Dereka Smith’s Expanded Genealogies of Whately, Massachusetts, 2022

Introduction

Whately, originally a part of Hatfield and incorporated as a separate town in 1771, is fortunate in having a splendid town history compiled by James Monroe Crafts.

The present work should be used together with the original, titled History of the Town of Whately, Mass, including a narrative of leading events from the first planting of Hatfield: 1661 – 1899.[1] The book is available online in full text and can be found at many libraries. In addition it can be purchased from the Whately Historical Society and elsewhere. The copy used for this project was a facsimile reproduction in hard cover, produced by the Higginson Book Company of Salem, Mass.

Crafts employed a simple but very useful numbering system making it possible to readily refer backwards and forwards between generations. He did not, however, always use numbers, omitting them in cases where there were few individuals in a given surname. I have maintained this system adding numbers only when an individual married a Whately born spouse. For example, “…he married Elizabeth, daughter of Benoni CRAFTS (9) of Whately.”

For many of the individuals treated in his book Crafts included details about personal characteristics that have not been included in the expanded sketches. Unless information was found differing from that in Crafts, his dates and places are not footnoted. This work includes cause of death when available and information from probate records, again when available. Land records were not systematically searched although sometimes used.

Actual death records are preferable to gravestone records and were used when they were found. Cemetery records are a second choice but often include added family information that may or may not be correct. The annotations should not be viewed as a primary record.

Footnotes to information taken from U.S. Census records were not made. With such information the text includes the year, the place, the name and any name variation that might make the record difficult to find. State census records are so noted.

Crafts sometimes followed individuals who were the children of Whately residents but were not themselves born in the town. In this project persons who were not born or did not reside in Whately were omitted.

Another individual might undertake to replicate this work and find the many errors that I have made. More complete information will become available after my time just as it has since James M. Crafts compiled his splendid work in the years prior to 1899.

Research into Whately families is ongoing. New and updated information is being added, and the family sketch included here is not necessarily complete. If you are interested in a particular family, please contact us at [email protected].

[1] Printed for the Town by D. L. Crandell, Mann’s Block, Orange, Mass, 1899

Parts 1 through 19 below contain updated and expanded information on people and families who lived in Whately during the period covered by the genealogies included James Crafts’ History of the Town of Whately…, published in 1899. As part of Whately’s bicentennial celebration in 1971, Ena Cane published genealogical information about town families up to 1970 in Whately 1771-1971.

Part 20 (coming soon) consists of genealogical information on individuals and families who moved to Whately after the publication of Crafts’ book.

Dereka Smith of the Whately Historical Society used sources not then available to update and expand this information as part of the town’s 250th anniversary in 2021.

You can help by providing details about your family. Please use this form to submit your information.