USGenWeb Genealogical Site for the Town of

	Bridgewater  Massachusetts

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The Vital Records of Bridgewater, Mass.

Transcribed by George Ernest Bowman
and
Published in The Mayflower Descendant

Contents

     You may have noticed that many genealogical publications cite the version of Bridgewater Vital Records published in The Mayflower Descendant from 1900 to 1914 in preference to the two-volume set published in 1916 by NEHGS.   That is because George Ernest Bowman published his literal transcriptions from the town records, as opposed to the alphabetized version published by NEHGS.   Professional genealogists generally prefer the former.   The Town Clerk often recorded the births of a couple's children on successive lines.   The entry for a family may contain the records of the births of the children along with the deaths of those who perished young, and sometimes the deaths or remarriages of the parents.   The completeness of some of these records often makes it easy to determine the members of a family, a task which is sometimes difficult when working with the alphabetized volumes.   The advantages of a literal transcription to the genealogist are the reason why this format has been used for a number of vital records volumes published in recent years, such as Vital Records of Plymouth, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850, compiled by Lee D. van Antwerp and edited by Ruth Wilder Sherman (Camden ME: Picton Press, 1993).   Note, however, that the MD records cover only the first two books of town records.   One drawback to a literal translation is that it needs an index, which I have provided for these pages.

     I have tried to render a faithful reproduction of the Mayflower Descendant pages in HTML form.   I have added some whitespace in order to make the individual entries easier to read.   I have tried to faithfully follow the original format in the use of italics and superscript (y^e).   I have not tried to correct or note irregular or unusual spellings of names, preferring to follow the original text and to use regularized spellings in the index.   Portions of another article on a page have been omitted and the fact noted [in square brackets and in red], and the volume and page numbers have been added to the top of each page in the same format.