Excerpt from Concord, Massachusetts Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1635-1850
The book which this committee now offers to their fellow citizens for their approval is the result of the labors given under this vote.
Concord is one of the oldest of our New England towns, having been settled in 1635. It has been termed with truth one of the seed towns. The descendants of the original settlers are scattered far and wide over the whole country. It is probable that the number of such descendants living outside of the town far exceeds the num ber of those living in it at the present time. Naturally enough, there has been a great and growing desire on the part of many-of these to obtain trustworthy information in respect to those from whom they are descended, or to whom they are related by ties of blood. There has been perhaps a still greater desire on the part of those who still live in the town to have the means of information which really \exist put into an available and convenient form. For these reasons and others, which will occur to those who are inof which this work is the fruit.
The committee wish to say a few words about the character and formation of the book. The lists as printed are intended to be an actual transcript of the original rec ords. To those records in every case we have gone back and have never relied on any copy, even when it has been officially certified to be correct. These original records have been followed, too, in every particular - in Spelling, in abbreviations, in punctuation, in use of capitals, and the like - that is, as nearly as modern print can be made to follow ancient and sometimes almost illegible manuscript. A fact may be stated, probably not generally known, that for some years the records of births, marriages, and deaths were kept only in the town; in other years, only in the county books; and in still other years, both in the town and county records. Where such duplicate records exist we have followed the Town Record Book, at the same time comparing it carefully with the County Book, and stating in footnotes any discrepancies that may have appeared. The official record of deaths has also been compared with the records of the First Church and with the old gravestones, and the differences similarly noted. Wherever in the Town Record of deaths the age of the person dying is not stated, it has been supplied in brackets, wherever possible, from the church records, the gravestones, or the death notices in the local newspapers. To the record of the deaths in the town books we have added such others as do not ap pear in those books, but are found in the church records or on the gravestones. Nothing which appears in brackets or footnotes is to be taken as a part of the record. Such.
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