Early Wareham, Massachusetts vital statistics were preserved within two town record books that also contained routine municipal proceedings. The first volume began in 1739, the year Wareham was incorporated from portions of Plymouth and Rochester, and continued to roughly 1805. A second volume extended the recording of births, marriages, deaths, and marriage intentions to 1843, when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts instituted standardized procedures for vital registrations. After that date, the second volume continued to note intentions of marriage, while a new register was used for births, marriages, and deaths. Annual returns were forwarded to the state, and the state copies through 1910 are now housed at the Massachusetts State Archives, with microfilm versions available in several libraries. The New England Historic Genealogical Society has created an index and is linking the index to record images for its members1. Family Search has the microfilm digitized on their website.2. The Wareham vital records were never published as part of the statewide series of tan books for Massachusetts Vital Records.
Portions of the earliest entries appeared in The Mayflower Descendant (Volume 33) in transcripts prepared by George Ernest Bowman. Bowman explained the 1739 incorporation of Wareham from Agawam (Plymouth) and Rochester, and described the first town record book, labeled “Town of Wareham, Town Records 1739–1805.” Pages 1 through 208 contained town business, while vital entries began on page 209 and were scattered throughout the remainder of the volume without chronological order. Bowman intended to print the records page by page, beginning at page 209. Only pages through 255 were ultimately published, and the effort ceased at the close of Volume 33; there was no continuation in Volume 34, the final volume of the periodical.
In 1879 the Board of Selectmen commissioned the Rev. Noble Warren Everett to create a new transcription of the vital entries from the two original books. Completed in 1880, this compilation remains the principal reference for Wareham vital statistics from 1739 to 1843. Everett modernized many name spellings and arranged birth and death entries in rough alphabetical groupings by family.
During the early twentieth century, James Minor Lincoln produced his own transcripts of the two original town books and the Everett volume. This work, now preserved at the Wareham Free Public Library, was undertaken between 6 August and 14 September 1904. Lincoln noted that the town books had been rebound in canvas in 1902 by the Emery Book Preserving Company of Taunton, and observed that the records had been kept in a disorganized fashion. Town proceedings shed light on that condition. A warrant dated 16 February 1759 called for regulation of the ancient records then residing in an old book or among loose papers, and for their entry into a proper volume. In March the town voted to rectify mistakes and to copy the old book into a new one, and in September appropriated ten shillings for “regulating the town books.” As a result, entries prior to 1759 cannot be considered strictly primary, and many later birth and death entries were recorded long after the events. A notable effort to capture family information occurred in 1801 during the clerkship of Andrew Mackie.
For modern work on these records, Lincoln’s transcripts were entered into a computer database together with page references to the originals. Users are advised to treat the compilation as a manuscript finding aid and to verify information against the original volumes retained in the Town Clerk’s Office.
This modern compilation complements Leonard H. Smith Jr.’s Records of the First Church of Wareham, Mass. 1739–1891 (Owl Books, 1974). Together the two works encompass nearly all available Wareham vital data for the years 1739 to 1843, apart from gravestone inscriptions. Because Church Book 2 has disappeared, the town records are the only source for vital details from 1800 to 1843 other than cemetery evidence.
Errors of transcription are unavoidable. Lincoln identified mistakes in Everett’s copy; Everett’s and Lincoln’s renditions both contain inaccuracies; and additional errors are inherent in any further handling. Consultation of the original records is therefore recommended whenever questions arise. Conflicts between Lincoln’s copies of the originals and his transcription of Everett’s version were noted in a remarks field with abbreviations explained in an accompanying table.
The present format adopts an abstract arrangement rather than a full diplomatic rendering of the original entries. Although reproducing the original form has clear value, such an approach does not readily convey all nuances and requires a separate index for access. Abstracts facilitate computer processing, eliminate the need for a separate index, and still preserve page citations to the manuscript sources. Given the mixed quality of the original recordkeeping and the secondary nature of many entries, an abstracted, indexed format offers a practical balance between accessibility and fidelity to the sources.
- Wareham Massachusetts Births and Deaths from Town Books 1 and 2
- Wareham Massachusetts Marriages and Intentions from Town Books 1 and 2
Abbreviations Used
ackn. = acknowledged
aft. = after
B = Bowman transcript in Mayflower Descendant
b. = born
bef. = before
betw. = between
bpt. = baptized
ch. = child [of]
d. = died or days, depending on context
dec’d. = deceased
dup. = duplicate
FN = first name
h. = husband [of]
int. = marriage intentions
L = Lincoln transcript
LE = Lincoln transcript of Everett transcript
LN = last name
m. = married or months, depending on context
m. * = marriage with no intentions recorded
MI = middle initial
MN = middle name
publ. = published
rec. = recorded
res. = residence or resided
ret. = returned
s. = son [of]
SB = Sylvanus Bourne papers at Wareham Free Library
VR = vital records
w. = wife [of]
w/ = with
WCR = Wareham Church Records [Leonard H. Smith Jr.]
y. = years
yr. = year
Back to: Massachusetts History & Genealogy
- The specific database these records are found in are located here: https://www.americanancestors.org/search/databasesearch/190/massachusetts-vital-records-1620-1850 and this PDF details which vital records can be found in their large database: Guide to Citing Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850. [↩]
- See Vital records, 1738-1893 [Wareham, Massachusetts] : https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/koha:763742 for a digitized copy of both volumes. [↩]