PREFACE TO THE
WORCESTER
BIRTHS,
The
publication of the Worcester Births has been delayed more than a year in
consequence of the labor necessary to the complete revision of the list after
the first compilation had been made. The original plan contemplated only the
classification and printing of such names as were recorded in the town books,
but the many evidences of incorrect entries in these volumes and of omissions in
the record of prominent families caused me to suspend the work until I could
ascertain whether these imperfections could, to any extent, be rectified.
Investigation convinced me that the effort would be well rewarded, and,
after consultation with the City Clerk, who approved my purpose to make the
printed register as complete as possible, I entered upon the task without, as
now appears, anything like an adequate comprehension of its magnitude or the
length of time it would require. The
measure of success resulting can be judged when it is stated that 1,141 names
have been added to the original list, a large number of wrong names and dates
corrected, and fully one third of the whole verified by other records or by
satisfactory testimony. Evidence of
the labor and of the careful attention required appears only in a limited degree
in the printed page, but if reliability and completeness are taken into account
the value of the list has been greatly increased.
The
Baptisms of the First (“Old South”) and second (First Unitarian) Churches
supplied more than three-fourths of the additions, and a few names were obtained
from other church records. Family
Bibles and papers in private hands were helpful in many instances.
Proofs of the type have been submitted to representatives of the more
prominent and numerous families, and many false entries have in this way been
corrected. Some of these slips have
been sent to distant parts of the
Union
; in many cases their retention has caused delay in printing and considerable
vexation. I have exerted all
reasonable effort to make families complete, including children born in other
places whenever the data could be obtained.
Some discrepancies I could not reconcile, and they appear as in the
original.
The
whole number of births and baptisms printed in the following pages is 9,552,
with 1,159 surnames being represented. Of
these the town books supplied 8,411 names, which form the basis of the record.
The additions are distinguished by brackets ( [ ] ) prefixed.
Asterisks ( * ) indicate
First
Church
baptisms, daggers ( †
) those of the second church. Other
sources of information are given in the text.
The date of a baptism is coincident with that of the birth in very few
cases. Generally before the year
1800 from two to ten days may be assumed in which the difference is much greater
– weeks, months, and even years. In
the absence of the birth record the baptism is the next best evidence in the
majority of cases.
I
have adopted the modern spelling in printing the surnames, but have retained the
quaint forms of many of the given names in the older entries.
My authority for the correction of the town record is given in the line
following or at the end of the list of that name.
No change has been allowed without evidence sufficient to justify it.
The arrangement is alphabetical throughout, in conformity with that of
the other records of the same class in the City Clerk’s office.
Abbreviations are little used: s. for son, d. for daughter, and the
shortening of some of the month-names. A
dash indicates a blank in the original.
This
compilation is offered as a further contribution to the Systematic History of
Massachusetts.
Franklin P. Rice.
WORCESTER
MARRIAGES
This printed register includes all the marriages recorded in the town
books from December 17, 1747, to January 1, 1849.
No record of the marriages from 1722 to 1747 is known to exist today,
and there is no evidence to indicate that such record was ever made.
A few entries of Marriages of
Worcester
parties which were solemnized in other places during the early period, made in
recent years in conformity with the requirements of the Acts of 1857, are
printed in the list.
DEATHS
This
printed register includes all the Deaths of which record was made in the town
books from January 1, 1826 to January 1, 1849. The Deaths from 1717 to 1826
will be found in connection with the Inscriptions from the Old Burial Grounds,
published in 1878 as a part of the first volume of the Collections of The
Worcester
Society of Antiquity.
The
plan projected in 1889 for the publication of the second series of
Worcester
Town
Records did not comprehend the continuation of the printing of the Deaths. A
desire to make the records of the town organization complete in type, and
other considerations, have induced the Editor to supply the list for the
remaining twenty-three years, although the present volume has already exceeded
the first estimate by more than one hundred pages.
The
arrangement is alphabetical throughout. The figures attached to the name of
the deceased give the age, in years unless otherwise stated. Relationship to
other persons and date of death follow. Abbreviations used are: ch. child; d.
day or daughter; s. son; unm. unmarried; w. week or wife; wid. widow. Deaths
at the
Lunatic
Hospital
(opened 1833) are indicated by the letters L.H.
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