Excerpt from Bulletin of the Essex Institute, 1884, Vol. 15 AT a regular meeting of the Institute held on Monday evening, February 5, 1883, Vice President Robert S. Rantoul stated that he had corresponded with John T. Hassam, Esq., of Boston, who is interested in a plan for a thorough examination of the town and city records in this Commonwealth, to ascertain their present condition, also looking to their preservation and to the adoption of the most approved methods of arrangement. The increasing interest, during the past few years, in genealogical and historical investigations, has imparted to these records a due appreciation of their value as deposi tories of historical information and the great need of the fostering care of the legislature and of those in authority. Mr. Rantoul showed some blank forms of a circular which had been prepared for the use of the town and city clerks, so that a uniformity in the returns may be oh served; also a circular-letter to be signed by the Presi dent, soliciting a response to the questions proposed. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.