Alphabetic Surname Index

Births	Marriages	Deaths
Ager - Atwood Babbet - Byham Calhoon - Cutler Dagget - Dunn Eager - Edson Fales - Furness Gage - Grout Hagar - Hunter Jackson - Jolls Keith - Knapp Lamb - Luce Maccarty - Mosely Negus - Newton Oaks - Owen Page - Putney Randal - Rogers Sanderson - Stratton Taft - Twichell Upton Walker - Wyman Young	Ackerman - Ayres Babbet - Byham Calhoon - Cutting Dagget - Dyson Eades - Estubrooks Fairbanks - Fuller Gabyer - Guild Hadley - Hyde Ingals - Ingesoll Jackson - Joslin Keith - Knowlton Lackey - Lyon Maccarty - Murdock Ned - Nye Oakes - Osment Packard - Putnam Ramsdel - Russell Sabins - Swindell Taft - Tylor Underwood - Upton Vallintine - Voyning Wadsworth - Wyman Young Unidentified	Ainsworth - Atwood Babbit - Bunford Calhoon - Curtis Davenport - Duncan Eames - Elvins Fairbanks - Frost Gale - Guild Hammond - Hubbard Jackson - Johnson Knowlton Lincoln - Loring Maccarty - Morse Neagus - Newton Oaks - Osgood Parker - Prentiss Read - Ross Sanderson - Stratton Taft - Twichell Upton Wakefield - Woodward

Chronologic Surname Index

Births	Marriages	Deaths
Ager - Atwood Babbet - Byham Calhoon - Cutler Dagget - Dunn Eager - Edson Fales - Furness Gage - Grout Hagar - Hunter Jackson - Jolls Keith - Knapp Lamb - Luce Maccarty - Mosely Negus - Newton Oaks - Owen Page - Putney Randal - Rogers Sanderson - Stratton Taft - Twichell Upton Walker - Wyman Young	Ackerman - Ayres Babbet - Byham Calhoon - Cutting Dagget - Dyson Eades - Estubrooks Fairbanks - Fuller Gabyer - Guild Hadley - Hyde Ingals - Ingesoll Jackson - Joslin Keith - Knowlton Lackey - Lyon Maccarty - Murdock Ned - Nye Oakes - Osment Packard - Putnam Ramsdel - Russell Sabins - Swindell Taft - Tylor Underwood - Upton Vallintine - Voyning Wadsworth - Wyman Young Unidentified	Ainsworth - Atwood Babbit - Bunford Calhoon - Curtis Davenport - Duncan Eames - Elvins Fairbanks - Frost Gale - Guild Hammond - Hubbard Jackson - Johnson Knowlton Lincoln - Loring Maccarty - Morse Neagus - Newton Oaks - Osgood Parker - Prentiss Read - Ross Sanderson - Stratton Taft - Twichell Upton Wakefield - Woodward

This township was an original grant made by the General Court in 1732, as a compensation to certain soldiers in the Indian Wars. The place was called Nichewaug until the town was incorporated in 1754.
In 1801 the town of Dana was formed of parts of Greenwich, Hardwick and Petersham, and in 1842 another portion of Petersham was annexed to Dana.

Population at different periods:

1765	707		1810	1,490		1840	1,775
1790	1,560		1820	1,623		1850	1,543
1800	1,794		1830	1,696		1900	853

The list of Petersham Births, Marriages and Deaths comprised in this volume includes all found in the Town Books covering the period from the earliest date there recorded to the end of the year 1849. Some additions and corrections have been made from other sources, these being indicated in each instance by proper reference.

All of the records are condensed in print as much as is consistent with intelligibility, accuracy, and completeness of information. Differences in duplicates, and explanatory or other matter which seemed necessary or desirable, appear in brackets. Marriages and intention of marriage are printed under the names of both parties, but the full information concerning eachperson is given only under his or her name. An asterisk after a marriage indicates that the intention was not found recorded, and in many cases this is accounted for by the fact that neither party belonged in Petersham, and consequently publishment was made elsewhere.

The double date is used in the months of January, Febuary and March prior to 1752 only when it so appears in the original, and instances of the modern form after 1725 are not uncommon.

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

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.