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BERKSHIRE COUNTY, Massachusetts
History <-> Genealogy
*First created, in 1761, from Hampshire County.
*County seat: Pittsfield.
Berkshire County is the western most county in Massachusetts.
It
extends from north to south across the western portion of
Massachusetts, with
the state of New York to its west, the state of Vermont to the north,
and
the state of Connecticut to the south.
*Cities, Towns & Communities include: Adams,
Alford, Becket, Cheshire, Clarksburg, Cummington, Dalton, Egremont, Florida, Great Barrington, Hancock,
Hinsdale, Housatonic,
Lanesborough, Lee, Lenox, Monterey, Mount Washington, New Ashford, New
Marlborough,
North Adams, Otis, Peru, Pittsfield, Richmond, Sandisfield,
Savoy, Sheffield, Stockbridge, Tyringham,
Washington, West
Stockbridge,
Williamstown and Windsor.
Select this LINK to see GENERAL Berkshire
County information and links.
Select from the TOWN list above to view information and links
specific to that community.
Please note: Though the information on this web page is
believed to be correct, the possibility of error remains. Please
notify the webmaster
should an error
be found.
Zoom and navigate through a Map of Berkshire
County, Massachusetts
Surrounding Counties
(North = Top)
|
Vermont (Bennington County) |
|
New York (Rensselaer County)
New York (Columbia County) |
Berkshire County, MA |
Franklin County, MA
Hampshire County, MA
Hampden County, MA |
|
Connecticut (Litchfield County) |
|
- A
Gazetteer of the State of Massachusetts with Numerous Illustrations
/ Rev. Elias Nason, M.A.; revised and enlarged by George J. Varney.
Boston : B.B. Russell. 1890, 724 pages, scanned and posted online by
David Kew, of
Worcester!
- W.
E. B.
Du Bois (1868-1963) was born in Great Barrington, MA
- Berkshire County
Historical Society
- 708 Holmes Road - Pittsfield, MA 01201
- Phone: (413) 442-1793
E-mail: info@berkshirehistory.org
- MAGenWeb for Berkshire County Genealogy
- The
Berkshire Athenaeum - Pittsfield's Public Library
- 1 Wendell Avenue - Pittsfield, MA 01201
- Berkshire Family
Association
- History
of
Berkshire Boarding School, Sheffield, MA (from ca. 1906)
- Berkshire
County Libraries.
- Berkshire
County, MA 1790 Census, (in-progress) online by Ray Brown.
- Berkshire Museum
- Pittsfield - (art, natural science, and history).
Route 7, 39 South Street - Downtown, Pittsfield, MA
01201 Phone: (413) 443-7171. - Hancock Shaker Village
-
Pittsfield - an historic site where the lives of the Shakers, who
lived
in the area from 1790 to 1960, are interpreted.
P.O. Box 927, Pittsfield, MA 01202-0927 Phones:
(413)
443-0188 & (800) 817-1137. - Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary
Art,
North Adams, MA
- BerkshireNOW.com:
"...Regional community web guide for Berkshires, Massachusetts covering
the
North Adams, Great Barrington, Pittsfield, Dalton, Lee, Lenox,
Stockbridge, and West Stockbridge areas developed in partnership with
The Berkshire Eagle,
community organizations and local businesses..."
- SEE The Berkshires at
Berkshires.com: travel guide and online magazine.
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town.
- Eminent
Berkshirites.
site includes brief bio and attachment to the Berkshires: John Alford,
Dr.
Amp, Susan B. Anthony, Colonel John Ashley, Mum Bett, Josh Billings,
Israel
Bissell, William Cullen Bryant, Joseph Hodges Choate, Silvio Conte,
Zenas
Crane, W.E.B. DuBois, Jonathan Edwards, Cyrus Field, Giraud Foster,
Joseph
Franz, Daniel Chester French, James A. Garfield, Arlo Guthrie,
Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Jonathan Hinsdale, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Fanny Kemble, John
D.
