Records produced by courts and the government can be very useful in researching your family history. This section will provide a brief overview of what kinds of records are available, how they can be useful, and how to access them. Some government records have been covered elsewhere in this guide and links will be provided to those sections for further information.
Important Note: court records in Massachusetts are held by either the State Archives or the court that produced them.
Government records are any records produced, maintained, and held by a municipal, county, state, or federal government including:
Court records are any records produced, maintained, and held by a municipal, county, state, or federal court system as a result of any matter being handled by the court. They can include an ancestor named as a juror, witness, plaintiff, or defendant in a civil or criminal case.
Probate records, also called Estate records, are created to deal with settling the estate of a person with property after they have died. They can include the following information about an ancestor:
Land records, including deeds, land grants, land patents, and mortgages, can contain the following information about an ancestor:
Tax records can include the following information about an ancestor:
To see more probate records available at the BPL, check out this listing on our online catalog.
To see more land records available at the BPL, check out this listing on our online catalog.