Essex County, Massachusetts Genealogy

United States Massachusetts  Essex County

This is a historical and genealogical guide to the county of Plymouth. You will find help with town histories, vital records, deeds and land records, city directories, cemetery records and cemeteries, churches, town records, newspapers, maps, and libraries.

Brief History
Essex County was one of the four original counties when Massachusetts Bay Colony created counties in 1643 which includes the area known as Cape Ann. The only major change came with the addition of three miles on the northern border when the Old Norfolk County was eliminated in 1680. It was first settled in 1623. This was a major port for the United States through the late 1800s. Fishing was a thriving industry from the beginning, and is still notable in Gloucester. The most popular historical event was the witch trials of Salem in 1692. Haverhill, on the Merrimack River, became one of the centers of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-1800s. As the city expanded with all the immigrant growth, the city annexed the town of Bradford on the south side of the river. The county government was abolished on 1 July 1999, but its former jurisdiction is used for state offices as a district.

Historical Data
The basic data are from the historical county boundary series with additions from various sources.

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Towns and Cities
The following list of present-day Plymouth County towns and cities links them to their individual pages. There you will find a list of other names used for the town or city and of villages and sections of the town or city. Amesbury (1668) - Andover (1646) - Beverly (1668) - Boxford (1694) Danvers (1752) - Essex (1819) - Georgetown (1838) - Gloucester (1642) Groveland (1850) - Hamilton (1793) - Haverhill (1641) - Ipswich (1634) Lawrence (1847) - Lynn (1635) - Lynnfield (1782) - Manchester (1645) Marblehead (1633) - Merrimac (1876) - Methuen (1725) - Middleton (1728) Nahant (1853) - Newbury (1635) - Newburyport (1764) - North Andover (1855) Peabody (1855) - Rockport (1840) - Rowley (1639) - Salem (1630) Salisbury (1639) - Saugus (1815) - Swampscott (1852) - Topsfield (1648) Wenham (1643) - West Newbury (1819) Extinct Town: Bradford (1675)

County Histories
Works written on the county include:

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 * Benjamin F. Arrington, ed., Municipal History of Essex County in Massachusetts (New York, 1922), 4v. WorldCat (Other Libraries); (with digital link). Digital versions at Internet Archive (v. 1, v. 2, v. 3, and v. 4) and Google Books (v. 1, v. 2, v. 3, and v. 4).
 * Thomas E. Babson, "Evolution of Cape Ann Roads and Transportation, 1623-1955" in Essex Institute Historical Collections, 91 [1955]: 302-328. WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * Henry Wyckoff Belnap, Trades and tradesmen of Essex County, Massachusetts, chiefly of the seventeenth century (Salem, Mass., 1929), 96 pp. WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL.
 * John James Currier, Historical Sketch of Ship Building on the Merrimac River (Newburyport, Mass., 1877), 80 pp. WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL. No digital version found.
 * William I. Davisson and Dennis T. Dugan, "Commerce in Seventeenth-Century Essex County, Massachusetts" in Essex Institute Historical Collections, 107 [1971]: 113-142. WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * George Francis Dow, comp., Two Centuries of Travel in Essex County, Massachusetts, a collection of narratives and observations made by travelers, 1605-1799 (Topsfield, Mass., 1921), xvi, 189 pp. WorldCat (Other Libraries); . Digital versions at Internet Archive, Hathi Trust, and Ancestry ($).
 * "Essex County Loyalists" in Essex Institute Historical Collections, 43 [1907]: 289-316. WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * Dean A. Fales, "A List of Congregational and Presbyterian Ministers who have been settled in the county of Essex, Mass. from its first settlement to the year 1834" in American Quarterly Register, 7 [1834-1835]: 246-261. WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL. Digital versions on Internet Archive and Google Books.
 * Stephen C. Foster, "Gravestone Carving and Artistic Intent in Essex County" in Old-Time New England, 64 [1973]: 43-54. Note: This author's Master thesis was on Massachusetts Gravestones (Univ. of Ill., 1969). WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL.
 * "A Forgotten Horror" [Smallpox epidemics and their treatment in Essex County] in Essex Institute Historical Collections, 35 [1899]: 304. WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * Historical Records Survey, Inventory of the County Archives of Massachusetts, no. 5, Essex County (Boston, 1937), 370 leaves. Note: The only county in Massachusetts that was published. WorldCat (Other Libraries); . Digital version at Internet Archive.
 * D. Hamilton Hurd, ed., History of Essex County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men (Philadelphia, 1888), 2v. WorldCat (Other Libraries); (with digital link). Digital versions at Internet Archive (v. 1 and v. 2), Google Books (v. 1 and v. 2, pt. 1), Hathi Trust, and Ancestry ($) (v. 1 only).
 * "Indians of Essex County, Massachusetts" in Essex County Historical and Genealogical Register, 2 [1895]: 74-75, 93-94. WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * David Thomas Konig, "Community Custom and Common Law: Social Change and Development of Land Law in Seventeenth-Century Massachusetts" in American Journal of Legal History, 18 [1974]: 137-177. The article is limited to Essex County. WorldCat (Other Libraries); . Digital version at Jstor ($).
 * David Thomas Konig, "A New Look at the Essex 'French': Ethnic Frictions and Community Tensions in Seventeenth-Century Essex County, Massachusetts" in Essex Institute Historical Collections, 110 [1974]: 137-177. WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * David Thomas Konig, Law and Society in Puritan Massachusetts: Essex County, 1629-1692 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1979), xxi, 215 pp. WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL.
 * Darius Francis Lamson, "Emigration from New England to New Brunswick, 1763-1764" in Magazine of American History, 25 [1891]: 118-119. Focused solely on Essex County. WorldCat (Other Libraries); . Digital versions at Internet Archive and Google Books.
 * Paul Donald Marsella, "The Court of General Sessions of the Peace in the Eighteenth Century" in Essex Institute Historical Collections, 117 [1981]: 105-118. WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * Paul Donald Marsella, Crime and community in early Massachusetts: Essex County, 1700-1785, 1700-1785 (Lexington, Mass., 1983), xiii, 146 pp. Reprint of the author's thesis presented to the University of New Hampshire, 1983, under title: Criminal cases at the Essex County, Massachusetts, Court of General Sessions, 1700-1785. WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL.
 * Susan L. Norton, "Marital Migration in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the Colonial and early Federal Periods" in Journal of Marriage and the Family, 35 [1973]: 406-418. WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL. Digital version at Jstor ($).
 * Susan Linda Norton, "Age at Marriage and Marital Migration in Three Massachusetts Towns, 1600-1850," Ph.D. Dissertation, Univ. of Mich., 1981, 211 pp. The three towns studied were Boxford, Topsfield, and Wenham in Essex Co. WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL.
 * Michael Joseph O'Brien, "The Pioneer Irish of Essex County, Massachusetts" in Journal of the American-Irish Historical Society, 26 [1927]: 137-149. WorldCat (Other Libraries); or  (available FHL-wide).
 * Sidney Perley, The Indian Land Titles of Essex County, Massachusetts (Salem, Mass., 1912), 144 pp. WorldCat (Other Libraries); . Digital versions at Internet Archive, Google Books, and Hathi Trust.
 * Sideny Perley, "Persecution of the Quakers in Essex County" in Essex Antiquarian, 1 [1897]: 135-140. WorldCat (Other Libraries); or . Digital versions at Internet Archive, Google Books, and American Ancestors ($).
 * Eben Putnam, "Militia Officers, Essex Co., Mass. 1761-1771" in Essex Institute Historical Collections, 29 [1892]: 177-183. WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * Sylvanus Smith, Fisheries of Cape Ann ([Gloucester], Mass., 1915), vi, 131 pp. WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL. No digital version found.
 * Barbara Miller Solomon, "The Growth of the Population in Essex County 1850-1960" in Essex Institute Historical Collections, 95 [1959]: 82-103. WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * John Wingate Thornton, The Landing at Cape Anne; or, the charter of the first permanent colony on the territory of the Massachusetts Company ... (Boston, 1854), xii, 84 pp. WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL. Digital versions at Internet Archive and Google Books.
 * Cyrus Mason Tracy, Standard History of Essex County, Massachusetts, embracing a history of the county from its first settlement to the present tie, with a history and description of its towns and cities (Boston, 1878), 424 pp. WorldCat (Other Libraries); . Digital versions at Internet Archive and Google Books.
 * The Essex County MAGenWeb Project, an member of The MAGenWeb Project, an affiliate of The USGenWeb Project.
 * The USGenWeb Archives Project for Essex County.
 * The USGenWeb Archives Project for Essex County (backup site).
 * Family History Library catalog for Essex County.

