Today we’ve added eight new volumes to Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1920 from St. John the Evangelist in Hopkinton. This update adds over 14,600 records and over 49,700 names to search.
Hopkinton’s Catholics initially were served by the priests of Milford. St. Mary’s in Milford is now part of the Diocese of Worcester. It is worth consulting 100 Years of Progress by James S. Sullivan for his explanation of the changing parish boundaries in the western end of the Archdiocese in the late 1800s–according to Sullivan, the Milford priests were initially responsible for Catholics of at least ten different towns. As the population grew, these towns gradually split off into individual parishes. In the early 1850s, the first Catholic church was built in Hopkinton, initially called St. Malachi’s. In 1878, the first Mass was celebrated in the building that would be come St. John the Evangelist Church.
We’d like to thank Sam Sturgis for his help making these parishes available online.
The new volumes are listed below:
St. John the Evangelist (Hopkinton) Baptisms and Marriages, 1851-1866
St. John the Evangelist (Hopkinton) Baptisms and Marriages, 1866-1871
St. John the Evangelist (Hopkinton) Baptisms, 1870-1881
St. John the Evangelist (Hopkinton) Baptisms, 1881-1908
St. John the Evangelist (Hopkinton) Confirmations, 1867-1882
St. John the Evangelist (Hopkinton) First Communions and Confirmations, 1870-1881
St. John the Evangelist (Hopkinton) Marriages, 1870-1881
St. John the Evangelist (Hopkinton) Marriages, 1881-1908
Please note: This database is available to Individual-level and above NEHGS members only. Consider membership.