Sign up for Genealogy Pointers »

The research value of this CD, with its 570,000 entries, is evident in its sweeping coverage. Over a half-million Massachusetts residents, almost all of them living during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and named in eighteen books published by the Genealogical Publishing Company, can be located in this one resource in just a fraction of the time needed to consult the original works (and at a fraction of the cost of the original works). While exploring the early Commonwealth period in such books as Pioneers of Massachusetts, by Charles H. Pope, and List of Freemen of Massachusetts, by Lucius R. Paige, and focusing on marriage records in the overlapping time period in books such as Early Massachusetts Marriages Prior to 1800, by Frederic W. Bailey, and Boston Births, Baptisms, Marriages, and Deaths, 1630-1699, by William S. Appleton, the majority of the books featured on this CD deal with vital records, passenger lists, censuses, and military records of a slightly later era.

Including the first two censuses of Massachusetts for 1790 and 1800, information found in this CD generally consists of name, age, and occupation, date and place of birth, marriage, and death, date of arrival, place of residence, family relationships, details of military service, and date and place of burial. Connections from one book to another make this CD a formidable research tool.

The following are the books included on this CD:

*Pioneers of Massachusetts
*List of Freemen of Massachusetts, 1630-1691
*Early Massachusetts Marriages Prior to 1800
*Boston Births, Baptisms, Marriages, and Deaths, 1630-1699
*Boston Births, 1700-1800
*Boston Marriages from 1700-1809 (2 vols.)
*Epitaphs from Burial Hill, Plymouth, Massachusetts
*Burial Hill, Plymouth, Massachusetts
*Soldiers in King Philip's War
*Port Arrivals and Immigrants to the City of Boston, 1715-1716 & 1762-1769
*The Genealogical Advertiser: A Quarterly Magazine of Family History
*The Loyalists of Massachusetts
*Heads of Families: Massachusetts 1790 Census
*Index to the 1800 Census of Massachusetts
*An Index of Pioneers from Massachusetts to the West
*Records of the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia . . . War of 1812-1814
*A List of Alien Passengers . . . 1847 to 1851

System Requirements: You must have a CD-ROM drive, and in order to read the CD you must use either the Family Archive Viewer (version 4.0 or higher), which is available as a free download at http://www.genealogical.com/content/dlfav6.html, or Family Tree Maker for Windows, version 4.0 or higher (Family Tree Maker software can be ordered from www.FamilyTreeMaker.com).

To access information on our Family Archive CDs using the Family Archive Viewer:

1. Install the Family Archive Viewer CD or download it from http://www.genealogy.com/dlfav6.html.
2. Start the Viewer if it is not already running
3. Insert the CD you wish to view into the CD-ROM drive. If you have 2 or more CD-ROM drives, the CD must be placed in the first one.
4. The CD should open automatically, but users of later versions of the Family Archive Viewer must click the CD/magnifying glass icon in the top toolbar (above the template in some versions) to read the CD.
5. When the screen entitled "About this Family Archive" appears, click OK where prompted.

To access information on our Family Archive CDs using Family Tree Maker:

1. Start your Family Tree Maker and open a Family File. (If the program is already running, skip to Step 2.)
2. Insert the CD in your computer's CD-ROM drive. (If you have 2 or more CD-ROM drives, the CD must be placed in the first one.)
3. From the View menu, select Family Finder, or select the Family Finder icon from the toolbar.
4. For FTM 2005, FTM 2006, or Version 16, you must go to the View menu, select Data CD, then View CD. For FTM 2008 or higher, you must download the Family Archive Viewer.

To search the CD for names, select the Search Expert button in the top right of your screen, then select "Search this archive for someone NOT from your Family File." You can also search for names by using the Index.

Note: If a window opens that contains a list of files on the CD, simply close it.