Another big piece for your family history puzzle

It's a great season for Massachusetts genealogists! First we hear that the 1940 Census will be available on April 2. (See the Mar. 12 post)
Then, in the March 20 Globe there was an article about Delene and Jay Holbrook, an Oxford couple that spent 30 years collecting vital records from the dusty basements of town clerks around the state. In all, they accumulated 17 million records dating from 1620 on up. Of course the information itself is public and free, but with the added value of actually collecting it, the Holbrooks were able to sell the whole treasure to Ancestry.com. To do a search, find your favorite founding father, or just have a look, come to the Library to access the Ancestry database. (At the Ancestry home page, look for the menu titled More Collections. Choose Recent, and them Massachusetts Town Vital Collections.) Ancestry will also have the 1940 Census.
--RL
Please note that as of March 21, not all data was loaded into the Ancestry database.