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The thirteen books reproduced in this Family Archive CD were originally published by the Genealogical Publishing Company. The books include a great variety of record types, including probate, town, and vital records, and are combined in this CD to help you piece together a comprehensive picture of your Massachusetts ancestors. Altogether, 160,000 individuals are identified in these records.

Between 1630 and 1642, the period of the "Great Migration," some 30,000 people emigrated from England to Massachusetts. By the time of the American Revolution, nearly everyone in Massachusetts could trace their ancestry to one of these 30,000 people--so where better for today's researcher to commence his own investigations than in the probate, town, and vital records of Massachusetts!

Since its early settlement, Massachusetts has maintained vital records of birth, marriage, and death at the town level. Six of the books included in this CD deal specifically with vital records. Some of the books, such as the three-volume Vital Records of the Town of Plymouth, are based on the work of the renowned Mayflower scholar George Ernest Bowman, who methodically transcribed a large number of official town records. Vital records usually contain the name of the individual involved in the event, the date of the event, and the name of the town in which the event took place.

Four of the volumes assembled here are histories of Massachusetts towns. Town histories can be an interesting addition to your family history as they bring names, places, and events to life. Featuring biographies, census and tax lists, and lists of militiamen, selectmen, freemen, town officers, voters, and prominent citizens, town histories help you form a picture of what a particular locale was like when your family lived there.

The remainder of the titles included in this Family Archive CD contain abstracts of Massachusetts probate records--wills, inventories, administrators' accounts, receipts, divisions of estates, petitions, and guardianships. Information found in probate records enables you to establish relationships and determine the economic status of your ancestors.

All names mentioned in the combined works are accessible on this CD via a single electronic index. Listed below are the books included in this CD:
*History of the Town of Duxbury, Massachusetts with Genealogical Registers, by Justin Winsor
*History of Haverhill, Massachusetts from its First Settlement . . . , by George W. Chase
*History of Scituate, Massachusetts from its First Settlement to 1831, by Samuel Deane
*History of Stoneham, Massachusetts with Biographical Sketches . . . , by William B. Stevens
*Records of the Town of Plymouth, by William T. Davis. 3 vols.
*Vital Records of the Town of Plymouth, by Col. Leonard H. Smith, Jr.
*Vital Records of the Towns of Barnstable and Sandwich, by Col. Leonard H. Smith, Jr.
*Vital Records of the Towns of Eastham and Orleans, by Col. Leonard H. Smith, Jr.
*Vital Records of the Town of Fairhaven, by Col. Leonard H. Smith and Dorothy M. Boyer
*Vital Records of the Town of Middleborough, by Col. Leonard H. Smith, Jr.
*Abstracts of Bristol County, Massachusetts Probate Records, 1687-1745, by Peter Rounds
*Abstracts of Bristol County, Massachusetts Probate Records, 1745-1762, by Peter Rounds
*Suffolk County Wills, published by the New England Historic Genealogical Society

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 or later: From the View menu, select Data CD, then View CD.

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.