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Local History & Genealogy

Beverly Room Collection

The Beverly Room Collection at the main library contains resources for researching local history and genealogy. The collection includes scrapbooks, pamphlets, and ephemera on subjects such as Beverly organizations, local government, churches, schools, companies, and citizens. Town government documents, yearbooks, street lists, and maps are also available.

Beverly Vital Records to 1849

The Beverly Room retains copies of Beverly Vital Records to 1849. They are also scanned in full text.

Family Genealogies

The Beverly Room contains several print family genealogies and histories about the founding of Beverly and North Shore families. These include the Cabot, Conant, Dodge, and Balch families, as well as several others.

Beverly Digital Heritage Collection

The Beverly Digital Heritage Collection documents the rich social and cultural history of the Beverly community. It contains historical photographs and postcards, Beverly City Directories, Beverly High School Yearbooks, Briscoe Briefs, historic annual reports, oral histories, and the Beverly List of Persons.

Beverly Historical Newspapers

The Beverly Public Library has digitized issues of the Beverly Citizen, Beverly Evening Times, and Saturday Morning Citizen from 1850 to 1929.

The main library also has limited newspaper holdings available on microfilm:

  • Beverly Citizen from 1851 to 2020
  • Beverly Times from 1893 to 1995 (with some gaps in coverage)
  • Herald Citizen from 2020 to current
  • New York Times from 1865 to 2012
  • Salem News from 1995 to current

Genealogy Resources

Obituary Requests

Request an obituary by emailing bev@noblenet.org. Provide as much information as possible, including full name, any alternate spellings, and the location and date of death. Obituary requests may take up to 2 weeks to fill.

Digital Genealogy Resources from the Library

Beverly Public Library provides free access to several genealogy databases for both remote and in-person use. Our Digital Resources page offers the following genealogy resources:

  • American Ancestors (In-library use only)
  • Ancestry Library Edition (In-library use only)
  • Beverlega Yearbooks
  • FamilySearch (In-library use only)
  • Fold3 Library Edition (Library card required; Beverly resident only)
  • HeritageQuest
  • MyHeritage (Library card required; Beverly resident only)
Book a Librarian Appointments

Our Reference Department staff members can be booked for free, one-hour instructional sessions that focus on introducing you to our digital and print research resources. Use our Book a Librarian portal to view available appointment times and schedule your session.

Cemetery Data

Resources for locating specific graves:

Open cemeteries in Beverly, MA:

  • Beverly Farms Burying Ground at Haskell and Hart Streets
  • Central Cemetery (Municipal) at Dane and Butman Streets
  • Dodge’s Row Burying Ground in North Beverly
  • North Beverly Cemetery (Municipal) at Conant and Cabot Streets

Closed Cemeteries in Beverly, MA:

  • Abbott at Abbot and Hale Streets (Ancient Burying Ground)
  • Conant between Cabot and Dodge Streets (Ancient North Beverly Cemetery)
  • Green Family Burying Ground at Ryal Side
Other Genealogy Resources