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Archiver > MAHAMPSH > 2006-03 > 1142125402


From: "John Slaughter" <>
Subject: Early Vital Records of Massachusetts
Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2006 17:03:22 -0800


Good afternoon, everyone. :-)
For those of you who don't know me, I'm the county coordinator for Essex
and Middlesex counties. Over the past several years, with the aid of many
people, I've been working on getting the "Tan Book" series of vital records
transcribed and online. I have always said that I would consider the job
done if I got them done or I could get one of the pay sites to make theirs
firee.

The latter is soon to come to pass.

I had a talk with the New England Historical and Genealogical Society
(NEHGS). We have come to preliminary agreement.

NEHGS is going to convert their database of the early vital records of
Massachusetts from 1600-1849 to the format that I have been putting online.
(For those unfamiliar with these, visit
http://www.rootsweb.com/~maessex/VitalRecords.) These will be made entirely
free to everyone. These will be indexed by both exact name and soundex.
Indexing should still include year, or range of years. Hopefully, the
indexing will go even further over time. Also, images of the book pages will
be available.

This is all still in the early planning stages. For instance, who is going
to do the actual conversions - my transcribers and me or NEHGS? They have
about 164 towns already done. When those are converted, it will still be
necessary to transcribe the remainder, about 50 or so towns.

The first steps are being made. NEHGS has begun scanning. They have
already sent me all 3 volumes of the Gloucester vital records and they are
online. This is in addition to what I already had up. It will depend on
their volunteers and their other needs as to how fast they can scan the rest
and send them to me.

I think that this is going to be one of the biggest boons to those with
New England roots in a very long time.

Thank you.



John Slaughter
In loving memory of our son, Brennan. 11/10/88-5/31/01.
http://john-slaughter.rootsweb.com/Brennan.html

MA-Bay-Colony list moderator
USGenWeb County Coordinator
Essex County, MA - http://www.rootsweb.com/~maessex
Middlesex County, MA - http://www.rootsweb.com/~mamiddle
USGenWeb Town Coordinator Ipswich, Essex, MA -
http://www.rootsweb.com/~macipswi

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