Alphabetic Surname Index

Births	Marriages	Deaths
Adams - Austin Babbit - Butts Cadman - Cushman Damans - D–––– Earl - Ewen Farnham - Freeman Gage - Gust Hagar - Hussey Ingraham - Inman James - Joy Kelley - Knowles Lake - Luis MacComber - Myrick Negus - Nye Omen - Osgood Paboday - Purrington Queripel Ramsdell - Ryder Sabins - Sylvia Taber - Tyson Upham Vickery - Vincent Wady - Wrightington Unidentified	Abel - Ayres Babbitt - B–––– Cables - Cutting Daggett - Dyer Earl - Exeter Fairbrother - Furman Gage - Gust Hach - H–––– Ingraham - Irish Jackson - Jurnon Kay - Knowlton Lake - Lysher Macamber - Myrick Nap - Nye Obadiah - Oxx Paboday - Pullen Quach - Quoy Rady - Ryder Sabens - Swift Taber - Turner Underwood - Upham Vail - Voyal Waddle - W–––– Youin - Young Unidentified Negroes	Adams - Austin Babbitt - Butts Cadmon - Cushman Damon - Durfee Earl - Ewen Faunce - Francis Gallison - Gust Hagar - Huttleston Ingraham James - Judd Keirby - Kirby Lamb - Luis McAllaster - Myrick Nash - Nye Paboday - Purrington Raymond - Ryder Sabins - S–––– Taber - Tucker Vincent Wady - Wrightington Yeuen Unidentified

Chronologic Surname Index

Births	Marriages	Deaths
Adams - Austin Babbit - Butts Cadman - Cushman Damans - D–––– Earl - Ewen Farnham - Freeman Gage - Gust Hagar - Hussey Ingraham - Inman James - Joy Kelley - Knowles Lake - Luis MacComber - Myrick Negus - Nye Omen - Osgood Paboday - Purrington Queripel Ramsdell - Ryder Sabins - Sylvia Taber - Tyson Upham Vickery - Vincent Wady - Wrightington Unidentified	Abel - Ayres Babbitt - B–––– Cables - Cutting Daggett - Dyer Earl - Exeter Fairbrother - Furman Gage - Gust Hach - H–––– Ingraham - Irish Jackson - Jurnon Kay - Knowlton Lake - Lysher Macamber - Myrick Nap - Nye Obadiah - Oxx Paboday - Pullen Quach - Quoy Rady - Ryder Sabens - Swift Taber - Turner Underwood - Upham Vail - Voyal Waddle - W–––– Youin - Young Unidentified Negroes	Adams - Austin Babbitt - Butts Cadmon - Cushman Damon - Durfee Earl - Ewen Faunce - Francis Gallison - Gust Hagar - Huttleston Ingraham James - Judd Keirby - Kirby Lamb - Luis McAllaster - Myrick Nash - Nye Paboday - Purrington Raymond - Ryder Sabins - S–––– Taber - Tucker Vincent Wady - Wrightington Yeuen Unidentified

The Town of Dartmouth, Bristol County, was first mentioned as "Dartmouth" on October 5, 1652, in the Plymouth Colony Records.

June 8, 1664, the tract of land called Acushena, Ponagansett, and Coaksett was established as Dartmouth.

June 3, 1668, bounds were established.

February 23, 1787, a part of Dartmouth was established as New Bedford.

July 2, 1787, a part of Dartmouth was established as Westport.

Feb. 25, 1793, February 28, 1795, and March 4, 1805, parts of Dartmouth were annexed to Westport.

February 20, 1828, bounds between Dartmouth and Westport were established.

February 19, 1831, bounds between Dartmouth and New Bedford were established.

March 20, 1845, a part of Dartmouth was annexed to New Bedford.

May 3, 1888, bounds between Dartmouth and New Bedford were changed, and a part of Dartmouth was annexed to New Bedford.

Population by Census:

1765	4,506		1830	3,866		1880	3,430
1776	6,773		1840	4,135		1890	3,122
1790	2,499		1850	3,868		1900	3,669
1800	2,660		1860	3,883		1910	4,378
1810	3,219		1870	3,367		1920	6,493

The fact that a birth, marriage, or death is recorded in Dartmouth does not prove that it occurred there, unless it is so stated in the record. When places other than Dartmouth and Massachusetts are named in the original records, they are given as they appear ther.

