Note: Prices do not include shipping
or handling. Maps will be shipped either flat or
rolled depending on the size ordered. Ohio residents
please add your local sales tax.
Some comments on maps:
The hill towns of
western Massachusetts were settled by families relocating from
eastern Massachusetts. The family names of the early
settlers of Plainfield almost all have origins in Plymouth,
Weymouth, Bridgewater, and the surrounding towns. Then
many of these families "removed to the west." You will
find these family names in upstate New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, etc. How did they get there?
In the early 19th century, the Erie Canal was the likely route.
Then in the middle 19th century came the railroad.
Included in the map collection are early transportation maps and
period maps of the Midwest states. View thumbnail images
HERE.
My 4th Great Grandfather, Ebenezer Shaw (1752 -
1834) is a good example. He was born in Bridgewater,
settled in Cummington, and died in Chatham, OH. In The
History of Medina County (OH) his travels are described and
include travel across New York on the Erie Canal, ship passage on Lake Erie, and ox cart from Cleveland to
Chatham. In the Chatham Cemetery you will find Gardners,
Torreys, Shaws, Bartletts, and other hill town names. A
study of the maps gives you some insight to these journeys of
yesteryear.
Vital
Records of Plainfield, Hampshire County, Massachusetts from
1785 to 1930
This is a
collection of scans of the actual vital records as contained
in the various books maintained by the Town Clerks for 150
years. These images are indexed by surname. All images
are of the actual records of the Births, Deaths,
Marriages, and Marriage Intentions.
The benefit
of being able to examine the actual record is that no one
has interpreted the writing. You are able to do that
yourself. The quality of the scanned image is often
better than the original as I was able to enhance the image.
Many of the original records are faded or otherwise
difficult to read. Technology allows us to correct for
these issues. You will be able to zoom in to examine
the script closely as if with a magnifying glass.
Decide for yourself if that letter is an "e" or an "i", etc.
This two-CD
set includes high resolution JPG or PDF images of the actual record
book - one image per page of records. You will need to
be able to navigate through the images using Microsoft
Windows Explorer (or equivalent), not included but a part of
your Windows operating system. You will also need a
JPG or PDF viewer. Display these images
using Windows Picture and Fax Viewer (part of your
Windows operating system) or Adobe Reader. These viewers allow you to
zoom in/out and scroll to the next/previous image without
closing the viewer.
Click
HERE for a PDF sample from Book 1, page 456, showing
marriages and marriage intentions from 1805 and 1806.
Caution: this is a full resolution (3mb) file and
unless you have a broadband connection, you might not want
to download (>2 minutes at 56kbs).
The disks are
copy protected. You will be able to view and print
images, but you will not be able to copy them. The
disks are compatible with Windows operating systems through
XP. They are not compatible
with Vista, the new Microsoft operating system. They
are NOT MAC compatible either. (I
hope to have a Vista-compatible version available soon, but
my software supplier has not developed a satisfactory
version yet. Check back to this web site for any
changes.)
A significant
portion of each purchase will be donated to The Plainfield
Historical Society. Please help support this
organization by purchasing copies of this collection for
your friends and relatives.
PRICE:
$39.95 plus S&H ($4.95). Ohio residents please add
applicable sales tax. (Not Vista or MAC compatible.)