County of  Berkshire, MA so I am getting desparate. I am going to SLC in Sept and  have many films to look at hoping to find something new. These would add too  many to look at in 3 days - I will probably only get a fraction done  anyway. HELP!  Do any MA experts out there have an idea what all these films  contain - i.e., is it worth looking through them (some day) for obscure  information on people from MA. Thank you. Janet Buchanan  _http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jbmbtrees/_ (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jbmbtrees/) Researching  Beckington/McDougall/Court/Hazelton/Pierce/Lane/Rhoades/Hitchcock Abbot/Ballard/Green/Graves/Chapman/Chandler/Tibbett s/Sears/Smith/Wells/Whittemore ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MABERKSH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message