Natick vital records generally refer to recorded birth, marriage and death records. Our primary source was Vital Records of Natick Massachusetts to 1850. There is variation in how they are recorded. Some births are recorded as births, while others are recorded as date of baptism, sometimes including the age of the child. Some records are marked as originating from church records. Marriage records often contain a record of the date the intention to marry was filed, as well as a date of the actual marriage. Death records contain a variety of information including age, and sometimes cause. We have utilized these records to confirm vital dates, and to disentangle generations in families where names were often reused generation after generation.

Initially the honor roll was constructed by compiling all available Revolutionary War honor rolls previously compiled for the town of Natick. The primary resource to confirm service for the honor roll was Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War; a Compilation from the Archives, a 17 volume book published by the Secretary of the Commonwealth between 1897 and 1903. This book is searchable on many websites but we generally accessed these records through Ancestry.com. Soldiers are listed by last name, often with multiple entries per name, with varying information in each entry depending on the source from which it was pulled. We also consulted primary sources including muster rolls, bounty coat rolls, lists of soldiers returned from duty, descriptive lists of soldiers, notes on pay, illness, disciplinary action, command schedules, and commissioned officers.

We also had access through Family Search to Massachusetts, Revolutionary War Index Cards to Muster Rolls, 1775-1783 that compiled the information from the original documents. This provided invaluable help locating names on the primary source documents. Each index card contains one mention of an individual from a primary source document and the volume and page number of the original source material. Family Search also provides digitized copies of the microfiche images of originals, which allowed us to locate primary source documents which named our Natick soldiers. Natick Vital records, as well as online vital records from other towns and cities, were used to confirm vital dates. Natick’s early church records were also helpful. 

Fold3’s Revolutionary War Pension Files helped us confirm individual service records and provided additional information on soldiers' lives after their military service. On occasion they also provided information on a soldier’s tie to Natick when that information could not be found elsewhere. 

Find a Grave allowed us to find the final resting places of many of our Natick men.  We also used The Revolutionary War Burial Index, available through Ancestry, Family Search, and Fold3, among others.

We also made use of several town history books, including those for Natick and Needham. Individual family genealogy books also helped us to clarify family relationships in several instances. Please refer to our bibliography for additional information on sources.

The boundaries of the town of Natick have changed over time. Of particular importance to this project is a tract of land known as the “Needham Leg,” which is visible on the 1750 Livermore Map. This area of Natick is bounded roughly by Bacon Street to the South, Pine Street to the North, Lake Cochituate to the west and Morses Pond to the east. From the years 1716 to 1797, this area was shuttled between the towns of Needham and Natick. In 1797, the Needham Leg was permanently annexed to Natick. Many of the soldiers on the Natick Revolutionary War Honor roll lived in the Needham Leg.

For more information please visit the Needham History Center.

On June 17, 1913 (the anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill), a memorial was dedicated in Natick in the form of a  bronze tablet mounted on a large boulder donated by Mrs. Richmond Favour, taken from the farm of Thomas Broad, one of Natick’s Revolutionary War soldiers.  It reads:

“In memory of the Revolutionary soldiers who enlisted from the town of Natick. Erected by the Natick Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, Natick, in grateful remembrance.”

Originally set in front of the brick wall which surrounds the Morse Institute Library, it was later moved to the right side of the Library lawn when the Library was renovated and expanded.  A rededication ceremony was held on October 25, 1997. The Natick Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) had merged with the Framingham DAR by this time.

• Alarm of 19 April - Few Natick militia men reached Lexington or Concord on the celebrated day. However, 70 Natick men’s names appear on the muster roll for Captain Joseph Morse’s Company, Colonel Samuel Bullard’s Regiment. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors lists their service as answering the “alarm of 19 April,” and we have chosen to follow their lead.

• Bunker Hill - The first major battle of the American Revolution was fought on June 17, 1775.  Many men from Natick traveled for two days to reach the site. At least forty one of them were led by Captain James Mann and Colonel Sam Bullard.  The muster roll for that company remained in private hands for many years until it was donated to the Natick Historical Society in 1900. Read more about the recent effort to preserve this document using Community Preservation Act (CPA) Funds.

• Alarm at Rhode Island - The British Army occupied Newport, Rhode Island from 1776 until their departure in 1779 to concentrate on battles further south. French forces landed in 1780. Major General William Heath ordered the Massachusetts militia to travel to Rhode Island to support and defend the newly arrived French army of more than 6,000 men.

  Many Natick men marched to Rhode Island in two waves: they enlisted on July 28 and were discharged on July 31, and/or enlisted on August 3 and were discharged on August 7. The French army remained in Newport until 1781 when they joined Washington’s forces, leading to the victory at Yorktown.

Length of enlistment varied widely during the American Revolution. Looking just at Natick service records we found some men who served as little as two days, when they answered the alarm at Lexington, while other soldiers served three year terms in the Continental Army. Soldiers often enlisted multiple times, not always from the town where they resided.

Pension records available through Fold3 provided valuable information, often in a soldier’s own words. Several Congressional acts provided these pensions to soldiers. The first two acts, in 1818 and 1820 only pertained to Continental Army service (not state militias). Later acts included state militia service (1832) (including much shorter enlistments than those who were previously eligible), and eventually (1836) also allowed widows to apply for pensions.

More often than not, service, vital, and/or other historical records were created and kept by men of English and European backgrounds. They employed a wide range of descriptive terms, such as "mulatto," negro," and "dark complexion." These terms cannot fully capture any soldier's identity, but they do offer clues. In some cases, the surname of a soldier of color connects him to a Natick family that is well documented. Often, these soldiers are Indigenous men. The biographies in this project make it possible to say more not only about a soldier's identity or background, but also about the life he led in Natick and beyond.

As we found in our research, the spelling of surnames varied greatly in vital records and military records. In the 18th century English spelling was not yet entirely standardized which accounts for the variations we frequently encountered. Additionally, the record keepers, who were English/European, were often unfamiliar with Indigenous names and spellings. We have done our best to collate different spellings of individuals names.