November Meeting

November 11, 2006

Topic: Visit to Dyer Memorial Library

28 Centre Avenue

Abington, MA

1:30 p.m. at the Dyer Library 781-878-8480

Marietta White Dyer

The Dyer Memorial Library was founded in 1930 according to the will of Marietta White Dyer (1853-1918) for the purpose of establishing free public access to an historical and biographical library in the town of Abington, Massachusetts. By her will she created a trust “to perpetuate by a permanent memorial, the name and memory of the Dyer family, a family which has been identified with the development and growth of the Town of Abington from its beginning.” When the Town of Abington was incorporated in 1712, the Dyer family had already called the area home for over ten years.

Research Books The library’s collection consists of approximately 14,000 books, including general U.S. history books, a notable collection of Civil War monographs, Massachusetts town histories, Massachusetts business directories from 1867-1919, biographies and genealogy books.

Genealogy Research The library has an extensive collection of genealogy reference books consisting of published vital record books up to 1850 for most of Massachusetts, genealogy research for Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, family genealogies, Irish genealogy, Mayflower Families and Mayflower Descendants, New England Historic and Genealogical Registers with indexes, The American Genealogist volumes 1-75, various other genealogy periodicals and cemetery information for the local area and Southern Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Census for l790, 1855 and l865 are available as well as the United States Census for 1850 and 1880. Also included in our genealogy collection are the personal research papers of Anna and Leila Gurney from Whitman and Herbert Hunt of Rockland.