Norwell, Plymouth County, Massachusetts Genealogy

Guide to Norwell, Plymouth County, Massachusetts ancestry, genealogy and family history, town histories, vital records, city directories, cemetery records and cemeteries, churches, town records, newspapers, maps, and libraries.

Description

 * Norwell, Massachusetts at Wikipedia

The first settler was Robert Stetson, who received a land grant in this area in 1634. He built a mill in 1656 that was burned in the King Philip's War in 1676, but the dam's remains were still visible only a century ago. Shipbuilding was the major business along the North River. Other early settlers included the Copeland, Curtis, Delano, Foster, Taylor and Tilden families. This area of Scituate was in Plymouth Colony. The area was placed in Plymouth County when counties were formed in 1685. For a brief time, the town was part of the Dominion of New England from 1686 to 1689. The town is still in Plymouth County, though was in limbo, until the "Colony" was merged with Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691 that became the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The southwestern part of Scituate was set off as South Scituate in 1849, later renamed Norwell, and still remains in Plymouth County.

Populated Places
Includes Neighborhoods, Villages, Unincorporated Communities, Districts, and Census-Designated Places:

Adjacent Towns
Plymouth Co: Hanover | Hingham | Marshfield | Pembroke | Rockland | Scituate

Town Records
In New England most original vital records of birth, marriage, and death can be found at the town clerk's office

Norwell Town Clerk
345 Main Street, P O Box 295 Norwell, MA 02061 Phone: 781-659-8072 Fax: 781-659-8073 Email: [mailto:panderson@townofnorwell.net panderson@townofnorwell.net] Website

Vital Records

 * Microfilm of the originals created by the FamilySearch Library, Norwell vital records, 1849-1905,.
 * Microfiche of the originals created by Archive Publishing covering town records that included vital records and a few other town records, 1633-1900, on 42 fiche (includes Scituate, too). Part of Massachusetts, Town Vital Collections, 1620–1988 at Ancestry ($); Index
 * Official state copy of vital records starting in 1841: Massachusetts Archives 220 Morrissey Blvd. Boston MA 02125 Phone 617-727-2816 Email [mailto:archives@sec.state.ma.us archives@sec.state.ma.us] Hours and Directions See the online guide for more information.

Births

 * 1636-1924 at FamilySearch — How to Use this Collection; index

Resources
For more County and State resources see:

Cemeteries

 * Norwell Cemeteries List at FindAGrave
 * at FamilySearch Catalog
 * Plymouth County Cemeteries at FamilySearch Places

The following is a list of cemeteries in present-day Norwell. For more details regarding these cemeteries, see the state guide under cemeteries for books on the subject.

Map and locations of cemeteries, plus links to other information - at MAGenWeb.


 * Bowker Cemetery, 1812. (A) "Bowker Street and the Bowker Cemetery" in Historia, 1 [1899-1900]: 41-43.
 * Church Hill Cemetery, 1725. (A, B)
 * Damon Cemetery, n.d. (A)
 * First Parish of Norwell Cemetery, 1720. (B) South Shore Genealogical Society, An Index to the First Parish Cemetery of Norwell, Massachusetts (Norwell, Mass., 1988), 53 l. WorldCat (Other Libraries). "The First Parish Cemetery" in Historia, 1 [1899-1900]: 28-31, 39-40, 46-47.
 * Dr. Joseph Jacobs / Assinippi Cemetery, 1779. (B, C)
 * Old Second Church Cemetery, 1680. (A, C) Historia, 1 [1899-1900]: 1-5. "Gravestone Records from the Old Second Church Cemetery Norwell, Massachusetts" in the Mayflower Descendant, 32 [1934]: 107-111, that corrects errors in the published Scituate vital records.
 * Otis Cemetery, n.d. (A)
 * Pinehurst Cemetery, 1870.
 * Quaker Cemetery, n.d. (A) Historia, 1 [1899-1900]: 17-19.
 * South Parish Cemetery, n.d. (A, C)
 * Stockbridge Cemetery, 1700. (A)
 * Washington Street Cemetery, n.d. (A)
 * Wilson Hill Cemetery, 1691. "Another of the Wilson Hill Gravestones Found" in Historia, 1 [1899-1900]: 22-23.

Abstracts of the cemeteries above are marked and keyed to: (A). Vital Records of Scituate, Massachusetts, to the year 1850 (Boston, 1909). [See the Scituate town page for various versions of this source.] (B). Charles M. Thatcher, Old Cemeteries of Southeastern Massachusetts (Middleborough, Mass., 1995). WorldCat (Other Libraries); (C). New England Historic Genealogical Society, Manuscripts Dept.

Church Records
The following is a list of churches established in town in order of organization date (if known) and condition of records in the 1889 survey if listed.


