Vital Records Dating to 1700s Available at Town Hall

On Tuesday, March 20, Ancestry.com added an estimated 17 million vital records to its database — all from Massachusetts. The information is available online for the price of a subscription to Ancestry.com, or it can be found for free by stopping into local town halls and asking for it.

“We have card files that date back to 1850,” said Westborough Assistant Town Clerk Wendy Mickel. “There are log books that date back to the 1700s, too.”

The public can access Westborough records on births, deaths, marriages and more by going to the Town Clerk’s office on the first floor of Town Hall, and many do. Mickel said that the interest seems to come in waves, as the public interest in studying genealogy peaks at different time for different reasons.

“We get people who drop in during the summertime. They might be traveling here and stop by to get information on their families,” she said.

The records are kept in a vault and protected by plastic, she said. “There are a lot of hand written journals and town reports. Some were typed later on.”

For information about Westborough vital records, stop by Town Hall or call the office of the Town Clerk at 508-366-3020. 

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