ingly, in conformity to the first section, make your next return to this office in June, instead of May, as heretofore.

It may seem to you, at first view, that there is a discrepancy in the law in respect to the limit of the registration year. The first section directs the clerks to transmit, in June, a record ' of Births, Marriages and Deaths which have occurred within their respective towns during the year next preceding the first day of said month,' while the second section directs the school committees annually to make returns in May, of all the births which have happened during the year next preceding the first day of said May.' The latter provision is so express as to leave no doubt of what was intended in respect to births; and it was evidently the intention of the Legislature that the registration year should have the same limits for marriages and deaths as for births. Further; the law, when it directs the clerks to make their returns to the Secretary in June, leaves them at liberty to make it in the first days of that month, at which time the latest returns of marriages and deaths in their possession will be of such as took place in April. Accordingly, your annual return to this office will include births, marriages and deaths happening in the year next preceding the first day of May.'

According to the terms of the act, your returns of all births, &c., since its passage, should include all the particulars specified in the blanks which I this day transmit to you. It is probable, however, that the law may not yet have become known, through the customary method of publication, to all the officers and others on whom it imposes obligations; and that therefore your returns, for the whole year about to close, will prove imperfect in respect to particulars not contemplated in the former act. You will be pleased, in your return in June next, to make entries in the blanks as full as your materials permit. In the next year a much closer approximation to completeness may be looked for.

In respect to births, however, of which the census is required by the law to be made by the school committee in the month of May, it may be expected that your return will be full. To this end it is desirable that you should, without delay, confer

with the school committee of your town on the subject, that they may seasonably decide on some efficient plan of operations. I send you duplicate blanks for returns of births, one for the committee's return to you, the other for your return to this office.

The blanks for returns of marriages and deaths, which I transmit at the same time, can be enlarged by you according to the length of the return.

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I respectfully ask your careful attention and aid in carrying out the designs of the Legislature. You will not fail to perceive the great importance of immediate exertion on the part of the town clerks in calling the attention of those from whom they are to receive reports, to the duty enjoined on them by the law."

Along with the Registers, the following circular letter was sent to the Town Clerks:

"SIR,--Herewith you will receive a blank book, prepared for the record required by the Act of March 16th, 1844, to be made of Births, Marriages and Deaths, by the town clerk of

In the beginning of the volume you will find a copy of the Act. The blank space on the reverse of the page may be used for entering any laws hereafter made in relation to the subject.

You will observe that you are to enter only births, marriages and deaths, taking place in your own town. These events in families of your citizens, if they do not occur within your town limits, do not belong to your record.

The ruled columns contain spaces for a few classes of entries, which you are not required by law to make, viz: one for the name of the informant, under all the heads; one for the place of interment, under the head of deaths; and spaces for the place of birth of the parties, and the occupation and residence of their parents, under that of marriages. As to filling these spaces, and soliciting information for that purpose, the clerks are of course at liberty to be governed by their own judgment.

The blank in the line at the head of each left hand page of the Register will receive the entry, required by law, of the

place in which births, &c., occur.

But in the pages for the record of births, there is also a column headed place of births, in which some clerks, particularly of large towns, or of such as contain different villages, may be inclined to enter the parts of the town in which the births respectively took place.

I respectfully suggest that, in the entry of diseases under the head of deaths, it will be best to adopt the popular names. These are thought, on the whole, to afford the best basis for the scientific arrangement, which ought to be made, when the returns come to be collected into tables.

Each successive town clerk should take care that his signature, at the head of each right hand page of the Register, stands over no other entries than what have been made by himself.

Trusting that your best exertions will be used to carry out the objects of the Legislature in establishing this system,

I have the honor to be," &c.

Returns of Births have been received from 288 towns, of Marriages from 289 towns, and of Deaths from 281 towns. There remain 20 towns without returns of births, 19 towns without returns of marriages, and 27 towns without returns of deaths, besides the two districts of Boston Corner and Marshpee.

A portion of the returns were not made within the time prescribed by law; and a few were made so late as to occasion much extra trouble in the preparation of the Tables.

A large portion of the returns are more or less imperfect in some of the particulars required by law. A great part of this imperfection is fully explained by the fact that, when the law went into effect, it was already too late to obtain, for this registration year, many of the particulars required by it. For the most part the town clerks have shown a commendable interest in the object, and in some instances they have taken great pains to carry the law fully into effect. Also, in some instances, the school committees have used great diligence in their department to collect information respecting the births.

Some of the imperfections are noticed in the marginal notes. to the Tables; and in a few instances commendation is there

given. But it is not to be inferred that other returns do not equally deserve favorable notice. These memoranda were made from time to time when a return was under the eye for a different purpose, and without strict comparison of one with another.

Among the imperfections in the Returns, the town clerks have omitted in many instances the number of the births, marriages and deaths. Sometimes the number is put down 1 consecutively, and in a few instances the number is erroneously added up. Also they have often omitted to note the time" when registered," as required by law.

Had the information respecting births been communicated to the town clerks in the month of May, and of marriages and deaths between the first and tenth day of each month for the preceding month, as it is to be hoped has been done since the publication of the law, the entries on the town record could easily have been made in chronological order, which would have been of service hereafter in consulting the record, and would have facilitated the preparation of the Tables.

The blank forms sent to the town clerks required the return of births, marriages and deaths for the year next preceding May 1, 1844. In a few instances the town clerks changed the date from May 1, to June 1. In a few instances the return appears to include some cases occurring in May and June, 1844. These instances are presumed to be clerical errors. On one return of births the record purports to commence in January, 1843, and extends to March 31, 1844. They are all included on the presumption of a clerical error.

Very frequently the names of children are not given.Sometimes the sex also is omitted, and can only be inferred from the Christian name. Sometimes the sex is not to be inferred from any entry on the record, and we have been obliged to consider these instances as "not stated." Again, when the sex is omitted, and a name is entered, it has been difficult in some instances to determine the sex, the names having probably undergone changes in the spelling in the course of time. This shows the importance of recording both the name and the sex.

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The date of the birth is generally stated, the omissions being less than 1 in 112.

The name and surname of the father are generally mentioned, while frequently those of the mother are omitted. Sometimes the name of the mother only is entered. In two instances neither the name nor the surname of either parent is mentioned, the children being foundlings. A few children are entered as illegitimate. The occupation of the father is in a great majority of cases stated, being omitted in 1 case out of 17. The occupations are very various, and are such as we should expect from what we know of the employments of the people generally in the different parts of the Commonwealth.

The residence of parents is often omitted in the column designed for that entry on the return, and is presumed to have been in the town from whence the return is made, unless otherwise indicated.

The law imposes the duty of collecting the information respecting births upon the school committees, "annually in the month of May." Some town clerks have suggested that it would have been better to impose this duty upon the Assessors, who are in the habit of visiting every house in May or June, for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of taxable property, and the number of taxable polls in each town.

It is to be regretted that there have been so many delinquencies on the part of school committees, in collecting information respecting births, in consequence of which the returns are imperfect in many essential particulars. In some instances the town clerks have in a great measure supplied these deficiencies by their personal inquiries.

The returns of marriages are extremely defective. It may be well to present a view of this part of the case in some extracts from letters of town clerks.

The town clerk of Andover says, "the number of marriages in the town of Andover during the year next preceding May 1, 1844, was to me unknown-nineteen only recorded on the town Records. The number of publishments is fifty in the same time. One of the Pastors of the (oldest) Congregational