On this page
Our wonderful volunteers are happy to assist in family research.
While we wish we could assist all out-of-town genealogy researchers free of charge, we are a small non-profit with limited resources and must rely upon volunteers for most of our genealogy searches. Please fill out the online Research Request form by clicking the button below, and we will contact you with further steps.
While the fees cover some basic costs, we intentionally priced them low to ensure affordability at a range of budgets. Research is not profitable for us at these rates.
If you are able, WHM would appreciate additional donations of whatever amount possible to help support our small organization and to ensure these services to future individuals.
In an attempt to meet the needs of as many people as possible, we have instituted the following policies:
From Our Own Archive
We will research, photocopy, and mail/email materials to you.
For WHM members: The research service is free. We will charge you only the amount needed to cover our costs — twenty cents per page for photocopying, plus postage.
For non-members: The research service is $25 per hour, in addition to copying and postage fees.
In Other Local Archives
Sometimes information is not in our files, but instead found in other local archives — for instance, on microfilm at the Williams College or North Adams Libraries, the Registry of Deeds in Adams, or the Probate Court or Local History Collection of the Berkshire Athenaeum in Pittsfield.
Traveling to other archives requires significant volunteer time as well as incurred travel costs. For external research to be feasible, we must charge $25 per hour to members and non-members alike for us to travel beyond our on-site archives. Photocopies of external archival materials will be charged at the copy rate of the archive in question.
These requests are handled by volunteers, which means the turnaround time for research will depend on volunteer availability. Unfortunately, there may be times when we are prevented from providing this service at all.
Our experienced volunteers can estimate the likelihood of finding information in the external archives they may visit; however, there are no guarantees. The fee for research time/travel will be charged whether or not any information is found.
If we find that requests are exceeding our capacity to fill them, we may institute a limit on the length of time we can dedicate to any particular request. As an alternative avenue, we can offer you the names and contact information for local genealogists.
Independent research
We have numerous resources on site. We are also happy to facilitate your independent research and can direct you towards potential sources.
Please get in touch with the office to make an appointment at the WHM for independent research.
On-site Books & Resources
Here are some of our available resources:
- Names Index: An index to names found in the manuscript collection. Under each name is a list of relevant documents in which the name can be found, as well as the location of each document. Any letters or diaries are indexed here under the name of the writer.
- Cemetery Cards: These contain the names of anyone buried in Eastlawn, Westlawn, College, Hopper, Comstock, Sweet, South Williamstown, and Blackinton cemeteries. Under each name is the date of death and place of burial.
- Cemetery Database: The cemetery database, when complete, will contain information gathered from each of the Williamstown cemeteries. They can be searched by category for genealogical information.
- Books: The HLH book collection includes a number of volumes that are particularly useful for genealogical research.
- News Clipping Files: The “people” section contains newspaper articles about local residents, in alphabetical order. Most obituaries can be found in this file.
- Directories: These lists people and businesses in Williamstown, including their street address and sometimes occupation. Recent directories include phone numbers as well. The collection includes most years from 1874-2003.
- Census: The collection includes censuses from 1790 to 1880.
- Williamstown High School Yearbooks: The collection includes yearbooks from 1925 to the present.
- Tax Records: Tax records for the years 1805, 1832, 1893-1896, 1912, 1917, and 1930.
- Old Deeds: Deeds from the 1800s with a list of names they contain. This is not a complete collection; only certain deeds we have been given. The best place to research Williamstown deeds is the Registry of Deeds in Adams: 65 Park Street, Adams 01220 (413 743-0035)
- Microfilm and Microfiche: The microfilm collection includes vital statistics (births, marriages, deaths) from 1860-1900 and federal census records from 1790-1900. The Elmer Shepard Collection, an extensive genealogical survey of the Berkshire region, is on microfilm as well. The microfiche collection includes proprietors’ records from the late 1700s and vital records from 1757-1987.
- Photographs: The index for photographs of people is alphabetical by last name. Photographs of people can also be found under the topics with which they are associated (e.g. “Mount Hope,” “Williamstown High School,” and “Businesses/Stores”).
These additional publications are helpful in finding genealogical information:
- Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War
- Civil War Regimental Histories
- Williamstown Civil War Soldiers List
- Vital Records to 1850 (lists births, marriages, deaths, and intentions)
- Early Williamstown Families
- Origins in Williamstown (a narrative history of the town from 1894 with an expanded names index)
- Williamstown and Williams College (another narrative history with a names index from 1899)
- Boyhood Reminiscences (an 1895 memoir with a names index)
- Over Pathways of the Past (memoir with names index)
- Williamstown: The First Two Hundred Years (a 1953 illustrated narrative history updated in 1973 and 2005)
- Gazetteer of Berkshire County, 1725-1885 (short Williamstown history and directory of town residents in 1885)
- Green River Anthology
- First Proprietors’ Meetings Book (a transcription of the minutes, which name many of the earliest settlers).