Kennedy, Henry Hudson Kitson, Chief Konkaput, Serge Koussevitsky, Elder
John
LeLand, Herman Melville, Dexter G. Morrill, Ichabod Parsons, John
Parsons,
Norman Rockwell, Shorty Rogers, Catharine Sedgwick, Ted Shawn, John
Sergeant,
William Stanley, Chief Umpachene, Stanford White, and Edith
Wharton.
The
Berkshire County Clickable Map - each town site contains:
Historic Preservation Report. - FedStats by State
for Massachusetts
and Berkshire
County
Statistics
- National
Atlas of the United States
- USGS:
Maps of Berkshire County Massachusetts features - including cemeteries,
churches,
populated places and more. Please note that the map town
listed
with a feature may be used as a map reference for the site, and may not
be
the town where the feature is actually located...Select a map to see
the
location of the actual feature. This database may not be
complete,
and, as with any database, there may be errors.
- Berkshire
County Probate Court Clerk
44 Bank Row - Pittsfield, MA 01201.
- Berkshire
Registry of Deeds
(Middle District)
44 Bank Row - Pittsfield, MA 01201 Phone:
(413)
443-7438
Records for the city of North Adams and the towns of Adams, Cheshire,
Clarksburg, Florida, Hancock, Lanesborough, New Ashford, Savoy,
Williamstown and Windsor.
- Berkshire County
Registry
of Deeds (Northern District)
65 Park Street - Adams, MA 01220 Phone:
(413)
743-0035
Records for the city of North Adams and the towns of Adams, Cheshire,
Clarksburg, Florida, Hancock, Lanesborough, New Ashford, Savoy,
Williamstown and Windsor.
- Berkshire County Registry
of Deeds (Southern District)
334 Main Street - Great Barrington, MA
01230 Phone: (413) 528-0146
Records for the towns of Alford, Egremont, Great Barrington, Monterey,
Mount Washington, New Marlborough, Sandisfield, Sheffield and West
Stockbridge.
- Massachusetts
Archives - Policies
for
Research by Mail - Fees and
Procedures
220 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, Massachusetts 02125
Phone: (617) 727-2816. - Court Records Archivist (for MA
Archives requests
involving court records)
Supreme Judicial Court Archives - 1300 New
Court
House - Boston, MA 02108.
Berkshire County Communities
Adams - DHCD: Adams
Community Profile - East Hoosuck 1767; Adams incorporated in
1778; See Town
Seal.
- Adams, Massachusetts -
includes a History of
Adams from 1766, and an historic online tour.
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Adams, MA
01220; Susan
B. Anthony Birthplace - Adams, MA.
North Adams - DHCD: North Adams
Community
Profile - Incorporated in 1895; See Town Seal.
- North Adams, MA town
site.
- North Adams Public
Library
74 Church Street - North Adams, MA 01247
Phone: (413)
662-3133. - NorthAdams.com:
Bytes from the
Bean,
by Joe Manning, a regular column about North Adams!
- STEEPLES,
a book by Joe Manning, "...is a collection of oral histories,
photographs and poetry celebrating the beauty, the history, and the
people from North Adams, Massachusetts..."
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. North
Adams, MA 01247
Alford - Alford Community Profile
Information
and Links - Alford incorporated Feb'y 16, 1777; See Town Seal.
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Alford, MA
01230
- Alford Free Public Library - Hours
& Information
5 Alford Center Road - Alford, MA
01230-8920 Phone: (413) 528-4536
Becket - MA: Becket Community
Information - New Plantation No. 4 incorporated in1765; See Town Seal.
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Becket, MA
01223
- Becket Athenaeum, Inc. - Hours
& Information
Main Street - P.O. Box 9 - Becket, MA 01223-0009
Phone: (413) 623-5483 E-mail:
becket@cwmars.org
Cheshire - MA: Cheshire Community
Information - Incorporated 14 March 1793; See Town Seal.
