History & Genealogy
Please visit the Curran Historical Collection which houses our special collection of older town reports, yearbooks, cemetery records, and extensive microfilm archive of the Milford Daily News. The collection is open to researchers during regular library hours. Patrons must sign in at the Information Desk, and leave identification and personal belongings with a Reference Librarian. For more information, contact the Reference Desk at (508) 473-2145 (ext 2) or by email. For Milford regional genealogy, please contact the Milford Historical Commission.
Genealogy Databases
The library subscribes to:
Heritage Quest can be used remotely, but Ancestry must be used inside the library.
Newspaper Microfilm Archive
- Milford Journal 1852-1858, 1860-1918
- Milford Gazette 1882-1903
- Milford Daily News 1887-present
- New York Times 1851-1900
Please note that there may be gaps in coverage within the date ranges.
Town Reports 1846-2016
Now available from Internet Archive in partnership with the Boston Public Library.
Historic Milford Images
Now available from Digital Commonwealth: Massachusetts Collections Online.
In Memoriam: Paul Curran 1929-2015
The staff and trustees of the Milford Town Library mourn the loss, but celebrate the life of Paul E. Curran, historian/author and Trustee Emeritus who passed away in 2015. Paul’s contributions to the library are countless. He was there fighting at town meeting for support and funding in the 1980s when the library was located in Memorial Hall. He was there to oversee construction the new library and there to dedicate it for the people of Milford in April of 1986. He was a hands-on, passionate trustee, visiting the library daily, aiding hundreds of people with genealogical research, uncovering a crucial detail in a story, and always, telling stories. In the 1990s and 2000s, Paul wrote columns on local history for the Milford Daily News and the Milford Town Crier and published a book, Milford Chronicles with History Press in 2013. The local history room at the library was re-named the Paul E. Curran Historical Collection in 2010. For obituary, read here. For a tribute in the Milford Daily News, read here.
Other Genealogical Links
- The LDS Family Search – New and exciting. Search the resources of the Church of Latter Day Saints extensive genealogical archives.
- Mass Historical Society – The Massachusetts Historical Society, established in January 1791, is the first historical society in the western hemisphere and the first institution of any description devoted primarily to collecting Americana and publishing in American history.
- Rootsweb.com – One of the Internet’s oldest and largest free genealogy community. Search for surnames, bulletin boards and mailing lists. Sponsor of many volunteer genealogy projects on the Web, including: The USGenWeb Project, USGenWeb Archives, WorldGenWeb, GenConnect, Immigrant Ship Transcribers Guild…and many others.