Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Genealogy

United States Massachusetts  Suffolk  Boston

This is a historical and genealogical guide to the town and city of Boston. You will find help town histories, vital records, city directories, cemeteries, churches, deeds (i.e. land records), town and city records, newspapers, maps, and libraries. There are general history and genealogy topics such as ward boundaries, census, street guides, and much more. There are detailed guides for the towns Boston annexed: Brighton (1807-1874); Charlestown (1630-1874); Dorchester (1630-1870); Hyde Park (1868-1912); Roxbury (1630-1868); and West Roxbury (1851-1874)

Brief History
Historical Boston, then only the land of a peninsula, was a faction of the land mass it is today after massive land-fill projects of the mid- to late-19th century (the rubble from the Great Boston Fire of 1872 help fill in the waterfront) and the annexing of six towns from two counties (as listed above). Boston was first settled by passengers of the Winthrop Fleet of 1630 who first lodged in Charlestown. These first settlers were Puritans, the religious group wanting to change the Church of England from working inside the church. Called the "City on the Hill" by Gov. John Winthrop, the "hub" as we now call it became the center of trade, education, government, wealth, and power. It was the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, then the Royal colony of Massachusetts, and finally the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Shortly after its settlement, Boston had become a major settlement. It was the largest town in British North America for the first hundred years. Because of that, the town and later city became a draw for immigrants from around the world. Though the first two hundred years saw mostly English arrivals, Scots, Irish, and French were found here, too. It was after 1820 that immigrants from other European countries started arriving in large numbers. The gate was opened by the Irish fleeing the potato famine in 1847. The next wave included more Irish (their dominance starting in the early 20th century is a testament to their number), but also Germans, Italians, and Syrians. The end of the century saw French Canadians, Russian and Polish Jews, and Swedes arriving. The 21st century brought African Americans from the South, Southeast Asian immigrants (especially Chinese and Vietnamese), Muslims, and Puerto Ricans. Many other ethnicities can be found in pockets all over Boston, and walking in downtown one will likely here many languages being spoken.

Historical Data
The basic data is from the "Historical Data" publication series with additions from various sources. Associated names Boston at times was called Shawmut, Tremont, and Trimountaine.

Sections (excluding most of the named squares) in downtown Boston [see annexed towns listed above for names in those areas] include Back Bay, Bay Village, Beacon Hill, Boston Common, Boston Harbor, Chinatown, City Point, Copley Square, East Boston (Eastie), Faneuil Hall, Fenway, Financial District, The Flat (i.e. of Beacon Hill), Fort Point, Government Center, Haymarket Square, Kenmore, Leather District, Logan Airport, Longwood, North End, Scollay Square, Seaport, South End, South Bay, South Boston (Southie), and West End.

Islands that are currently part of Boston are: Apple Island*, Belle Island (formerly Hog's Island)*, Bird Island*, Breed's Island*, Calf Island (formerly Apthrop Island), Castle Island*, Deer Island*, Gallop's Island, George's Island, Governor's Island, Great Brewster Island, Green Island (or North Brewster Island), Little Brewster Island, Little Calf Island, Long Island, Lovell's Island, Middle Brewster Island, Nixes mate, Noddle Island*, Outer Brewster Island, Rainsford Island, Shag Rocks, Spectacle Island, The Graves, Thompson's Island, and Wood Island*.

[* denotes land-fill has made it part of the mainland now and the others are part of the Boston Harbor Island National Recreation Area] Border changes Top of Page