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Cheshire,
MA 01225
Clarksburg - MA: Clarksburg
Community Information - Incorporated 2 March 1798; See Town Seal.
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Clarksburg,
MA 01247
Cummington - MA: Cummington
Community Information - Incorporated 23 June 1779; See Town Seal.
Dalton - MA: Dalton Community
Information - Incorporated in 1784; See Town Seal.
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Dalton, MA
01226
Egremont - MA: Egremont Community
Information - Incorporated 23 August 1775; See Town Seal.
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Egremont,
MA (North 01252) (South 01258)
Florida - MA: Florida Community
Information - Incorporated 23 August 1775; .The first settler
in Florida was
Dr. Daniel Nelson from Stamford, Connecticut, who arrived in 1783, from
Longmeadow
and settled on a homestead on the Deerfield River...
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Florida,
MA
01247
Great
Barrington - MA: Great
Barrington Community Information - Founded in 1761; See Town Seal.
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Great
Barrington, MA 01230
Housatonic - USGS
Location for Housatonic Map
Hancock - MA: Hancock Community
Information - Plantation of Jericho; Hancock incorporated 2
July 1776; See Town
Seal.
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Hancock,
MA
01237
Hinsdale - MA: Hinsdale Community
Information - Incorporated in 1804; See Town Seal.
Parent towns: Partridgefield and Dalton.
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town.
Lanesborough - MA: Lanesborough
Community
Information - New Framington 1742; Lanesborough incorporated
21 January
1765 ; See Town
Seal.
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Lanesborough,
MA 01237
Lee - MA: Lee Community Information-
Incorporated 21 October 1777; See Town Seal.
- The Town of Lee, MA
with a Brief History
of Lee from 1777.
Lenox - MA: Lenox Community
Information- Incorporated in 1767; See Town Seal.
- The Town of Lenox, MA 01240
with a Brief History of
Lenox and Historic Lenox Map.
Monterey - MA: Monterey Community
Information - Incorporated in 1847; See Town Seal.
Parent town: Tyringham. In 1735, "...Monterey was one of
the
two towns on the north of the trail and was the site of the original
settlement
of Tyringham of which it was then a part..."
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Monterey,
MA 01245
Mount
Washington - MA: Mount
Washington Community Information - Founded in 1779; See Town Seal.
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Mount
Washington
New Ashford - MA: New Ashford
Community
Information - Settlers arrived in 1762; Town founded in 1781.
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. New
Ashford, MA 01237
New Marlborough - MA: New
Marlborough Community Information - Incorporated in 1759; See Town Seal.
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. New
Marlborough, MA 01230
Otis - MA: Otis Community
Information- Incorporated 13 June 1810; See Town Seal.
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Otis, MA
01235
Peru - MA: Peru Community
Information- Incorporated in 1771 as Partridgfield; Name was
later changed to Peru. See Town Seal.
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Peru, MA
01235
Pittsfield - MA: Pittsfield
Community Information - Town incorporated in 1761; City in
1891; See Town
Seal.
- Pittsfield,
Massachusetts - includes Pittsfield
History.
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Pittsfield,
MA 01201
- The
Berkshire Athenaeum - Pittsfield's Public Library
- 1 Wendell Avenue - Pittsfield, MA 01201
Richmond - MA: Richmond Community
Information - Incorporated in 1765; See Town Seal.
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Richmond,
MA 01254
The
Town
of Ripton, MA - includes the Ripton Charter (1786).
Sandisfield - Sandisfield
Community Information
and Links
- DHCD:
Sandisfield Community Profile - ( Plantation No. 3 ) Founded
in 1762; See Town Seal.
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Sandisfield,
MA 01255
Savoy - Savoy Community
Information and
Links
- DHCD:
Savoy
Community Profile - Incorporated in 1797; "... The
first
settlement of the town was made in 1777 by a Mr. Robinett and by the
end
of the Revolutionary War, 35 families lived in Savoy..."
