Alphabetic Surname Index

Births	Marriages	Deaths
Abbot - Ayres Babcock - Burton Campbel - Culver Dandurand - Dudley Eames - Ensign Fairman - Fuller Gamwell - Griswold Haley - Hyde Ingal - Ingram Jackson - Judd Kannaday - Kyle Lackor - Lyman Mack - Munson Nash - Nye Oles - Owen Palmer - Prouty Quigley - Quigly Rankin - Rust Sacket - Sullivan Talmadge - Twist Vadakin - Vansolon Wade - Wythe York - Young Unidentified	Abbot - Ayres Babcock - Button Cady - Cushman Daniels - Dreen Eager - Everett Fairbanks - Fuller Gamwell - Griswold Hale - Hutchinson Ingal - Isham Jackson - Judd Kagwain - Kyle Lackor - Lyman Mack - Muzzey Nash - Nye Olds - Owen Pain - Prouty Quigley Raynolds - Rust Sacket - Sylvester Taggart - Twiss Umphrey Van Solon - Viets Wade - Wyeth Unidentified	Abbot - Ayres Babcock - Buttolph Cambell - Culver Davis - Dwight Eastman - Ensign Fally - Frost Gambale - Grout Haley - Hutchins Ingel - Ingram Jack - Judd Kelso - Kyle Lackor - Lyman Mahon - Muhhellon Newel - Noony Oliver - Otis Parks - Prouty Quigley - Quigly Reed - Rust Sale - Sumner Tanner - Tyler Wade - Wythe Unidentified Negroes

Chronologic Surname Index

Births	Marriages	Deaths
Abbot - Ayres Babcock - Burton Campbel - Culver Dandurand - Dudley Eames - Ensign Fairman - Fuller Gamwell - Griswold Haley - Hyde Ingal - Ingram Jackson - Judd Kannaday - Kyle Lackor - Lyman Mack - Munson Nash - Nye Oles - Owen Palmer - Prouty Quigley - Quigly Rankin - Rust Sacket - Sullivan Talmadge - Twist Vadakin - Vansolon Wade - Wythe York - Young Unidentified	Abbot - Ayres Babcock - Button Cady - Cushman Daniels - Dreen Eager - Everett Fairbanks - Fuller Gamwell - Griswold Hale - Hutchinson Ingal - Isham Jackson - Judd Kagwain - Kyle Lackor - Lyman Mack - Muzzey Nash - Nye Olds - Owen Pain - Prouty Quigley Raynolds - Rust Sacket - Sylvester Taggart - Twiss Umphrey Van Solon - Viets Wade - Wyeth Unidentified	Abbot - Ayres Babcock - Buttolph Cambell - Culver Davis - Dwight Eastman - Ensign Fally - Frost Gambale - Grout Haley - Hutchins Ingel - Ingram Jack - Judd Kelso - Kyle Lackor - Lyman Mahon - Muhhellon Newel - Noony Oliver - Otis Parks - Prouty Quigley - Quigly Reed - Rust Sale - Sumner Tanner - Tyler Wade - Wythe Unidentified Negroes

The town of Chester, Hampden County, was formerly called Murrayfield, which, as a plantations, was established as a town October 31, 1765.
June 29, 1773, part of Murrayfield was established as the District of Norwich.
May 8, 1781, another part of Murrayfield was annexed to Norwich.
February 21, 1783, the name was changed from Murrayfield to Chester.
March 12, 1783, part was included in the new town of Middlefield, Hampshire County.
June 21, 1799, part was annexed to Worthington, Hampshire County.
Feb. 22, 1809 and June 13, 1810, bounds between Chester and Blandford were established.
May 25, 1853, part was annexed to Norwich.

Population by Census:

1765

405

1820

1,526

1860

1,314

When places other than Chester and Massachusetts are named in the original records, they are given in the printed copy.

In all records the original spelling is followed.

The various spellings of a name should be examined, as items about the same family or individual might be found under different spellings.

Marriages and intentions of marriages 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 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 the difference in the spelling of a name in the same entry, to indicated the maiden name of a wife, to enclose an imperfect portion of the original text, and to separate clauses in the original text — such as the birthplace of a parent in late records.

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 following 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.