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Archiver > GenMassachusetts > 2011-08 > 1313351295
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Subject: Re: [GENMASSACHUSETTS] Requirements for submitting births,deaths and marriage dates in MA
Date: Sun, 14 Aug 2011 19:48:15 -0000
This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Author: Dale_H_Cook
Surnames:
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.massachusetts.unknown/7355.1.1.2.2.1/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
> Neither N. Adams nor Williamstown Town Clerks have any record of
> her death in either city.
I think you have looked in the wrong places. When looking for vital records it is important to know what the correct city or town is, because towns divide to form other towns, and border lines change as portions of one town are annexed by another town (or border lines between two towns are adjusted). The standard reference for determining such things is "Historical Data Relating to Counties, Cities and Towns in Massachusetts," currently in its fifth edition, edited by William Francis Galvin (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1997). For most purposes, however, the first edition is sufficient, edited by Robert T. Swan and Henry Ernest Woods (Boston: Wright & Potter, 1920). The first edition is the only one in the public domain, and can be downloaded in a PDF file or in other formats from the Internet Archive Text Archive. Members of NEHGS can read the fifth edition online at the NEHGS site.
Harriet died in 1876. North Adams would not have any contemporary records from before its incorporation on 16-Apr-1878 (although the Town Books might have some births that were re-recorded with the new Town Clerk after the town was incorporated).
She is buried in Hillside Cemetery in North Adams. When she was buried that cemetery was in the town of Adams, so you should look to the Adams Town Clerk (not the North Adams City Clerk) for a death record.
> nor have I had any luck finding her death location using the online
> MA Vital Record Index for any city/town in Berkshire.
Bear in mind that the electronic index is based upon the typescrpt index prepared by NEHGS some years ago, and that index has some omissions and errors. Since that index is based on the state copies of records (some of the pages of which are damaged and could not be fully indexed), it is also possible that when a Town Clerk copied information from the town register books into the registers sent to the state that some items might have been omitted or copied incorrectly. If an event cannot be found in the state copy it is often worthwhile to have the clerk check the records in the municipality where the event probably occurred.
> she was born abt 1805 in Stephentown, NY ... She first married
> George Williams before 1829 in NYS
I don't know of much in print for Stephentown records. It is admittedly a long shot, but have you consulted "Records, Stephentown Baptist Church, 1795-1816: Stephentown, Rensselaer County, New York" (Springfield, MO: Richard D. and Anne G. Niles, 1995)?
Dale H. Cook, Member, NEHGS and MA Society of Mayflower Descendants;
Plymouth Co. MA Coordinator for the USGenWeb Project
Administrator of http://plymouthcolony.net
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