Vital Records
In Massachusetts, the original vital records (of births, marriages, and deaths) have been created and maintained by the town or city in which the event occurred. In very early colonial times, copies of these records were submitted to the county, but that practice died out long before 1700. There were marriage intentions commonly recorded in the bride's home town and additional recordings maybe found in the groom's home town and their current residence.

Massachusetts was the first state to bring a unified state-level recording of these events (but not marriage intentions) in 1841 (Boston excluded until 1850). The associated records of divorce and adoption are handled by the courts. The state has maintained a state-wide index to divorces since 1952, but adoption records will require more researching to discover.

It is easiest to start with the state vital records for events since 1841, though realize the original record is with the town or city. More details can be found on the Massachusetts Genealogy Guide page.

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Land Records
IN PROGRESS

County Courthouse
Probate Court  has probate records; Register of Deeds  has land records from 1640.

In 1997, the county governments of Essex, Berkshire, Hampden, Middlesex and Worcester were abolished.


 * Their functions were turned over to state agencies.
 * Sheriffs in these counties still administer jails but their employees are state employees.
 * The legislation to abolish these county governments transferred Registries of Deeds to the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Commonwealth.
 * Bristol, Dukes, Nantucket, Norfolk, Plymouth and Suffolk county governments remain substantially unchanged.
 * Wills and probate records for the years 1638-1840 for Essex are currently housed in the Massachusetts Judicial Archives. Indexes are available in published volumes but to view the actual document requires prior arrangement with the Archivist. The catalog of collections is available online. Microfilms of the wills and probates are available in the reading room of the Archives.
 * Wills and probate record indexes for the years 1841-1917 for Essex are in the Massachusetts Judicial Archives but the original documents are housed offsite.
 * Docket books for 1638-1917 are in the Massachusetts Archives.

Emigration
Vessels sailing from Salem, Massachusetts between 1799 and 1879 made over 7900 voyages to foreign ports. A Crew List was required to be filed stating the vessel's destination and its crew. An Index to those Lists, containing 75,770 names, may be found at http://library.mysticseaport.org/initiative/CrIndex.cfm. The Index may provide the following information:

• Name • Age • Birth Place • Residence • Complexion • Voyage (Name of ship and date)

Occupations
Massachusetts sailor's crew lists at Mysticseaport.org. Between 1799 and 1879 over 7900 voyages to foreign ports sailed from Salem, Massachusetts. Prior to sailing the shipmaster or captain of each vessel was required to file a crew list containing information about the vessel's destination and its crew. This website provides an index to those crew lists. Containing over 75,770 names, it also provides access to crew members based upon age, complexion, birthplace, and residence place