Alphabetic Surname Index

Births	Marriages	Deaths
Abbot - Ayrs Babbit - Byshop Cag - Cutler Dade - Dyke Eades - Eyears Falls - Fulton Gaffney - Guttrige Hacock - Hyland Ilery - Ireland Jackson - Jumper Keen - Kuetville La Baren - Lyncoln McCain - Murrains Nash - Nutter Oakes - Oxton Page - Pyper Quarles - Quint Race - Ryon Sadler - Sylvester Tainer - Tyler Umphry - Urien Vanderford - Votten Wade - Wright Yong - Younger Surname missing Indians Negroes	Abbit - Ayres Babbit - Byrne Caban - Cuttler Dade - Dyson Eades - Ewin Falt - Furness Gaffield - Gyles Hacock - Hutsen Ilsley - Ivory Jackson - Jumper Keegin - Kusey La Brunier - Lynkern McArty - Myles Nash - Nutter Oakes - Oxton Packharris - Pyper Quarels - Quitville Race - Ryns Sadler - Symons Tailor - Tyo Upham - Urann Vanderford - Vorel Wade - Wyer Yonger - Younglove Surname missing Negroes	Abbot - Ayres Babbit - Byron Cabann - Cutler Dade - Dyke Eades - Ewell Farley - Fuz Gaerrin - Gyles Hacks - Hutchings Ingalls - Ireland Jackson - June Kalder - Knutsford Labnieur - Lurvy McCauly - Murphy Nash - Nutter Oakes - Oxton Page - Putnam Rand - Rust Sadler - Symonds Tappan - Tyler Underwood - Uran Vanhuson - Vinson Wainwright - Wytham Yewlin - Younger Surname missing Negroes

Chronologic Surname Index

Births	Marriages	Deaths
Abbot - Ayrs Babbit - Byshop Cag - Cutler Dade - Dyke Eades - Eyears Falls - Fulton Gaffney - Guttrige Hacock - Hyland Ilery - Ireland Jackson - Jumper Keen - Kuetville La Baren - Lyncoln McCain - Murrains Nash - Nutter Oakes - Oxton Page - Pyper Quarles - Quint Race - Ryon Sadler - Sylvester Tainer - Tyler Umphry - Urien Vanderford - Votten Wade - Wright Yong - Younger Surname missing Indians Negroes	Abbit - Ayres Babbit - Byrne Caban - Cuttler Dade - Dyson Eades - Ewin Falt - Furness Gaffield - Gyles Hacock - Hutsen Ilsley - Ivory Jackson - Jumper Keegin - Kusey La Brunier - Lynkern McArty - Myles Nash - Nutter Oakes - Oxton Packharris - Pyper Quarels - Quitville Race - Ryns Sadler - Symons Tailor - Tyo Upham - Urann Vanderford - Vorel Wade - Wyer Yonger - Younglove Surname missing Negroes	Abbot - Ayres Babbit - Byron Cabann - Cutler Dade - Dyke Eades - Ewell Farley - Fuz Gaerrin - Gyles Hacks - Hutchings Ingalls - Ireland Jackson - June Kalder - Knutsford Labnieur - Lurvy McCauly - Murphy Nash - Nutter Oakes - Oxton Page - Putnam Rand - Rust Sadler - Symonds Tappan - Tyler Underwood - Uran Vanhuson - Vinson Wainwright - Wytham Yewlin - Younger Surname missing Negroes

A company of fishermen, known as the Dorchester Company, established itself here in 1624, but the larger number of the colonists returned to England the following year, and the remainder removed to Naumkeag, afterwards Salem.

The General Court on May 22, 1639, ordered "that a fishing plantation shalbee begun at Cape Ann." A committee was appointed to lay out the plantation and none were allowed to settle without their permission. The authority of the committee was reaffirmed October 7, 1641 and another committee was appointed the same day to settle the bounds between Cape Ann and Ipswich. Their report is dated May 3, 1642 and mentions the meeting house at Cape Ann.

"Gloaster" is first mentioned in the Colony records when a tax was levied June 14, 1642. The plantation without doubt was named for the cathedral city in England, from which several of the settlers emigrated. Bounds between Gloucester and Manchester were established May 15, 1672. Part of Gloucester was set off Feb. 27, 1840 as the town of Rockport.

The population of Gloucester at different periods was as follows:

1765,

3,763

1800,

5,313

1830,

7,510

The following records of births, marriages and deaths include all entries to be found in the books of record kept by the town clerks; in the church records; in the returns made to the Salem Quarterly Court; in the cemetery inscriptions; and in private records found in family Bibles, etc. These records are printed in a condensed form in which every essential particular has been preserved. All duplication of the town clerk's record has been eliminated, but differences in entry and other explanatory matter appear in brackets. Parenthesis are used when they occur in the original record; also to indicate the maiden name of a married woman.

When places other than Gloucester or Massachusetts are named in the original records, they are given in the printed copy. Marriages and intentions of marriage are printed under the names of both parties. Double dating is used in the months of January, February and March, prior to 1752, whenever it appears in the original, and also whenever from the sequence of entry in the original the date may be easily determined. In all records the original spelling of names is followed, and in the alphabetical arrangement the various forms should be examined, as items about the same family may be found under different spellings.

The First Church records begin in 1703 with the pastorate of Rev. John White. The original records of the Fourth Parish have not been found and it has been necessary to use the copy preserved at the City Hall.

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.