To find an answer for how the practice evolved, you could look at two sources. For modern law (and I am assuming that was what your question was about) you would find when the law changed. Then you would look at the legislative testimony for bill that became the Act or law during that session. The testimony would set out the reasons. This is much easier to do for federal law where the record is printed. For much older laws (colonial in the case of Massachusetts) you are not apt to find committee testimony. While is it possible that warnings-out meant that parents would want to assure that their children had a place of birth, I’ve seen so many births registered in new towns that the parents moved to, that I think it could also involve leaving a clear record for when the children reach the age of majority, when a man could vote or marry, or the age a woman could marry without her parents’ permission. It would also help in settling intestate probate cases. That is all just conjecture at this point. I’ve done blog postings about Model Laws regarding vital records. A description of the genesis of the 2011 Model Act can be found here: http://massgencouncil.org/index.php/easyblog/entry/what-is-the-2011-model-act-and-regulations-should-genealogists-worry Efforts to standardize vital statistics laws have been afoot in the U.S. since the beginning of the 20th century. Google Books shows many such works. Here is one from 1903. It may or may not include justification for different practices: https://books.google.com/books?id=DfCGv_kC-KwC Barbara From: Denise Cross [mailto:crossd4@gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2017 9:30 AM To: Barbara Mathews <barbara@demandinggenealogist.com> Cc: Transitional Genealogists <transitional-genealogists-forum@rootsweb.com> Subject: Re: [TGF] Registering out-of-state births in Massachusetts Did this law evolve from the practice of warnings out? I've seen interesting patterns of registrations in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries where a family that moved between locations would reregister births in the new town. I've also seen a family move out of and back into a town that registered only the children born while resident and had a gap in the middle for children born while living elsewhere. Each town must have decided on its level of interest in supporting said children should the family become unable to do so. -Denise