Town Histories
Works written on the town include: Boston - General East Boston South Boston Ethnicity - Immigration Topographical - Maps - Pictorial
 * Other Merchants and Sea Captains of Old Boston: Being More Information About the Merchants and Sea Captains of Old Boston Who Played Such an Important Part in Building up the Commerce of New England Together with Some Quaint and Curious Stories of the Sea (Boston, 1919), 70 pp. Digital version at Internet Archive and Google Books. WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL.
 * Some Events of Boston and Its Neighbors (Boston, 1917), v, 62 pp. Digital version at Internet Archive, Google Books, and Hathi Trust. WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL.
 * Some Interesting Boston Events (Boston, 1916), 78 pp. Digital version at Internet Archive and Google Books. WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL.
 * Some Merchants and Sea Captains of Old Boston: Being a Collection of Sketches of Notable Men and Mercantile Houses Prominent During the Early Half of the Nineteenth Century in the Commerce and Shipping of Boston (Boston, 1918), vii, 53 pp. Digital version at Internet Archive and Google Books. WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL.
 * Some Ships of the Clipper Ship Era: Their Builders, Owners, and Captains (Boston, 1913), 45 pp. Digital version at Internet Archive and Hathi Trust. WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL.
 * Allen Chamberlain, Beacon Hill: Its Ancient Pastures and Early Mansions (Boston, 1925), xiv, 309 pp. Digital version at Internet Archive, Hathi trust, and on Ancestry ($). WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL.
 * Samuel Gardner Drake, The History and Antiquities of Boston ... from its Settlement in 1630, to the Year 1770 (Boston, 1856), x, 840 pp. Digital version at Internet Archive and Hathi Trust. WorldCat (Other Libraries); with digital link.
 * Ralph M. Eastman, Pilots and Pilot Boats of Boston Harbor (Boston, 1956), 91 pp. WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL.
 * Ronald P. Formisano and Constance K. Burns, Boston 1700-1980, The Evolution of Urban Politics (Westport, Conn., 1980), vii, 296 pp. WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL.
 * Jay Mack Holbrook, Boston Beginnings 1630-1699 (Oxford, Mass., 1980), xxi, 295 pp. Compiled from a variety of sources (church, tax lists, etc.), this is an alphabetical list of people in Boston before 1700. WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * Harold Kirker, Bulfinch's Boston, 1787-1817 (New York, 1964), ix, 305 pp. WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * Peter R. Knights, The Plain People of Boston, 1830-1860: A Study in City Growth (New York, 1971), xx, 204 pp. This was the first in a planned series of three books [it ended up being two books], and thus was a prologue that is more statistical in nature. WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * Peter R. Knights, Yankee Destines, The Lives of Ordinary Nineteenth-Century Bostonians (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1991), xxv, 281 pp. The final book that sampled Boston families from four censuses and the research to discover everything about their lives. WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * Darrett B. Rutman, Winthrop's Boston, Portrait of a Puritan Town, 1630-1649 (Williamsburg, Va., 1965; rep. Chapel Hill, N.C., 1975), x, 324 pp. WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL.
 * Victor F. Casaburi and William H. Sumner, A Colonial History of East Boston (East Boston, Mass., 1975), 145, [79] pp. WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL.
 * William H. Sumner, A History of East Boston, with Biographical Sketches of its Early Proprietors (Boston, 1858), viii, 798 pp. Digital version at Internet Archive, Hathi Trust, and on Ancestry ($). WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * Justin Winsor, The Memorial History of Boston, Including Suffolk County Massachusetts, 1630-1880 (Boston, 1880-1881), in 4 vols. Digital version at Internet Archive (v. 3 only), Google Books (v. 1, v. 2, v. 3, v. 4), and on Ancestry ($). WorldCat (Other Libraries); with digital links.
 * C. Bancroft Gillespie, Illustrated History of South Boston (South Boston, Mass., 1901), 258 pp. Digital version at Internet Archive, Google Books. WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * Thomas H. O'Connor, South Boston: My Home Town, The History of an Ethnic Neighborhood (Boston, 1988, rep. 1994), xiii, 259 pp. WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * Thomas C. Simonds, History of South Boston: formerly Dorchester Neck; Now Ward XII of the City of Boston (Boston, 1857; rep. New York, 1974), 331 pp. Digital version at Internet Archive, Google Books. WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * John J. Toomey and Edward P. B. Rankin, History of South Boston (Its Past and Present) (Boston, 1901), xxxii, 570 pp. Digital version at Internet Archive, Google Books. WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * Allan Forbes and Paul F. Cadman, Boston and Some Noted Emigres: A Collections of Facts and Incidents with Appropriate Illustrations Relating to Some Well-Known Citizens of France who Found Homes in Boston and New England (Boston, 1938), 98 pp. Digital version at Hathi Trust for searching only. WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * James Oliver Horton and Lois E. Horton, Black Bostonians, Family Life and Community Struggle in the Antebellum North (New York, 1979), xv, 175 pp. This study of the Black community focuses on those before the Civil War who were never part of the slave history of the south. WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL.
 * George A. Levesque, Black Boston: African American Life and Culture in Urban America, 1750-1860 (New York, 1994), xviii, 537 pp. WorldCat (Other Libraries);.
 * Boston's Growth. A Bird's Eye View of Boston's Increase in Territory and Population From It's Beginning to the Present (Boston, 1910), 45 pp. Digital version at Internet Archive and Hathi Trust. Not on WorldCat; Not at FHL.
 * Boston - One Hundred Years a City. A Collection of Views Made from Rare Prints and Old Photographs Showing the Changes Which Have Occurred in Boston During One Hundred Years of its Existence as a City, 1822-1922 (Boston, 1922), xii, 49 pp. Digital version at Internet Archive. WorldCat (Other Libraries); Not at FHL.
 * Annie Haven Thwing, The Crooked and Narrow Streets of the Town of Boston (Boston, 1920; 2nd ed., 1925; Tercentenary ed., 1930), xi, 282 pp. Digital version at Internet Archive, Google Books, and on Ancestry ($). WorldCat (Other Libraries); with in-library link.


