Worcester County, Massachusetts Genealogy

United States Massachusetts  Worcester County

This is a historical and genealogical guide to the county of Worcester. 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
Worcester County was created in the middle of the two largest counties with a third county throwing in another small part collecting the towns of Lancaster, Leicester, Lunenburg, Rutland, Shrewsbury, Southborough, Westborough, and Worcester from Middlesex County; Hassanamisco [later Grafton], Medfield, Mendon, Oxford, Sutton, Uxbridge, and Woodstock from Suffolk County; and Brookfield and "the south town laid out to the Narraganset soldiers" [likely Brimfield] from Hampshire County. Settlement was mainly an outgrowth of the older settlements to the east and to a lesser degree from the Connecticut River Valley. There was an influx after the Revolutionary War that included migration up from Rhode Island and Connecticut in addition to the east. This is the largest county in area and there have been fifteen attempts to split the county though none were successful. The county seat is Worcester, the second largest city in all of New England. The county government was abolished on 1 July 1997, but its former jurisdiction is used for state offices as a district.

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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 Middlesex 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. Ashburnham (1765) | Athol (1762) | Auburn (1778) | Barre (1774) Berlin (1812) | Blackstone (1845) | Bolton (1738) | Boylston (1785) Brookfield (1718) | Charlton (1775) | Clinton (1850) | Douglas (1775) Dudley (1732) | East Brookfield(1920) | Fitchburg (1764) | Gardner (1785) Grafton (1735) | Hardwick (1739) | Harvard (1732) | Holden (1741) Hopedale (1886) | Hubbardston (1775) | Lancaster (1653) | Leicester (1714) Leominster (1740) | Lunenburg (1728) | Mendon (1667) | Milford (1780) Millbury (1813) | Millville (1916) | New Braintree (1775) | North Brookfield (1812) Northborough (1775) | Northbridge (1775) | Oakham (1775) | Oxford (1713) Paxton (1775) | Petersham (1754) | Phillipston (1786) | Princeton (1771) Royalston (1765) | Rutland (1713) | Shrewsbury (1727) | Southborough (1727) Southbridge (1816) | Spencer (1775) | Sterling (1781) | Sturbridge (1738) Sutton (1714) | Templeton (1762) | Upton (1735) | Uxbridge (1727) Warren (1742) | Webster (1832) | West Boylston (1808) | West Brookfield (1848) Westborough (1717) | Westminster (1770) | Winchendon (1764) | Worcester (1684) Ceded to Connecticut: Woodstock

Extinct Town: Dana (1801-1938)

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County Histories
Works written on the county include:


 * Biographical Review ... containing life sketches of leading citizens of Worcester County, Massachusetts (Boston, 1899), 1229 pp. WorldCat (Other Libraries); (with digital link). Digital versions at Internet Archive and Ancestry ($).
 * Francis Everett Blake, Worcester County, Massachusetts, Warnings, 1737-1788 (Worcester, Mass., 1899; rep. Camden, Me., 1992), 101 pp. WorldCat (Other Libraries) (1992 ed.); (1992 ed.). Digital versions at Internet Archive and Google Books.
 * Rufus Choate, Argument for the Division of Worcester County on the petition of O. L. Huntley and others (Boston, 1854), 67 pp. WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL. Digital versions at Internet Archive, Google Books, and Ancestry ($).
 * Zelote Wood Coombs, "Worcester County: its history, with discussion of attempts to divide it" in Worcester Historical Society Publications, New Series, 1 [1928-1935]: 169-184. WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * Ellery Bicknell Crane, History of Worcester County, Massachusetts (New York, 1924), 3v. WorldCat (Other Libraries); (with digital links for v. 1-2).
 * [Isaac Goodwin], "A Catalogue of the Several Congregational Ministers in the County of Worcester" in Worcester Magazine and Historical Journal, 2 [1826]: 371-375. WorldCat (Other Libraries); . Digital versions at Internet Archive and Google Books.
 * William B. Harding, "Origins of the Names of the Towns in Worcester County" in Proceedings of the Worcester Society of Antiquity 5 [1883], 97-117. WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * D. Hamilton Hurd, ed., History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men (Philadelphia, 1889), 2v. (1762 pp.). WorldCat (Other Libraries); and . Digital versions at Internet Archive (v. 1 and v. 2) and Hathi Trust.
 * Lincoln Newton Kinnicutt, Indian Names of Places in Worcester County, Massachusetts, with interpretations of some of them (Worcester, Mass., 1905), 59 pp. WorldCat (Other Libraries); . Digital versions at Internet Archive and Google Books.
 * Kevin Joseph MacWade, "Worcester County, 1750-1774: a study of a provincial patronage elite," Ph.D. dissertation, Boston Univ., 1974, vii, 193 leaves. WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL.
 * Abijah P. Marvin, History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, ... from its first settlement to the present time, with a history and description of its cities and towns (Boston, 1879), 2v. WorldCat (Other Libraries); (with digital link). Digital versions at Internet Archive (v. 1 and v. 2), Google Books (v. 1 and v. 2), and Hathi Trust.
 * Thomas Noyes, "Complete List of Congregational Ministers, in the County of Worcester, Mass., from its settlement to the present time" in American Quarterly Register, 10 [1837-1838]: 47-65. WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL.
 * Peter Whitney, The History of the County of Worcester, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts: with a particular account of every town from its first settlement to the present time; including its ecclesiastical state, together with a geographical description of the same, to which is prefixed, a map of the county, at large, from actual survey (Worcester, Mass., 1793), vi, 339 pp. WorldCat (Other Libraries); . Digital versions at Internet Archive and Hathi Trust.
 * Henry Augustus Willis, "The Division of Worcester County" in Proceedings of the Fitchburg Historical Society, 3 [1902]: 70-83. WorldCat (Other Libraries); . Digital versions at Internet Archive, Google Books, and Haiti Trust.
 * The Worcester County MAGenWeb Project, an member of The MAGenWeb Project, an affiliate of The USGenWeb Project.
 * The USGenWeb Archives Project for Worcester County
 * Family History Library catalog for Worcester County

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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
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Worcester County Massachusetts Genealogy References
Adjacent counties: Massachusetts: Franklin | Hampden | Hampshire | Middlesex | Norfolk Connecticut: Tolland | Windham New Hampshire: Cheshire | Hillsborough Rhode Island: Providence County