Notes
By Claire L. Smith
Deaths
registered in Pittsfield from 1761 to 1938 are on microfilm
in the Local History Department of the Berkshire Athenaeum in
Pittsfield. The microfilming of these official records of the
City of Pittsfield was undertaken in January 1961 by the Genealogical
Society of Salt Lake City, Utah. The deaths of Pittsfield residents
from July 1, 1886 to May 31, 1941 were published in the individual
year Directories first published by Follansbee, Decker & Co.,
then Price & Lee, Co., the Eagle Publishing Co. and Eagle Printing
and Binding Co. This 55 year listing is a compilation of the
public records from these sources.
Also at
the Berkshire Athenaeum are Births recorded in Pittsfield (on
3x5 cards) from 1848 to 1938 and Marriages recorded in Pittsfield
from 1844 to 1939. These files are attributed to work done by
volunteers from the Berkshire Family History Association, Inc.
This compilation
was undertaken by a volunteer for the U.S.GenWeb Project of
RootsWeb, an Internet Computer Site, for uploading on the Berkshire
County Web page:
https://sites.rootsweb.com/~maberksh/
Every effort
was made to transcribe the records accurately, but it is recommended
that the official record be checked. Additional information
is often included in the original records.
Where residences
are listed, Pittsfield is assumed unless otherwise noted. Street
is assumed unless designated otherwise. When a town is listed
without a State after it, it is located in Berkshire County.
When an address is listed as House of Mercy located at 741 North
Street, this is the name of a hospital established in 1875,
which later became the Pittsfield General Hospital and is now
the Berkshire Medical Center. 89 South Street is the address
of the Berkshire County Home for Aged Women, now known (in 1999)
as Berkshire Place, a Gracious Ladies Retirement Home. The City
Farm Almhouse was located at 1338 West Street and the American
House at 211 North Street was a hotel, built in 1898 and razed
in 1937.