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HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS

Imagine that you found here an index to all Hampshire County historical documents, and could just click to retrieve an image of the document you need. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? If you have the expertise and time to index and digitize our documents – or the money to hire it done– please get in touch! The Council would also be interested in any information on the availability of grants for the preservation of historical documents.

Until that happens, our documents are hard to access – and endangered every time they are used. Records that have been microfilmed must be viewed on microfilm. You are likely to find it more convenient to view copies of the microfilm at either the Forbes Library or at a Family History Center of the Latter-day Saints. If you need documents that are only available here, please call ahead for an appointment.

Records of births and marriages in Massachusetts are kept by Town and City Clerks. A list of Clerks in Hampshire County can be found here: Council Directory. Additional genealogical information is available from the State Archives.

Researchers who need to see documents that have not been microfilmed are asked to please use extreme care to protect the documents from damage. Click here for guidelines explaining how to do that. We ask researchers to read this and sign that they will follow these procedures. You can save time by printing it out at home and bringing in a signed copy.

We do have an index of county roads here: County Road Index. All historical documents, including maps, are stored in the Archives Room in the Councilors’ Office. Many are also available at Huntley Associates, PC, in Northampton, which had been the designated “county engineer” for decades.

While we are only hoping to have our maps digitized someday, here is one of them that is available on a blog by Mark T. Alamed, "Exploring Western Massachusetts." He adds interesting historical commentary to each towns detail map.

Hampshire County was established in 1662. The earliest document in our archives is dated 1664. County Commissioner Session minutes and dockets, County Court records, atlases, manuscripts and maps, bridge, railway and dam maps and records, licenses for early taverns, and early court records offer researchers insight into the development of the early colony and can provide detail to family histories. (Google, we would love to have you make our documents available to all.)