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Savoy, MA
01256
Sheffield - MA: Sheffield
Community Information - Incorporated 22 June 1733; See Town Seal.
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Sheffield,
MA 01257
Stockbridge - MA: Stockbridge
Community
Information - Chartered 7 May 1737; See Town Seal.
"...The town has grown from an Indian mission to a quiet village of
wealth
and gracious living to a resort town with the most famous Main Street
in
America as painted by Norman Rockwell..."
- The
Red
Lion Inn - Stockbridge, MA - History from 1773.
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Stockbridge,
MA 01262
Tyringham - MA: Tyringham
Community Information - Incorporated in 1762 as Plantation No.
1; "...But the community
is one of four whose history begins in 1735 when the Great and General
Court
voted to create townships to provide some protection for the wilderness
trail
that was at that time the main route between the lower Housatonic
Valley
and the Connecticut Valley and Boston..."
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Tyringham,
MA 01264
Washington - MA: Washington
Community Information - Founded in 1777 (Hartwood Plantation).
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Washington,
MA 01223
West Stockbridge - MA: West
Stockbridge Community Information - Incorporated in 1774;
"...The town was owned
by the Stockbridge Indians whose leader, the sachem Konkapot, in 1724
sold
a huge territory including West Stockbridge and a half dozen more
communities
to European settlers.
The first colonist was Joseph Bryant from Canaan, Connecticut, who
settled
his homestead in 1766..." - The
Berkshire Web includes a brief Historic Preservation
Report,
community news, travel information, maps and more for each town. West
Stockbridge, MA
Williamstown - MA: Williamstown
Community
Profile - Incorporated in 1765; See Town Seal.
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Williamstown,
MA 01267
Windsor - MA: Windsor Community
Profile - Founed in 1771 (Gageborough).
- The Berkshire Web
includes a brief Historic Preservation Report, community news,
travel
information, maps and more for each town. Windsor,
MA
Additional Research Resources:
- Official Commonwealth of
Massachusetts web site.
- Massachusetts
Citizen Information Service - maps and more.
- Local
Catholic
Church History & Genealogy Research Guide & Worldwide Directory
+ Massachusetts*
Page.
- Massachusetts
Archives
- Governor's - Kids Page
- Virtual
Tour
of the Governor's Office.
- Massachusetts
Facts - Review of the History, Government, and Symbols of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts Published by William Francis Galvin,
Secretary of the Commonwealth.
- Massachusetts
Studies Project - "Educational resources for teachers,
students and
lifelong learners."
- Massachusetts
Information and Library Network
- Massachusetts
Dept. of Housing and Community Development: Community Profiles.
- USGS - Geographic
Names Information System - use the query
form to locate geographic features, such as lakes, cemeteries,
towns,
and more.
- The
Political
Graveyard, for Massachusetts,
created and maintained by Lawrence
Kestenbaum, a web site about U.S. political history, politicians
and
cemeteries.
- Massachusetts
Research Tools by Jeff Simonson.
- From
Revolution
to Reconstruction - a Hypertext on American History.
- NARA: National Archives and
Records
Administration.
- Library
of
Congress: American Memory All Collections Search - enter topic
or
Massachusetts town and/or county location to find available online
photos,
maps, and more!
- U.S.
Census
Bureau Interactive County Maps for Massachusetts.
Professional Research
Ann
McRoden Mensch,
Professional Historical Genealogist
Researching onsight, and with the vast resources of The Allen County Public Library,
holding
one of the largest genealogical collections in North America.
Search
the Library's
online
catalogue to see some of the printed resources available for a
location
or topic.
Printed resources for this page include:
- School and Library Atlas of the World. Fred W.
Foster,
Ph.D. (Editor). Sycamore, Illinois: School and Library
Publishing Company. 1982.
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Local
History ]
Copyright 1998, 1999, 2000 by Ann Mensch. All Rights
Reserved.