 * Boston Wikipedia page.

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Almanacs

 * Dickinson, S.N. The Boston Almanac for the Year 1842. Boston: Thomas Groom &amp; Co., 1842. A digital copy of this book is available online at Internet Archive.


 * Dickinson, S.N. The Boston Almanac for the Year 1844. Boston: Thomas Groom &amp; Co., 1844. A digital copy of this book is available online at Internet Archive.


 * Coolidge, George. The Boston Almanac for the Year 1850. Boston: B.B. Mussey &amp; Co. and Thomas Groom, 1850. A digital copy of this book is available online at Internet Archive.


 * The Boston Almanac and Business Directory for the Year 1872. Boston: Sampson, Davenport &amp; Co., 1872. A digital copy of this book is available online at Internet Archive


 * The Boston Almanac and Business Directory for the Year 1879. Boston: Sampson, Davenport &amp; Co., 1878. A digital copy of this book is available online at Internet Archive

Directories

 * Fold3.com ($) has 116 years of Boston City Directories spanning 1789-1926 available online.
 * DistantCousin.com users can access the following Boston city directories: 1800, 1860, and 1904.
 * Internet Archive has made the following Boston city directories available online:


 * 1789, 1805,1825, 1831, 1834, 1835, 1836, 1848-1849, 1849, 1852, 1855, 1856, 1858, 1862, 1879, 1916 pt.1, 1916 pt. 2, 1922, 1955 (A-K), 1955 (L-Z),1956 (A-K), 1956 (L-Z), 1957 (A-K), 1957 (L-Z), 1958 (A-K), 1958 (L-Z), 1959 (A-K), 1959 (L-Z), 1960 (A-K), 1960 (L-Z),1961 (A-K), 1961 (L-Z), 1962, 1962 (L-Z), 1963 (A-K), 1963 (L-Z), 1964, 1964 (L-Z), 1965, 1966, 1967 (A-K), 1967 (L-Z), 1968 (A-K), 1968 (L-Z), 1969 (A-K), 1969 (L-Z), 1970 (A-K), 1970 (L-Z), 1971 (A-K), 1971 (L-Z), 1972, 1972 (L-Z), 1973 (A-K), 1973 (L-Z), 1974-1975 (A-K), 1974-1975 (L-Z)


 * Google Books has the following Boston city directories available online:


 * 1832, 1848-1849, 1851, 1852, 1862, 1871, 1873, 1877, 1891, 1894, 1918, 1921,

Emigration and immigration
Wiki articles describing online collections are found at:


 * Massachusetts, Boston Passenger Lists, 1820-1891 (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Massachusetts, Boston Passenger Lists, 1891-1943 (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Guides

 * Lainhart, Ann S. A Researcher’s Guide to Boston. Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2003. (FHL book 974.461 D27L)
 * Lainhart, Ann S. “Research in Boston through the Centuries.” New England Ancestors 2 (Spring 2001): 11-17.
 * Morton, Sunny McClellan. "Boston: City Guide." Family Tree Magazine 12 (March 2011): 33-36.

History
Also see: Biography, Genealogy


 * Cook, A.M. Boston Goes to Massachusetts. Boston: The Church House, 1945..
 * Holman, Louis A. Boston: The Place and the People. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1903. . Digital version at Internet Archive.
 * Scudder, Horace E. Boston Town. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1881. . Digital version at Internet Archive.
 * Snow, Caleb H. A History of Boston, the Metropolis of Massachusetts from Its Origin to the Present Period; with Some Accounts of the Environs. Boston: Abel Bowen, 1825. . Digital version at Internet Archive.
 * Sumner, William H. A History of East Boston; with Biographical Sketches of Its Early Proprietors, and an Appendix. Boston: J.E. Tilton and Company, 1858. . Digital version at Internet Archive.

Maps
The Norman B Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library has 200,000 historic maps and 5,000 atlases documenting the evolution. The geographical focus of these maps, atlases, and globes is the World, Europe, and America, with particular attention to New England, Massachusetts, and Boston from the 15th century to the present day.

Newspapers

 * Newspaperarchive.com ($) has historical newspapers available on-line including Boston City newspapers. Some libraries including the Boston Public Library provide free access to this database.
 * Boston Globe and theBoston Herald obituaries 1953-2010 available from the Boston Public Library.

