Scope and Contents From the Collection: Massachusetts law, and the Commonwealth’s Voter Registration system, require each Town or City Clerk’s Office to confirm the identity of every person residing in town at the beginning of each year. To gather that information, town censuses are collected annually. Residents of all ages are included in the census regardless of whether they are registered to vote, or how long they have resided in the town.The Town Census is mailed to all known households in late January and the...

Scope and Contents

Record of a Special Town Meeting in Southborough April 1952 relating to the construction of a new Elementary School building. Recorded August 1955.

Scope and Contents Massachusetts law, and the Commonwealth’s Voter Registration system, require each Town or City Clerk’s Office to confirm the identity of every person residing in town at the beginning of each year. To gather that information, town censuses are collected annually. Residents of all ages are included in the census regardless of whether they are registered to vote, or how long they have resided in the town.The Town Census is mailed to all known households in late January and the...

Scope and Contents For most of the 1700’s and 1800’s Town Meetings were recorded in a series of Volumes dubbed “Town Records”. In Southborought’s formative years these volumes were catch-alls for recording most local matters. In addition to including records of questions raised and decisions reached at town meetings, they document everything from land grants and property disputes to the election of town officers, and laying-out of new roads. Town Record Books from the late 19th century also include itemized...