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The talk on the Old Dartmouth Town meeting database is now available here.
The Dartmouth Historical and Arts Society President's Talk with the Dartmouth Select Board now available here.
Dartmouth Community Picnic & Band Concert at the Russells Mills School House Press Release6/27/2022 DHAS has continued improving the usefulness and accessibility of the collection of over 600 pages of the town meeting records of Dartmouth which date from 1674 through the date of the first division (February 22, 1787) when “New Bedford” was carved off (consisting of present day New Bedford, Fairhaven and Acushnet), leaving “Dartmouth”, consisting of today’s Westport and Dartmouth until July 2, 1787 when Westport was established from what had been “Dartmouth” for a few months after New Bedford was incised. Recall that in 1888, the Aldermen of New Bedford decided to examine the condition of the original old records of the town of Dartmouth and later moved to preserve the old records by hiring a scribe to transcribe (by handwritten rewrites faithful to the originals) all of the town meeting records as well as several other categories. Still later the Mormon Church captured these transcriptions on film and created microfilm of the collected set, including a very thorough index of every name mentioned as well as a variety of topics covered which had been constructed by the scribe hired by the Aldermen of New Bedford. DHAS, with permission from the Dartmouth Historical Commission and support from the New Bedford Free Public Library obtained a copy of this microfilm and proceeded to have it “digitized” so it could be posted (in segments) on our website DartmouthHAS.org. That was the latest step in improving the access to these important historical records of the early governance of our (collective) towns here on the South-coast. But, even with this availability, everything in the database, including the wonderfully rich index created by the scribe, Etta S. Martin, was handwritten and thus only searchable via the human eye and brain, not facile! To improve this state of affairs DHAS has commenced transcribing the index created after 1888 by Etta S. Martin into a form the computer can read and manipulate. This has allowed us to design a “Navigational Console”, which allows a user, citing the index, to go directly to the page where the record referred to in the index has been identified. Thus, we have an every name index with the page numbers, in the >600 page document, where any given name is cited, including the context. This greatly betters the experience of utilizing these records for research and writing. The digitizing of the index is still on-going but the name index is complete and identifies by name over 1,200 names from the ODTMRs. This means each of these is a verified Dartmouth resident at a documented date in time and additional information has likewise been provided, with cited page numbers from the ODTMRs. A very large percentage of these names are male, and thinking logically, if most of them were family men and had an average of, say 3 children, we have accounted for some four to five thousand people! III. Bristol County Land Records Transcriptions Database (BCLRTdb) All family history and genealogical researchers know of the great value of land records for discovering relevant facts and documenting their work. Even with the free availability of microfilm copies of most older land records via FamilySearch.com however, where digitized copies of the manuscript forms of the land records are readily available, they are not searchable via computer and hence require much slow browsing and searching even after you locate the right legal instrument to look at. A recent fortuitous encounter has changed that for DHAS and its patrons. We recently have been granted total access to a collection of transcriptions of extracts from the land records of all the territory comprising Old Dartmouth as well as certain parts of Little Compton and Tiverton. This is the work of over twenty years of dedicated labor to faithfully capture and create these transcriptions of the essential information, along with all the reference numbers required to find and read the manuscripts themselves on FamilySearch.com While the transcription work continues apace we have copies of the records for the first fifty (50) volumes of the Bristol County Land Records available in both “.doc” and “.PDF” formats which will be installed on our website along with an introduction explaining the collection and extraction protocol and the items covered and searchable for patrons. This covers a staggering amount of primary land transaction and ownership information about Old Dartmouth. It covers a time span beginning in 1668 and going on through 1767. With about 3,500 documents transcribed from volumes 1 through 50 and more to come this complements all of our primary data collections for researching Dartmouth from its beginning in Plymouth Colony onward. As with our other important collections, a collection of indexes (lname, fname, BCLR volume# page#, Grantee, Grantor, FHL film# and Image#; etc) with specific page number references will be presented along with the BCLRTdb and a customized Navigational Console for facilitating getting to the target document(s) a patron might be researching with a sequence of clicks. WATCH FOR THE POSTING OF THESE NEW SOURCES FOR ALL DHAS PATRONS RESEARCHERS AND HISTORY BUFFS
The DHAS is pleased to announce a planned field trip to the site of the earliest place of settlement in old Dartmouth, with documented evidence of occupation prior to the chartering of the town by Plymouth Colony in 1664.
Using sources from Plymouth Colony Records and notes, sketches, maps and interpretations from Henry B. Worth, two history sleuths, Max Isaksen and Don Plant, will tell us about those industrious pioneers and the reasoning why they chose this location for their new homesteads. We have planned an approximately 1 hour guided walk in Acushnet to visit 3 landmarks where the story of the earliest recorded English settlement in “Cushena” before the incorporation of Dartmouth in 1664 will be explained. WHEN? Sunday, March 13, 2022, at 1:30 PM. We will meet at the parking lot in the rear of the Acushnet Council on Aging, 59 ½ South Main St., Acushnet, (rain date, March 20, 2022, same time) Come and learn about John Howard, Arthur Hathaway, James Shaw and others that would follow, who would make this the first community center in what would become the Township of Dartmouth. Note: The walk will take us along a short stretch of South Main Street and through the paths of Keating Woods, a 21 acre tract of land owned by the Acushnet River Reserve, Inc. and managed by the Buzzards Bay Coalition. The entire walk is less than 1 mile long and will possibly be wet. Proper footware is recommended. Patrons, friends, members, and volunteers:
Today was the latest step in becoming visible to the world of genealogists and family historians who follow the New England Historic Genealogical Society's website AmericanAncestors.org and the various other publications emanating from their prolific headquarters in Boston, MA. Today we went LIVE on the VitaBrevis Blog at https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2022/01/dartmouth-quaker-records/ with an essay written by Molly Rogers, a member of the NEHGS staff, with lots of support from DHAS. The article contains many links to additional web pages relevant to our work. Thank you for your continued interest and support. DHAS has been recently featured in videos by Dartmouth Community Media (DCTV), linked below:
http://75.147.58.17/CablecastPublicSite/show/7625?channel=2 and http://75.147.58.17/CablecastPublicSite/show/7626?channel=2 |