Notarial records - Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
Early notarial records for the city of Boston were published in volume 32 of the Boston Record Commissioners Reports.


 * Volume 32. A Volume Relating to the Early History of Boston, containing the Aspinwall Notarial Records from 1644 to 1651. Boston: Municipal Printing Office, 1903. (FHL book 974.461 H2b v. 32). Digital version at Internet Archive

Orphans and orphanages

 * Holloran, Peter C. Boston's Waywards Children: Social Services for Homeless Children, 1830-1930. Boston: Northeastern University Press, c1989..

Poorhouses

 * Downer, Lawrence W. "The Indentures of Boston's Poor Apprentices: 1734-1805," The Colonial Society of Massachusetts (Mar. 1962):417-434. Digital version at Primary Research - free.
 * Nellis, Eric and Anne Decker Cecere. ed. The Eighteenth-Century Records of the Boston Overseers of the Poor. Boston: Colonial Society of Massachusetts, c2007..

Vital records
Early vital records for the city of Boston were published in volumes 9, 24, 28 and 30 of the Boston Record Commissioners Reports.


 * Volume 9. A Report of the Record Commissioners, containing Boston Births, Baptisms, Marriages, and Deaths, 1630-1699. Boston: Rockwell and Churchill, City Printers, 1882. (FHL film 982237 item 1). Digital version at Internet Archive
 * Volume 24. A Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, containing Boston Births from A.D. 1700 to A.D. 1800. Boston: Rockwell &amp; Churchill, City Printers, 1894. (FHL film 14734). Digital version at Internet Archive
 * Volume 28. A Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, containing the Boston Marriages from 1700 to 1751. Boston: Municipal Printing Office, 1898. (FHL book 974.461 H2b v. 28). Digital version at Internet Archive
 * Volume 30. A Volume of Records Relating to the Early History of Boston, containing Boston Marriages from 1752 to 1809. Boston: Municipal Printing Office, 1903. (FHL book 974.461 H2b v. 30). Digital version at Internet Archive
 * Dunkle, Robert J. and Ann S. Lainhart. Deaths in Boston 1700 to 1799. 2 Vols. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, c1999. FHL Book 974.461 V2dr v.1-2.

Archives
City of Boston Archives 201 Rivermoor Street West Roxbury, Massachusetts 02132 Telephone: 617-635-1195 Fax: 617-635-1194 Email: [mailto:Archives@cityofboston.gov Archives@cityofboston.gov] Hours: Monday-Friday, 9:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. by appointment only Facebook

The National Archives at Boston Frederick C. Murphy Federal Center 380 Trapelo Road Waltham, Massachusetts 02452-6399 Telephone: 781-663-0130 Fax: 781-663-0154 Email: [mailto:boston.archives@nara.gov boston.archives@nara.gov]

Libraries
Boston Public Library 700 Boylston Street Boston, Massachusetts 02116 Telephone: 617-536-5400 Email: [mailto:ask@bpl.org ask@bpl.org] Facebook

Congregational Library 14 Beacon Street, 2nd Floor Boston, Massachusetts 02108 Telephone: 617-523-0470 Fax: 617-523-0491 Email: [mailto:circ@14beacon.org circ@14beacon.org]

The Congregational Library has an impressive collection of records documenting the history of American Congregationalism for the last 300 years. Equally impressive is their collection of New England local, town, and family histories. They also have a strong collection of published Massachusetts vital records. Congregational church records include membership lists, dismissals, baptisms, marriages, minutes of meetings, etc.

Societies
New England Historic Genealogical Society 101 Newbury Street Boston, Massachusetts 02116-3007 Telephone: 617-536-5740 Fax: 617-536-7307 Email: [mailto:info@nehgs.org info@nehgs.org] Website: www.americanancestors.org

The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) has a substantial collection of published New England genealogies and local histories. They also have a strong microform collection that contains copies of original town, probate, land, and vital records; censuses; city directories; and immigration records for most of the New England states and neighboring Canadian provinces. Their manuscript department, which is open only to members, houses over 2 million manuscript items. Some of the items date to the late fourteenth century. Much of the collection emphasizes the New England area. Included in the collection are thousands of unpublished family histories and genealogies, bibles and bible records, church, cemetery, town, and vital records, maps, photographs, etc.

Massachusetts Historical Society 1154 Boylston Street Boston, Massachusetts 02215 Telephone: 617-646-0532 Fax: 617-859-0074 Email: [mailto:library@masshist.org library@masshist.org]

Websites

 * Family History Library Catalog for the City of Boston