Alphabetic Surname Index

Births	Marriages	Deaths
Abbett - Austin Babbit - Butterworth Canterbury - Cutting Dana - Dyer Eames - Ewing Fagans - Furbush Gage - Grosvenor Hadfield - Hyde Jack - Jonson Keach - Kynion Ladd - Lyscom Mackinstra - Murdock Newel - Nugent Oakley - Olds Paine - Putnam Rawson - Ryan Sabin - Symonds Taft - Twichel Underwood - Upham Vinton Wakefield - Wright Young Unidentified Negroes	Abbee - Avery Babbit - Buxton Cady - Cutting Dalliba - Dyer Eames - Ewell Fagin - Furnoss Gail - Guilford Hall - Hyde Ingraham Jackson - Joslyn Keep - Knowlton Ladd - Lyon Maccoy - Myrick Nedson - Nye Oakley - Olds Paddock - Putney Randal - Ryon Sabin - Symonds Taft - Tyler Underwood - Utly Valentine - Vinton Wait - Wright Young Unidentified Negroes	Abbot - Atwood Babbit - Butterworth Cale - Cutting Daniels - Dyer Eastman - Ewell Fagan - Furrington Gardner - Guilford Hadfield - Hyde Inman Jackson - Judd Keach - Knight Lace - Lyscom Maecoy - Munroe Nedson - Nish Oaks - Olds Pagan - Putney Ray - Ryant Sacket - Sumner Tarbel - Tyler Umphrey - Upham Vickus - Vinton Walcot - Wyham Young Unidentified Negroes

Chronologic Surname Index

Births	Marriages	Deaths
Abbett - Austin Babbit - Butterworth Canterbury - Cutting Dana - Dyer Eames - Ewing Fagans - Furbush Gage - Grosvenor Hadfield - Hyde Jack - Jonson Keach - Kynion Ladd - Lyscom Mackinstra - Murdock Newel - Nugent Oakley - Olds Paine - Putnam Rawson - Ryan Sabin - Symonds Taft - Twichel Underwood - Upham Vinton Wakefield - Wright Young Unidentified Negroes	Abbee - Avery Babbit - Buxton Cady - Cutting Dalliba - Dyer Eames - Ewell Fagin - Furnoss Gail - Guilford Hall - Hyde Ingraham Jackson - Joslyn Keep - Knowlton Ladd - Lyon Maccoy - Myrick Nedson - Nye Oakley - Olds Paddock - Putney Randal - Ryon Sabin - Symonds Taft - Tyler Underwood - Utly Valentine - Vinton Wait - Wright Young Unidentified Negroes	Abbot - Atwood Babbit - Butterworth Cale - Cutting Daniels - Dyer Eastman - Ewell Fagan - Furrington Gardner - Guilford Hadfield - Hyde Inman Jackson - Judd Keach - Knight Lace - Lyscom Maecoy - Munroe Nedson - Nish Oaks - Olds Pagan - Putney Ray - Ryant Sacket - Sumner Tarbel - Tyler Umphrey - Upham Vickus - Vinton Walcot - Wyham Young Unidentified Negroes

The Town of Sturbridge, Worcester County, was established June 24, 1738, from the common land called New Medfield.

October 25, 1754, certain lands were annexed to Sturbridge.

June 26, 1792, a part of Charlton was annexed to Sturbridge.

June 25, 1794, a part of Middlesex Gore was annexed to Sturbridge.

February 15, 1816, a part of Sturbridge was included in the new town of Southbridge.

April 6, 1839, a part of Sturbridge was annexed to Southbridge.

Population by Census:

1765	896		1820	1,633		1870	2,101
1776	1,374		1830	1,688		1880	2,062
1790	1,704		1840	2,005		1890	2,074
1800	1,846		1850	2,119		1900	2,058
1820	1,927		1860	2,291

When places other than Sturbridge 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.

Marriges and intentions of marriges are printed under the names of both parties. When both the marrige and intention of marrige are recorded, only the marrige record is printed; and where a marrige 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 only when they occur in the original text or to separate clauses found there----such as the birthplace of parents, in late marrige 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 alphabetically 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.