This is a copy of a letter I sent to my sister in response to her inquiry.
Early Vital Records of Massachusetts project is a transcription project. They are looking for transcribers to transfer the printed page (or a photo of it) into a Word file, then they put the results on the web. There is value to it even for Catholics, whose births, deaths and marriages often did not get recorded by the towns that they resided in.
Some of that info did get recorded by the clerk of Worcester, (some deaths; because they were buried in a Worc. cemetery, some marriages; because the Catholic priests did not always weed-out the non-Worcester couples from their returns to the Worcester clerk.) but just some people and some years. The other town clerks did record some Births, Deaths and Marriages for Catholics, (They probably caught most births, if they used a "census style" collection method mandated after 1844. I don't know what method they used before, or for how long the 'knocking on doors' method was used, but in 1844 the School Districts were charged with providing the Births returns to the clerks of their towns.), so when the Early Vital Records of Massachusetts project is available there will be info there that helps us to better understand population distributions. I do know that there were many marriages of couples that resided outside of the town of Worcester, and I know that in most cases you won't find them in their town's marriage records. This is because the "informant" did not file a "return." That is to say the priest, in this case, did not inform the town clerk of the marriage. Worcester's clerk demanded that the Catholic priests of his town conform to the law, but the other clerks may not have known, asked, or cared. I have not examined the death records of Worcester County's towns as much as I would liked, but it seems the "informant," (usually a sexton associated with the cemetery the decease is interred in,) a Mr. Maginnus in the case of Catholics, was just as stingy with his information. It seems that in the early 1860s, he was called upon to provide a list of 'persons that died outside of the City but were buried here.' The list contains many deaths from the 1850s, from several surounding towns.
There is a website that shows the 1855 Irish only census for each town in Worc. Co. From that you can spot many families that have American-born children over the age of 10 years. These pre-famine Irish could have moved out to the countryside within the previous 10 years, or they could have settled in a small Worc. Co. town upon arrival from Ireland. the census doesn't say, but the Vitals may help. If a family doesn't have a Birth, Death or Marriage in the pre-1845 town vital records, then we cannot know if they were there. But, if they do appear in the early records we can demonstrate a settlement pattern that dispels the myth that the early Catholic settlers were clustered in the larger Manufacturing or Mill towns, i.e., Boston, Lowell, Worcester, Springfield, etc. Going through the various town's BDM records is a bit of an undertaking at this point, but with the Early Vital Records of Massachusetts project it will be easier. Even if it is easier, someone must still look at it, analize it. That will require some way of keeping track of people, places and times. A database, and we got one started. John
