• Introduction
• Description of the project
• Book I, part 1, pp. 1-99, introduction, and births: Adams–Cudworth
• Book I, part 2, pp. 100-199, births: Cudworth–Jenkins
• Book I, part 3, pp. 200-299, births: Jenkins–Prentiss
• Book I, part 4, pp. 300-399, births: Prentiss–Wade
• Book I, part 5, pp. 400-436, births: Wade–Younge, unidentified surname, "Negros, etc."
• Book II, part 1, pp. 1-99, introduction, and marriages: Adames–Damon
• Book II, part 2, pp. 100-199, marriages: Damon–Mann
• Book II, part 3, pp. 200-299, marriages: Mann–Turner
• Book II, part 4, pp. 300-399, marriages: Turner–Zweers, unidentified surname, "Negros, etc."; and deaths: Adams–Jacob
• Book II, part 5, pp. 400-472, deaths: Jacob–Young, unidentified surname, "Negros, etc."
• Index and finder
• Associated documents: 1790 Federal Census for Scituate

Description of the project. This project is the Annotated Vital Records of Scituate. The first phase, described below, is to transcribe the Vital Records of Scituate Massachusetts to 1850 word for word for the web. There are two volumes, the first for births, the second for marriages and deaths, making a total of about 900 pages. There are numerous advantages of a version of the vital records on the web. Three main ones are:

• Universal access. The printed version is available in the town libraries of Massachusetts and at major genealogical libraries in the country. When it's on the web, then anyone with a web browser can read it anywhere in the world.
• Word searching. When the vital records are in a digital form, then they can be searched for particular words, parts of words, or clusters of words. Web search engines can catalog the vital records, and people can use the search engines to find names of particular individuals of interest.
• Navigate information. With hyperlinks, it is easy to go from place to place in the vital records.

What to do after Phase 1? Phase 1 includes no annotations, but annotations are what interest me. Here are a few things I'm considering:

• Include the intentions of marriages that were omitted because a marriage records was known
• Include baptisms that were included because birth records were known
• Include vital records of neighboring towns when relevant. For instance, many people resided in other towns but were married or baptized children in Scituate
• Include standard spellings in order to make searching easier and more reliable
• Include corrections to the vital records, such as found in the appendix of the third volume of Jeremy Bang's The Seventeenth Century Town Records of Scituate, Massachusetts
• Include summaries of families that have been researched and published in books or in articles in journals
• Include quotations from Deane's History of Scituate, Massachusetts, from Its First Settlement to 1831 and other sources. As Deane and others did make mistakes, the quotations may need qualifying comments
• Include George Ernest Bowman's transcription of the early vital records as printed in the Mayflower Descendant
• Include more census information. So far, only the 1790 census is here

Phase 1, the transcription. the transcription phase will take me several months. This first installment (version 1.0, Jan 2002) of the vital records included over 200 pages of text, about 25% of the two volumes, primarily the pages that include families of personal interest. The second installment (version 1.1, Apr 2003) extends that coverage to about 40%. It's going a little slower than I had imagined since I haven't gotten much feedback on the project. I've only gotten two email messages since I put up the last version, over a year ago. In comparison, I get two messages a day on my genealogical reports I've got up.

As source material, I've taken photocopied pages and scanned them into image files. I've also used the the scanned images at http://genweb.net/~blackwell/books.html. These images were then OCRed (Optical Character Recognition) into text files. The error rate of the conversion was very high. In order to reduce the error rate, some of the images had to be edited with Adobe Photoshop to align the text horizontally. Still, the OCR errors were innumerable. I think I could have reduced the errors by (1) scanning the original text for the images rather than scanning photocopies, (2) scanning for the images as a finer setting (smaller pixels), and probably (3) using better software to perform the OCR.

Here is an example of text showing it (1) right after OCRing, and (2) in the final version.

The text right after OCRing:

[page 207]  SCITUATE BIRTHS

JONICS, Ellen F., ch. Ezekiel Jr. and Betsey, Aug.Ñ, r843.
Ellen R. [? m ] [Jd nEZekiel an]d Lucy W., Jan. 7, 1827. [Emma
Esther HaydLn d Alonzo and Fanny, July 18, 1816.
Ezekiel, s. Samuel l'aine and Pemelia, feh. 28, 17g5. [Capt.
iuate \reteran of the Navy of c8r2
Ezakiel, ThChlast nSkCstin the Navy to a Captaincy in the
l S Rev. Iarine," C.R.6.]
Ezekiel, s. Ezekicl ancl Lucy W., Apr. 31 [sic], 1814.
Fanny Woodbury, d. Alonzo and Fanny, Sept. 25, t81 .
Francis E., s. Charles, trunk maker, and Charlotte A., Sept. 12,
Georere Henry, s Thomas F. and Mabel, Aug. 2, 1828.
George \V., s. John and Sally, bp. Nov. 8, r836. C.R.I. muel Paine and Pcmelia, Aug. 4, r804.
George Washington, s Sa T b1 5 820 ac and Hannah, No . -cr, c720
Hannab, d Isa
Hann h ch. Isaac and Hannah, bp. Itfay 26, c723. c R.2.
IIannah d. Ebenezar and Jane of Marshfcld, bp. Dcc. 29, 1728,
Hannah J., d Christopher B and f ucy July 26 18r7.
Hannal Thr mas, ch. John C. and Sallj, June 28, 83.
Harriet Dunbar, cl. Ezekiel Jr. arrd Betsey, bp. May 31, 184I.
CR.I.
Helen '1' [? m ], JdUIIYann'ab bp. July ;, r717 C B 2

The final version:

[page 207] SCITUATE BIRTHS

JONES, Ellen F., ch. Ezekiel Jr. and Betsey, Aug. —, 1843.
Ellen R. [? m.] [Jan. —, 1828]. G.R.14.
Emme Thomas, d. Ezekiel and Lucy W., Jan. 7, 1827. [Emma T., G.R.6.]
Esther Hayden, d. Alonzo and Fanny, July 18, 1816.
Ezekiel, s. Samuel Paine and Pemelia, Feb. 28, 1795. [Capt. Ezekiel, "The last Scituate Veteran of the Navy of 1812. Raised from the ranks in the Navy to a Captaincy in the U.S. Rev. Marine," G.R.6.]
Ezekiel, s. Ezekiel and Lucy W., Apr. 31 [sic], 1814.
Fanny Woodbury, d. Alonzo and Fanny, Sept. 25, 1818.
Francis E., s. Charles, trunk maker, and Charlotte A., Sept. 12, 1846.
Georere Henry, s. Thomas F. and Mabel, Aug. 2, 1828.
George W., s. John and Sally, bp. Nov. 8, 1836. C.R.1.
George Washington, s. Samuel Paine and Pemelia, Aug. 4, 1804.
Gustavus, s. John Jr. and Sarah (Tower), Mar. 25, 1820.
Hannah, d. Isaac and Hannah, Nov. 11, 1720.
Hannah, ch. Isaac and Hannah, bp. May 26, 1723. C.R.2.
Hannah, d. Ebenezar and Jane of Marshfield, bp. Dec. 29, 1728. C.R.2.
Hannah J., d. Christopher B. and Lucy, July 26, 1817.
Hannah Thomas, ch. John C. and Sally, June 28, 1833.
Harriet Dunbar, d. Ezekiel Jr. and Betsey, bp. May 31, 1841. C.R.1.
Helen T. [? m. ], July 18, 1818. G.R.6.

D. Pane-Joyce
Scituate Genealogy
© Jan 2002, Apr 2003. All rights reserved
Located at http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/gen/scituate/VitalRecords.html