USGenWeb Genealogical Site for the Town of

	Bridgewater  Massachusetts

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Nahum Mitchell
History of Bridgewater

The Online Edition

     Nahum Mitchell, History of the Early Settlement of Bridgewater, in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, including an extensive Family Register (Boston: Printed for the author by Kidder and Wright, 1840; repr. Bridgewater: Henry T. Pratt, 1897; Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1970; Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1983; Salem, MA: Higginson Books, 1992).

     This transcription was begun by the late CJ McNew, completed by the current webmaster and supported by the greatly appreciated efforts of many volunteers.   Note that although a number of errors have been discovered in this work it is still a very useful starting point for research on early Bridgewater families.   Most of the significant errors concern the 17th century generations of families, and that information should be used with great caution.   Mitchell is on much firmer ground with the 18th and 19th century families.   His work is especially useful where he indicates that a family branch has removed from Bridgewater and then indicates where they settled.

     The text as given here is from an original copy of the 1897 Bridgewater facsimile reprint.   The page numbers as given herein are from that edition, and do not correspond to the page numbers in the 1840 edition.   It is not always possible or practical to try to make a web page look the same as that page in a book, but I have tried to do so within reason.   I have not tried to preserve the original line breaks, and have added white space so that the paragraphs are easier to distinguish and to read.   Links have been added at the bottom of each page, and other links added within large families, in order to make this electronic edition easier to use.   The 1840 and 1897 editions of Mitchell do not contain an every-name index, and I have not undertaken the immense labor needed to create one.

     I have added some notes [in red and in square brackets] to the pages to acknowledge volunteer transcribers, to correct typographical errors, and to correct some of Mitchell's major errors (often with source notes).   Corrections from pages 8, 423 and 424 have been added to the text [in green and in square brackets, with the source page (linked in parenthesis)].

     I would like to thank the volunteers who greatly contributed to this project.   Special thanks go to Betty White, who transcribed most of the history pages and a number of families.   Thanks also to the other transcribers and the proofreaders - in alphabetical order they are Fran Ames, Suzanne Carpenter, LaVerne Chappell, Dianna Fisher, Michael Hervey, Molly Leonard, Jim Long and Lisa Whiting.   Without CJ's initiative and hard work and the greatly appreciated labor of the volunteers this transcription would not have been possible.