 * Second Church of Scituate (later First Unitarian Church, and now First Parish Norwell Unitarian Universalist Church), 1644, records good after 1796. Harold Field Worthley, An Inventory of the Records of the Particular (Congregational) Churches of Massachusetts Gathered 1620-1805 (Cambridge, Mass., 1970), 451-452, list church records to 1689, 1751-1754, 1798, 1810-present survive and parish records from 1642-1922 survive. "Ancestral Pews" in Historia, 1 [1899-1900]: 9-16. "Baptisms by Rev. William Wetherell" [covering 1645-1657] in Historia, 1 [1899-1900]: 20-21, 31, 37-38, 47. Records from 1645-1689, 1697-1704 (these are requested re-entries at a later date), adult baptisms, 1704-1720 published in Bangs' Scituate book (see Scituate Town Histories and Records), vol. 3, p. 527-550. George C. Turner, Sarah R. Damon, Ella Bates (variously), but mainly Wilford Jacob Litchfield, "Records of the Second Church of Scituate, now the First Unitarian Church of Norwell, Mass." [1645-1834] in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 57 [1903]: 82-86, 178-184, 318-324, 398-403; 58 [1904]: 82-90, 168-176, 260-267, 387-391; 59 [1905]: 74-79, 134-140, 308-315, 387-392; 60 [1906]: 61-66, 175-182, 271-274, 335-340; 61 [1907]: 56-59, 172-177, 288-292, 372-375.
 * Scituate Society of Friends Meeting (in South Scituate), 1679 (extinct), records with the New Bedford Monthly Meeting.
 * Methodist Episcopal Church (now Church Hill United Methodist Church), 1852, records good.
 * Universalist Church, 1863, records good.
 * St. Helen church (Roman Catholic), 1950.
 * United Church of Christ, 1965.
 * Assinippi Universalist Church, n.d.
 * New Hope Chapel, n.d.

City Directories

 * 1894 (*) at FamilySearch Catalog — images


 * 1937 Massachusetts, U.S., City Directories, Norwell at Ancestry - index & images ($), some years may be missing
 * Various Dates U.S. City Directories, 1860-1960 at MyHeritage - index & images ($) some towns and years may be missing

Norwell was published in 1894, 1907, 1919.

The Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.) has one of the largest collections of city directories

in the country. They are likely to own most of the years listed above. Their collection is in microfiche, microfilm, and books, but there is no online inventory of their holdings except for microfilm. See their guide online.

Other holdings:


 * Ancestry ($) has none.
 * Boston Public Library has 1894, 1907, 1919 (under other towns).
 * FamilySearch Library (Salt Lake City) has 1894, 1919 on FS Library various film records.
 * fold3 ($) has none.
 * Massachusetts State Library has 1894, 1907.
 * New England Historic Genealogical Society (Boston) ($) has 1894, 1919.

Local Histories
The basic data is from the "Historical Data" publication series with additions from various sources. Associated names Norwell at one time was called South Scituate.

Village or section names include Accord, Assinippi, Church Hill, Mount Blue, Norwell Center, Queen Anne's Corner, Ridge Hill, and West Scituate. Border changes

Works written on the town include:


 * Lloyd Vernon Briggs, History of Shipbuilding on the North River, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, with Genealogies of the Shipbuilders, and Accounts of the Industries Upon its Tributaries, 1640 to 1872 (Boston, 1889; rep. New York, 1970; rep. Norwell, Mass., 1975), xv, 420 pp. Digital versions online at Internet Archive and Google Books. WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * Historia, A Magazine of Local History, Norwell, Massachusetts (Norwell, Mass., 1898-1899; rep. 1988), 6 issues in 48 pp. Digital versions at Internet Archive, Rapid Library, and Hathi Trust. WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * Joseph Foster Merritt, A Narrative History of South Scituate-Norwell, Massachusetts (Rockland, Mass., 1938), 203 pp. WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * Norwell Wikipedia page.

Maps
This selection incudes town, county, state, and historical maps
 * Boundary Map of Norwell at HomeTownLocator
 * Massachusetts County Map at Mass.gov
 * McConnell's Historical Maps of the United States at Library of Congress
 * Norwell at FamilySearch Places
 * Norwell at Google Maps
 * Norwell at Mapcarta
 * Old Maps of Massachusetts at Old-Maps.com
 * Massachusetts Maps State Page

Military
Some Records are Searchable by Town

Revolutionary War, 1775-1783
For more Revolutionary War Military Records see:
 * Massachusetts Military Records - Revolutionary War, 1775-1783
 * United States Military Records - Revolutionary War, 1775-1783

Civil War, 1861-1865
For more Civil War Military Records see:
 * Massachusetts Military Records - Civil War, 1861-1865
 * United States Military Records - Civil War, 1861-1865

World War I, 1917-1918
For more World War I Military Records see:
 * Massachusetts Military Records - World War I, 1917-1918
 * United States Military Records - World War I, 1917-1918

World War II, 1941-1945
For more World War II Military Records see:
 * Massachusetts Military Records - World War II, 1941-1945
 * United States Military Records - World War II, 1941-1945

Newspapers

 * 1800-Current Massachusetts, U.S., Newspapers.com™ Stories and Events Index, 1800's Current at Ancestry — index & images ($)
 * Norwell Mariner, 1981-2005.

Probate Records

 * 1686-1881 Plymouth County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1686-1881 at American Ancestors — index & images ($)

Libraries
Norwell Public Library 64 South Street Norwell MA 02061 Phone 781-659-2115 Email [mailto:noref@ocln.org noref@ocln.org]

FamilySearch Centers & Affiliate Libraries

 * Wolfeboro Public Library - an affiliate library

Societies
Norwell Historical Society 328 Main Street (behind Sparrell School) PO Box 693 Norwell MA 02061 Phone 781-659-1888 Email [mailto:info@norwellhistoricalsociety.org info@norwellhistoricalsociety.org]