Links & Resources
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1) Hatfield Cemeteries and Genealogy
2) Digital Collection of the Hatfield Historical Museum 3) Finding Aids 4) Hatfield People and Their Legacies |
5) Hatfield History, Including Oral Histories
6) Hatfield Info Within Wider Sources 7) Historical Museum-Related Links |
1) HATFIELD CEMETERIES AND GENEALOGY
Cemetery maps of the town are constantly being updated, usually by dedicated volunteers, several of whom are listed below. Work is on-going to present as much accurate information as possible. But be forewarned that the current maps may not contain all the dates and information on the stones. If you find errors or can answer questions, please let us know!
Hill Burying Ground
We have three files for the Hill Burying Ground (Hatfield's oldest cemetery), all courtesy of Jan Davis: click HERE for a map (or plot plan), HERE for a spreadsheet of names, dates, epitaphs and map coordinates and HERE for Hatfield Vital Records (deaths) that correspond to the graves.
The graveyard is located on a hill behind the American Legion, on the corner where Prospect St. meets Maple and Elm Sts. It dates back to 1676, when the early monuments were made of wood, and so have not survived. The first stones date to around 1750, with the oldest stones being made of sandstone. The several table monuments belonged to the early church ministers. The cemetery had been surrounded by pine trees, not arbor vitae like the other (newer) cemeteries started in the early to mid-1800s. Bradstreet Cemetery (formerly West Farms)
The plot plan of the Bradstreet Cemetery, courtesy of Cher Nicholas, has been temporarily taken down to be updated and corrected. Check back soon for its replacement. The cemetery, located just west of the corner of Depot Road and Main St. in North Hatfield, MA, was started in 1849. The two-story, two-room Bradstreet School, serving grades 1 to 8 at one time, stood in front of the cemetery until the 1940s.
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North Hatfield Cemetery (formerly West Brook)
The plot plan of the North Hatfield Cemetery, with dates, courtesy of Cher Nicholas, has been temporarily taken down to be updated and corrected. Check back soon for its replacement. The cemetery is located on the west side of West St. (Rts. 5/10), in North Hatfield -- not to be confused with the West St. cemetery, on the east side of the road, to the south.
Main St. Cemetery
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Hatfield Veterans' Graves
In October 2000, Eagle Scout Jeremy Bolduc completed his Leadership Service Project, titled Hatfield Men Who Fought in the Civil War (1861-1865). Ultimately, the research he directed included not just Hatfield Civil War veterans buried here, but Hatfield veterans from all prior wars. Color coded by war for easier searching, it's a wealth of information at your fingertips, including birth and death dates, rank, company and regiment (where pertinent), and in which cemetery a veteran is buried. Click HERE. You can also look through the print version of the Civil War report in the Hatfield Historical Museum.
Hill Cemetery Gravestone Transcriptions from 1899
Do you wonder if your ancestors are buried in Hatfield’s oldest cemetery? Now you can find out without leaving your chair by searching THIS Microsoft Excel file. These records were collected by an earlier incarnation of the Hatfield Historical Society in 1899, and transcribed in 2012 by volunteers Max Krause and Katie Keating. For additional info on the cemetery and links to some great photos of its gravestones, check out the curator's blog from 2012 HERE.
For Hatfield Genealogy Reports filled out in 1970 for the town's Tercentenary(if you haven't found it already),
click on the Genealogy Tab at the top of this page.
2) DIGITAL COLLECTION OF THE HATFIELD HISTORICAL MUSEUM
These digitized artifacts from the Collection of the Hatfield Historical Museum include 17th to 20th century deeds, business ledgers, day books, religious books, scrapbooks (one Victorian example at left), genealogy pamphlets and more -- a treasure trove of primary souces for your enjoyment and research. This digitization and accompanying metadata was made possible by a generous LSTA and MBLC grant through the Boston Public Library and the Digital Commonwealth, AND by a generous grant from Hatfield's Community Preservation Act, which funded the front-end inventory and collection of the artifacts. Some of these records reside on our archive.org site, while others reside on our Digital Commonwealth site. Check them out!
3) FINDING AIDS
Polish Immigration in Hatfield
This introduction and Finding Aid describe the artifacts in the Hatfield Historical Museum that relate to Polish Immigration in Hatfield in the first half of the 20th century. Made possible by a grant from Mass Humanities, a state-based affiliate of the National Endownment for the Humanities. Artifacts will be selected from this collection to create an exhibit on Polish Immigration, opening in the spring of 2012, and introduced at the May 17, 2012, program of the Hatfield Historical Society. Polish Imm Intro Polish Imm Find Aid
Index to Billings Family Papers
The Billings Family Papers collection consists of documents, primarily financial, dating from 1715 to 1919. The files in the collection have been divided into eight series: Accounting Notes; Correspondence; Deeds; Invoices; Promissory Notes; Receipts; Miscellaneous; and Fragments. This Finding Aid was made possible by the Hatfield Historical Commission.
