Although Massachusetts municipal clerks were already required to record births and deaths (St 1692-3, c 48 and St 1795, c 9) and marriages (St 1786, c 3), it was not until the passage of St 1842, s 95, s 1 that they were instructed to forward this data to the state secretary annually (May through April), on forms provided by him. At that time whole numbers of births, marriages, and deaths were reported, and for deaths, each name, sex, age, occupation (for males), and cause of death. St 1844, c 159, s 1 provided for detailed enumeration of each of the three categories--for births: date of birth, place, name, sex, parent names and residence, father's occupation, and date of record; for marriages: date of marriage, place, name/residence/station of marrying official, name/residence/age/marital status/occupation of each party, parent names, and date of record; for deaths: date of death, name, sex, marital status, age, occupation, place of death, birthplace, parent names, cause of death, and date of record. --St 1849, c 202 provided for a return from May 1848 through Jan. 1850, with succeeding annual returns to be for the calendar year. GS 1860, c 21, s 1 added for births: color and parent birthplaces; for marriages: color and birthplaces; for deaths: color, residence, parent birthplaces, and place of burial (cf. PS 1882, c 32, s 1). St 1887, c 202, s 5 added for deaths: name of husband if married woman. St 1890, c 402, s 1 added for deaths: mother's maiden name, maiden name if married woman. St 1897, c 444, s 1 added for births: mother's maiden name; for marriages: number of marriage, mother's maiden name, maiden name if widowed or divorced woman; for deaths: cemetery where buried, maiden and husband's names if widowed or divorced woman (cf. RS 1902, c 29, s 1) --St 1903, c 305, s 1 provided for the monthly returns of deaths by municipal clerks to the state secretary. St 1904, c 415 made similar provision for births and marriages, but this was not implemented until 1918, as confirmed by an attorney general opinion, Sept. 10, 1918. --St 1976, c 486 transferred state record-keeping responsibilities for vital records from the state secretary to a Registry of Vital Records and Statistics within the Dept. of Public Health. Series consists of completed forms bound into ledgers as submitted by municipal clerks to the state secretary. Deaths from May 1903 (Boston from Aug. 1903) are in the form of one-page certificates bound into volumes; likewise births and marriages for most municipalities from Jan. 1, 1918 (remainder from July 2, 1918). Boston records kept as separate ledgers, births/marriages, 1914-1918, 1920; deaths, 1915-1918. Appendix: Amended/delayed entries (births) as filed with the state secretary, to 1925. For a discussion of municipal vital records as such see: Massachusetts. Office of the Secretary of State. Transcripts of town vital records prior to 1850 ((M-Ar)124X)
1841-1925
For the compilation of a more accurate state map, each town in Massachusetts (and the city of Boston) was required by Resolves 1829, c 50 to make a town plan based on a survey no more than five years old, to be submitted to the state secretary's office. Plans, to be drawn on a scale of one hundred rods to the inch, were to include the following information: rivers, waterways, public and private roads, places of public worship, courthouses, other public buildings, distance from town center to county shire town and to Boston, bridges and ferries, falls, ponds, shores, harbors, islands, mountains and hills, mills and manufactories, mines, iron works, meadows, and woodlands. Printed maps compiled from these town plans and from state astronomical and trigonometrical surveys commissioned by Resolves 1829, c 58 (see history and records of Survey of Massachusetts (CO31)), may be found in: Maps and plans ((M-Ar)50), no. 2243, 2249, 2250, 2253, 2254, 2265, 2433.
1830
For the compilation of a state map, each town in Massachusetts (including those in the five eastern counties now part of Maine) was required by Resolves 1794, May Sess, c 101 (June 26, 1794) to make a town plan based on a survey no more than seven years old, to be submitted to the state secretary's office. The Massachusetts map is included in: Maps and plans ((M-Ar)50), no. 1616, 1617, 1617A and the map of Maine in no. 1618, 1618A. Three sets of these maps were sent to each of the states pursuant to Resolves 1794, c 77.
1794-1795
Volume 1, page 13. Scale: 1:19,800.
1830-05
Volume 3, page 18. Scale: 1:19,800.
1830-10
Volume 14, page 6. Scale: 1:19,800.
1830-10
Volume 16, page 1. Scale: 1:19,800.
1831
Volume 16, page 1. Scale: 1:19,800.
1831
Volume 9, page 11. Scale: 1:19,800.
1831
Volume 4, page 15. Scale: 1:19,800.
1830-11
Volume 15, page 18. Scale: 1:19,800.
1830-06
Volume 8, page 16. Scale: 1:19,800.
1831-04
Volume 15, page 5. Scale: 1:19,800.
1830-06
Volume 2, page 4. Scale: 1:19,800.
1830-10
Volume 4, page 3. Scale: 1:19,800.
1838
Volume 7, page 22. Scale: 1:19,800.
1830
Volume 16, page 1. Scale: 1:19,800.
1831
Volume 14, page 2. Scale: 1:19,800.
1831
