Vital Records of Charlestown, Massachusetts to 1850

These Vital Records of Charlestown were compiled and edited by Roger D. Joslyn and published by NEHGS in three volumes: Volume 1 (1984), Volume 2, Part 1 (1995) and Volume 2, Part 2 (1995).  These volumes are now out of print.

From the introduction to volume 1:
“This [database] contains civil vital record entries of Charlestown, Massachusetts—births, marriages, and deaths from the 1630s to the late 1790s and intentions of marriage from 1726 through 1849. Church, cemetery, and other private records of these events are not included nor are Charlestown events recorded in other towns.”
“The information in this book was compiled from the following three major sources: the Massachusetts Bay Colony records, containing the earliest Charlestown records; the Middlesex County, Massachusetts, records, mostly copies of town records, but also providing many events not found in the town books; and the Charlestown town records, consisting of the ‘Ancient Volume’ 1 of births, marriages, and deaths and three volumes of marriage intentions.”

To download the 26-page introduction to Volume 1 as a pdf file, click here.

To download the 24-page introduction to Volume 2, Parts 1 and 2, as a pdf file, click here.

This database includes 14,082 births, 11,914 marriage intentions, 11,358 marriages, and 8,145 deaths.  The images of the original book pages are available from the search results pages.

The three original volumes are available in our Boston research library, call numbers F74.C4 J67 1984, v.1, v.2 pt.1, and v.2 pt.2

To locate additional genealogy and local history resources, search our library catalog.