| billings_family_papers.doc |
Index to Foxfire reports
The Foxfire reports were a series of class assignments given to junior and senior high students at Smith Academy from 1982-2000. Each student or pair of students researched and wrote about a topic relating to Hatfield, Mass. Most of the authors incorporated primary documents and personal interviews into their reports, and both have been documented in this finding aid to assist researchers, made possible by the Hatfield Historical Commission.
| foxfire_finding_aid_1982-2000_latest_rev2020.docx |
4) HATFIELD PEOPLE AND THEIR LEGACIES
Sophia Smith's Personal Journal
Following
her pastor John M. Greene's advice, Sophia Smith kept a journal for the
last nine years of her life (1861-1870), 277 entries in all. Shortly before
she died, she left it in Rev. Greene's care. Subsequently, Rev. Greene transcribed the journal and made annotations. This digitized version, part of the Smith College Collections, is made available through the Five College Archives Digital Access Project. To get a fascinating look inside the life of our local benefactress, click HERE.x
Smith College Founding Documents, 1868-1918
A collection of documents held by Smith College related to the founding of the college, including a printed copy of the last will and testament of Sophia Smith, printed in 1871. To access the Collection, click HERE. x
Rebecca Dickinson (1738-1815), gownmaker
UMass history professor and director of their Public History Program Marla Miller writes about Hatfield gownmaker Rebecca Dickinson in her book, The Needle’s Eye: women and work in the age of revolution. To read the chapter about Rebecca, residing on Google Books, click HERE, or for information on purchasing the book, click HERE.
5) HATFIELD HISTORY, INCLUDING ORAL HISTORIES
A History of Hatfield, Massachusetts, in Three Parts (1660-1910)
If you don't have a copy of this great resource, written by Daniel and Reuben Wells and scanned into the public domain as part of the Google Books Search project, now you can download it for free and keep it on your computer for easy reference. Click HERE to access the book on the Google Books website..
The Hatfield Cook Book, 1899
This is a scan of the 1899 cookbook of "Plain and Fancy Recipes" arranged by the Real Folks of Hatfield's Congregational Church, printed by Hubbard & Taber of Holyoke, Mass. -- courtesy of Archive.org. Click HERE to access the main page, which lists the viewing options on the left, including downloading the PDF and reading online. If you click on the book image (or Read Online), you can turn the pages one by one. Ads from local merchants open and close the 186-page book..
Mill River Stories, 1995
These charming first-person stories about Hatfield's Mill River were collected by students in Mrs. Jepson's 5th grade class in May 1995. A printed oral history collection not to be missed! Download Filex
Hatfield Reconnaissance Report, June 2009
This 47-page report, the culmination of the Heritage Landscape Inventory program in 2009, illustrated with photos and maps, is easy to read and provides a wealth of historical and current information about Hatfield resources. (3 MB download)
| hatfield_heritage_landscape_report_june2009.pdf |
A Hatfield Album of Old Photos
To view this collection of 86 Hatfield photos on the Agawam Historical Association's online "Image Museum," click HERE.
6) HATFIELD INFO WITHIN WIDER SOURCES
Picturesque Hampshire : a Supplement to the Quarter-Centennial Journal (pub. Nov. 1890)
This was the first of a series of Mass. county guides published in the early 1890s by Wade, Warner & Co. It features many illustrations and some editorial content from Hatfield-raised artist Elbridge Kingsley, plus many images from his younger brother, Hatfield photographer Lewis H. Kingsley. Hatfield references can be found throughout, but primary content is on pgs. 6, 10, 32-36, 56-57, 99-100, and 104. Click HERE.
Founding Farms, Portraits of Five Massachusetts Family Farms
This Google Books link used to offer a preview of the 1993 University of Massachusetts Press text by Sherer and Gery, showing the first nine pages (pgs. 78-86) of the chapter on Luther Belden Farm in North Hatfield. Now they are just giving book info. It's a beautiful book, nonethesless! Click HERE.x
History of the Connecticut Valley
For a wealth of information about Hatfield in the late 1800s, check out the first volume of the History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers (1879). The section on Hatfield includes physicians, town clerks, selectmen, schools, churches and organizations, to name a few (p. 385-404), and a detailed description of the Shays Rebellion convention in Hatfield (Aug. 22, 1786) is included as well (p. 76). Digital scanning done by UMASS Amherst Libraries. To go to the Internet Archive, where you can choose from viewing online, reading a full text version, downloading the (large) PDF, or other options, click HERE.X
The Roots of Rural Capitalism , Western Massachusetts, 1780-1860
This Google Books preview of the 1990 Cornell University text by Christopher Clark draws on evidence from six towns in Hampshire and Franklin counties: Hatfield, Hadley, Northampton, Amherst, Westhampton and Williamsburg. Click HERE for the preview.
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7) HISTORICAL MUSEUM-RELATED LINKS
Museum space analysis report and review of new museum plans
For three days In February 2011, two consultants from Concord, Mass.-based Museum & Collector Resource came to the Historical Museum and measured and recorded the collection to determine the museum's space requirements. In addition, they provided recommendations on climate control and reviewed the architect's plans for the museum in the two proposed projects -- the Town Hall renovation and the Library renovation. Click below to access the reports, paid for by the Hatfield Historical Society.
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