Dear Muriel, Wish I were in Maui, Susan, & Ken - This is a tangential question, BUT I believe it bears on the subject at hand. What was required of Plymouth and environs' residents mid-18th Century re vital records ? I realize that our Pilgrim fathers apparently adopted a public registry of vital statistics system (birth, marriage, death) from England. What is the requirement for a resident to register his/her households births, deaths, and marriages ? Are marriage being recorded in both church and civil registry systems ? What is the penalty for failing to register these vital stats and are fines ever imposed ? What do communities do about out-of-wedlock births by mid-18th C ? Is the woman in question expected or coerced to name the man? Is there a legal proceeding to establish parentage ? Is the father expected to support his child financially ? Is his parentage entered into the VR ? Aside from my specific questions, I am seeking some insight into how these present day government functions were performed at mid-18th C, and how it might effect what we see today in the VRs. Thanks, Bill Van Hemert Edmund WESTON & Rebecca SOULE

At 01:47 PM 2/28/2008, Bill Van Hemert wrote: >What is the requirement for a resident to register his/her >households births, deaths, and marriages ? That will take some digging. I may have a chance to look this weekend. >Are marriage being recorded in both church and civil registry systems ? They should have been, but were not always, recorded in both. >What is the penalty for failing to register these vital stats and >are fines ever imposed ? I cannot recall seeing anyone cited for that. Dale H. Cook, Member, NEHGS and MA Society of Mayflower Descendants; Plymouth Co. MA Coordinator for the USGenWeb Project http://members.cox.net/plymouthcolony/index.shtml

>>What is the requirement for a resident to register his/her >>households births, deaths, and marriages ? This is a GENERAL reply as I too can not directly cite the pre-1685/1692 PlymCol laws, which were mirrored by Mass Bay. For a detailed summary, see the relevant section of R C Anderson's Introduction in the first volume of each sub-section of the Great Migration series and also the special volume on Plymouth. Always bear in mind that what was "required"/expected was always (1) more honored in the breach than the observance, and (2) early town recrods, while often copied from "old" to "new" books, could be and were subsequently mangled and lost. This is even more true of church records which clearly existed for all churches (re written act of covenant signed by organizing members) but which don't exist for most. (Marshfield's church records are somewhat intact from the 1690s but there was a gathered church there from at least 1640--so 50 years missing!) While a town clerk was by Plym law required to keep certain vital records, there was no penalty on the books for several decades if he did not do so. Also, the cost of entering the information was actually to be defrayed by the family paying x amount in pence to do so, and as a colony requirement that payment had to be in specie at a time when almost all local transactions were in some form of barter or "book accounts". Also, unlike Mass Bay, there was NO requirement to forward an annual copy to the county government which then passed it onto the colony. In the printing of Concord's vrs in the 1890s, entries from both the town and county copies were correlated. Only with the political changes in the 1680s does the clerk, Thomas Faunce, starts the formal record keeping that continues on to today. Note that the very first records are of a single family, not just a person per se, that of the town's then minister Rev. Cotton. The order of the early recordings is based on FAMILY STATUS, not on a strictly chronological sequence. In fact, either all or most of Rev Cotton's children were born in CT during his ministry in that state, but their birthdates appear formally in Plymouth VRs. This is true for the first several years and in spot recordings thereafter: families moving into Plymouth could choose to have all their childrens's births recorded whether they were born there or not. You have to actually look at the correctly printed record to be sure about that. >From Faunce on, under the new laws what was a requirement was now considered a duty, but the family still had to pay for the recording, though the price was dropped. The goal of recording was partly to have a formal record so one town could "warn out" individuals/families later on to their "home towns". Welfare was a town-home thing, re poor farms, etc. >>Are marriages being recorded in both church and civil registry systems ? Supposedly but see above and Anderson in particular. Knowing about marriages was part of this societal/welfare attitude, and also because marriage in the Puritan colonies was always seen as a civil affair. This changes too with the political changes, and so from the 1680s you will see an increase of ministers being recorded as the marriage officiators. But overall record keeping is highly dependent on the conscientiousness of the town clerk as recorder and to the vagaries re record survival over 4 centuries. >>What is the penalty for failing to register these vital stats and >>are fines ever imposed ? > > [Dale.] I cannot recall seeing anyone cited for that. Nor can I. The General Courts admonished those responsible to "do better". Again, town clerks were not salaried; a clerk's time doing town duties were mostly subsidized by the fees he receiev. A person such as the county clerk recording deeds and wills, well, that was ALL paid for by fees, which is another reason there was an under-reporting on estates and on land transactions. Again, Anderson's introduction is the best summary around on these issues at the moment. Really, its amazing that as much has survived. Robert M. Gerrity YANKEE ANCESTRY P. O. Box 2814 Acton, MA 01720 _________________________________________________________________ Helping your favorite cause is as easy as instant messaging. You IM, we give. http://im.live.com/Messenger/IM/Home/?source=text_hotmail_join