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Questions that I regularly get Asked
The Windham County Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) page contains a small (but growing) number of questions that we feel are of common interest. Because this is a work in progress, we have listed questions - both answered and unanswered. If you can help us answer some of the questions (and/or would like to be an on-call researcher) please send us an email.
VITAL STATISTICS QUESTIONS
If you didn't find your question listed above, you may tap other resources by contacting participants in the Windham County VTGenWeb project.
And ONE Answer is... One that we recommend is "Collecting Vermont Ancestors" by Alice Eichholz. It is available from the Vermont Historical Society. Check the local Superior Court, but also St. Albans up in Franklin County (who may have had some jurisdictional interest). You can always inquire at your nearest National Archives branch. Warnings Out were done by towns in the late 1700s until about 1817; two volumes of Vermont Warnings Out have been compiled by Alden Rollins and published by Picton Press. Volume 2 just came out and covers the four southern VT counties. There were no separate state or county censuses. The land records/deeds in VT are filed in the local town clerk's offices. The vital records are also there. Vermont has 14 counties, but some of the counties have two probate districts. Windham County is one of those that has two probate districts. The Marlboro District Probate Court is in Brattleboro; they have a post office box number, P.O. Box 523, Brattleboro VT 05302-0523. They will not photocopy their older records, but will refer you to a paid or volunteer researcher to go in and copy them. An easy and cheap (read free) way to obtain obituaries in Vermont is to contact the VT Dept. of Libraries, 101 State St., Montpelier, VT 05609. They maintain microfiche copies of many old Windham County newspapers such as The Vermont Phoenix and the Brattleboro Daily Reformer. These papers and others tended to carry notices from all over the county. When placing a search request, you should have a fairly accurate date of death. It is important to note that obituaries (for common folk) did not really come into vogue until the 1880s and 90s. Before that time, you can expect to find one or two line death announcements containing little or no supplemental detail (e.g., surviving family members, etc.). Yes. The first settlers of Vermont were almost exclusively descended from the so-called "Great Migration" families who settled Massachusetts between 1630 - 1644. One town in the Bay State that contributed significantly to the Windham County blood line is Watertown. An excellent and exhaustive book is "Genealogies of the Families and Descendants of the Early Settlers of Watertown, Mass. Including Waltham and Weston...," by Henry Bond, M.D., 1855. This book can be obtained from the New England Historic Genealogical Society via their lending library (for members). It contains many, many family lines that eventually ended up in Windham County. Check http://vitalrec.com/vt.html for the application forms and fee schedules for death certificates. Death certificates often have that information. You can also look for obituaries.
This page was last updated on 11/10/06 |
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Copyright 1998- 2008 by Rod Skinner and others where noted in text. All rights reserved. Permission to reprint articles from this data is granted for non-commercial personal or educational uses when the author and The USGenWeb Project are credited |