In all items from town records the original spelling is followed, and no attempt is made to correct errors appearing in the records.

A baptism is not printed, if it occurs within one year after the recorded date of birth of a child of the same name and parents or if it is clear tha the child baptized is identical with the child of the birth record; but variations found in the baptismal record are added to the birth record.

The birth of a married woman is recorded under her maiden name, if it is known. But if the maiden name cannot be determined, the entry appears under the husband's name. If it is not known whether the surname is that of a married or unmarried woman, "? m." is placed in brackets after the Christian name.

Marriages and intentions of marriage are printed under the names of both parties. When both the marriage and intention of marriage are recorded, only the marriage record is printed; and where a marriage appears without the intention being recorded, it is designated with an asterisk.

Additional information which does not appear in the original text of an item, i.e., any explanation, query, inference, or difference shown in other entries of the record, is bracketed. Parentheses are used to show variations in the spelling of a name in the same entry, to indicate the maiden name of a wife, to enclose and imperfect portion of the original text, and to separate clauses in the original text.

Items marked with a dagger (†) have been supplied from a copy of the Dartmouth town records, preserved in the New Bedford City Hall.

Items marked with a double dagger (‡) have been supplied from the "Leonard Papers," in the Free Public Library, New Bedford.

A general guide to how to use these pages.

If you are new to this site, or haven't used the site a lot, please be sure to read the rest of this page. Even if you have used this site a lot, a refresher may be helpful due to the changes that have been introduced.

You can research the records alphabetically or chronologically within surname. Images of the pages from which the transcriptions were done, and the title pages, are available for most towns. A list of abbreviations used is available.

Alphabetic - This is the most common way that the published vital records were presented. All of the same given names were arranged chronologically with names that had middle initials or middle names followed the others. Nicknames would appear alphabeticall according to the spelling, i.e. Nabby, the nickname for Abigail, would be with the names beginning with the letter "N."

In this version, the names are sorted based on the most common spelling. Abbie, Abby, Abigail, Knabby, Nabby, etc., will all appear together and will be chronological. Middle initials and middle names have no influence on the order.

Note: There are going to be errors in the indexing of the names. A woman named Abiel may have been recorded as Abby. The indexing will have her with the Abigails. Please notify me with the Contact page about errors and they will be fixed within a couple days.

Chronologic - The chronologic sort will be most helpful with surnames having lots of entries, especially births. Records that had a missing date, or part, have had the missing portions replaced with zeros and will appear ahead of the others.

Page images - The icon at the left of each record is a link to the image of the page from which the transcription was done. The transcriptions are a tool. The image is the source. It is your responsibility to copy the image for your documentation. Also, the title page should be copied. There is a link to the title page in the navigation bar on transcription pages and image display pages.

Abbreviations - Each town had its own abbreviations used in the published records. Most of these are the same. The abbreviations for the headstones (GR), private records (PR), churches (CR), etc. are all different. There is a link to a list of all abbreviations used for the town in the navigation bar of the transcription pages.

Errors - There are two types of errors.

• Errors in the published records - It is known that errors are in the published records. Not many, to be sure, but they are there. Where I have found them, or have been informed and provided sufficient documentation, the records have been annotated. This appears in red at the end of the line.]
• Transcription errors - Even with the best of proofing, errors occur. If you find one, use the Contact link at the top of the page and tell me about the error. I need to have the town name, type of record, page number, what the error is and what it should be. It facilitates matters if you copy and paste the record in error into the e-mail.

Miscellaneous - As the opportunity has provided, I have tried to research names that had only initials or an initial and a surname to find the full names. Where I've been successful I've added the name in red, i.e. J.R. appears as J[ohn] R. or J[ohn] R[ussel].

The alphabetic and chronologic sort orders and many planned improvements require that towns be transcribed. If you can spare two, or more, hours per week to help with the transcribing, write me.

With the exception of the few people helping with transcribing and indexing, I am the only person working on this project. I do all of the technical work. I correct errors. I put transcriptions into final format. I design the pages. This takes a tremendous amount of time and money. If you find this site useful, please donate what you think it is worth to you by going to the donations page.