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Vital Records Found in the Town Records Dover, Windham County, Vermont

By Helen A. Shaw

Dover, Windham County, Vermont, was originally part of Wardsborough (later spelled Wardsboro) but, due to the rugged terrain, it was difficult for residents to travel between the two settlements for administrative meetings. Thus, of geographic necessity, the area was divided into two quasi-independent towns which were designated the "North" and "South" districts. In 1789 Wardsborough, South District, began to hold its own town meetings and to keep its own records of those meetings and other town business, including records of births, marriages, and deaths. In 1812 the town was officially separated from Wardsborough, North District, and was renamed Dover.

Today, the town record book for Dover for the years 1789 to 1859 is kept at the town hall in West Dover. The book has been re-bound into one volume though it originally consisted of two volumes.

Volume I contains the minutes of town meetings from the first such meeting in March 1789 to 1820. Volume I also contains lists of jurors (both petit and grand), lists of members of various committees (e.g. for road surveys and the school board), ear marks for animals, ministers' licenses, lists of persons dissenting from the standard religious point of view, and warnings out. These warnings were transcribed and published in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. CXLIX, January, 1995, pp. 73-76.

Records of births, deaths, and marriages in Volume I are intermixed with the other material and, except for births within the specific family, are not in chronological order. Although the volume is officially labeled 1789–1820 and most records fall within that span, the birth records cover the years 1782–1837. It is apparent that when the town began to keep its own record book, the early settlers decided to record the births of all their children, including those born prior to 1789. Some of these pre-1789 births are for children born in other towns and/or states. Also, births within a given family were recorded together regardless of the date. There is an index of the fathers' names for the birth records, but no index for deaths or marriages.

Volume II contains the minutes of town meetings and material similar to that in Volume I for the years 1820 to 1859. There are only a handful of deaths listed in this volume, usually for children and appearing within the list of a family's births. The birth records appear on pages 105–119 and 121–130. As in Volume I, they are neither in alphabetical order by surname or in chronological order except within a specific family. The marriage records are on pages 130–166 and are recorded in reverse chronological order (i.e. the earliest records are on page 166 and the most recent are on page 130). There is an index for the fathers' names and an index to the grooms' names.

In addition to being available at the town hall, the Dover record book is available through the Family History Centers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Salt Lake City (Microfilm 0028147).

How the records were extracted

All birth, death, and marriage records are exact transcripts of the records as they appear in the town book. Spelling, capitalization, and superscripted letters are as they appear in the original. At times this means a name or word will appear spelled more than one way in the same entry.

Often, death records, especially those of children, are intermingled with the lists of births. An example from p. 155 is highlighted below:

Joel Lyman was born May 2d 1807
Cyntha Lyman was born September 27th 1808
Joel Lyman died October 8th 1810
Joel Lyman born January 22d 1811
James Lyman was born February 17th 1813

With a few exceptions, marriage records are abstracted in that the standard preamble and some of the more formal phrases are omitted and the year is written in number form rather than written out. However, the day of the marriage, the names of the bride and groom, their place of residence, and the name of the officiating person and his title are transcribed exactly as they appear in the original record. Where a marriage record is transcribed as it originally appears it is delineated by quotes. See the example which follows for format of abstracts:

The record as it appears on p. 222:

State of Vermont Windham County
Be it Remembered that at Wardsborough South Dist in this County of Windham on the fourteenth Day of March in the year of our Lord 1802 that John Gould Junr of Wardsborough South District and Mary Stearns of the same place were joined in Marriage by me.
Nathl Stearns Justice of the peace

Abstracted form:

At Wardsborough SD: Marriage of John Gould Junr and Mary Stearns both of Wardsborough South District on the fourteenth day of March 1802 by Nathl Stearns, JP