Birth Records
Birth and death records were often published together, although they were separated in some towns. The names of the parents would appear with the first child only. Going down the list the individuals would have the same parents' names until the family changed, when you would see a new set of parents appearing in a birth record. For example:
Waterman, Philip, of Charles and Sarah Sept. 29, 1779
Waterman, Jemima, April 1, 1781
Waterman, Gideon, July 26, 1783
Waterman, Elijah, March 1, 1786
Waterman, Charles, March 7, 1788
Waterman, James, July 21, 1789
Waterman, Sarah Ann, Aug. 18, 1792
Waterman, Mary, of Benjamin, Sept. 22, 1769
Waterman, Sarah, of David and Nancy Jan. 23, 1782
This list shows three different families: Philip, Jemima, Gideon, Elijah, Charles, James, and Sarah Ann, all children of Charles and Sarah Smith; Mary, daughter of Benjamin Smith; and Sarah, daughter of David and Nancy Smith.
When viewing your search results, click on the "More" link to see the record in its original context. This will allow you to determine the names of the parents from the earlier records in the list. The entry you linked from will appear in bold on the page.
Marriage Records
Generally marriage records were published together, in alphabetical order. The volume and page number from the town records were printed at the beginning of each item, to facilitate locating the original. The names of ministers were often included in the records. Clicking on the "More" link will allow you to view the marriage record as it was originally published by Arnold.
Searching on the Name of an Individual
There are two ways to search on the name of an individual:
1. First Name/Last Name Search
As an example, entering John in the First Name box and Smith in the Last Name box will provide you with a list of every record containing the name "John" and the name "Smith." This type of search may result in a large number of matches, but this method is necessary in order to find every possible instance of John Smith in the database.
Here are some examples of results using this method--note the variety of ways the name is entered on record.
SMITH John C., of Dartmouth, Mass., son of Thomas, and Rhoda Maxfield, of Seth, of said place; m by Rev. E. B. Hall, Nov. 26, 1849
Coggeshall Daniel, of Thomas, dec., and Sally Smith, of John; m. by H. Cooke, Justice, Oct. 17, 1793.
John, alias Johnson, and Mary Anna, both of Pawtuxet ; m. by Benjamin Smith, Asst., Dec. 15, 1665.
BEATTIE John, and Mary Smith ; m. by Rev. Abial Fisher, July 3, 1836.
BUCKLIN John Smith, Feb. 25, 1806.
The first name/last name search could result in hundreds of individuals. However, we highly recommend using the first/last name search and carefully examining each entry.
2. Keyword or Phrase Search
To search for a specific name, e.g. John Smith, you may enter the name in the "keyword or phrase" box. Do not place quotes around the name. This type of search will only find exact matches of the name as it is entered in the search box and only if it were entered in the original record as such.
IMPORTANT: While this method will limit the number of results to records featuring the exact name, you may not find all individuals with that name. Therefore, you will not see the following formats, which are found in many records:
Smith John
Smith, John
John A. Smith
Smith, son of John
Again, the above examples, and any other variations of the name, will NOT show up in a list of results if you search on the full name in the keyword or phrase search.
In order to search by volume and page number, you must first select a town.
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