Scope and Content: Regulation of immigration into Massachusetts was successively the responsibility of the superintendents of alien passengers, 1848-1869 (for Boston, 1848-1863) and more generally the Board of Alien Passengers, 1851-1863; the Board of State Charities through its general agent’s Subdept. of Immigration and Local Business, 1863-ca. 1869 and Subdept. of Immigration, ca. 1869-1879; and the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity, 1879-1886, and State Board of Lunacy and Charity, 1886-1891, through their Division of Immigration, Dept. of Indoor Poor, from 1882 under contract to the U.S. Treasury Dept. Per the federal Acts of 1891, c 155, immigration authority was transferred from the states to the federal government.
Arrangement: In two subseries: (1) Index to passengers, 1848-1891; arranged alphabetically by first letter of vessel name. (2) Index to ships, 1868-1871; Arranged alphabetically by surname
Notes: Compiled under sponsorship of U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service by U.S. Works Progress Administration (WPA), 1935-1937. Forms part of: Alien passenger records. Volume 1: Oct. 1868-Dec. 1869. Volume 2: Jan. 1870-Jan. 1871
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Indexes to arrivals in the Port of Boston [Massachusetts Division of Immigration]
Registers of passengers arriving in Massachusetts ports [Massachusetts Division of Immigration]
Scope and Content: Regulation of immigration into Massachusetts was successively the responsibility of the superintendents of alien passengers, 1848-1869 (for Boston, 1848-1863) and more generally the Board of Alien Passengers, 1851-1863; the Board of State Charities through its general agent’s Subdept. of Immigration and Local Business, 1863-ca. 1869 and Subdept. of Immigration, ca. 1869-1879; and the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity, 1879-1886, and State Board of Lunacy and Charity, 1886-1891, through their Division of Immigration, Dept. of Indoor Poor, from 1882 under contract to the U.S. Treasury Dept. Per the federal Acts of 1891, c 155, immigration authority was transferred from the states to the federal government.
Arrangement: In three subseries: (1) Boston, 1848-1869 (23 volumes) (2) Boston, 1863-1891 (95 volumes) (3) Other ports, 1869-1872 (1 volume); Arranged within each subseries chronologically
Notes: Also known as: Alien passenger lists. Forms part of: Alien passenger records
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Records, minutes, and correspondence [Massachusetts Board of State Charities]
Scope and Content: The Board of State Charities had oversight of charitable and correctional institutions in Massachusetts from 1863 to 1879. Series consists of volumes compiled in the board secretary’s office (F.B. Sanborn, secretary).
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically within each volume
Notes: (1) No volumes 18, 1863-Dec. 22, 1864. (2) May 4, 1864-Sept. 7, 1864. (3) July 28, 1864-Aug. 2, 1865. (4) Oct. 1, 1864-Sept. 20, 1865
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Notices of sick state poor [Massachusetts Board of State Charities]
Scope and Content: The Board of State Charities and its successors from 1863 onward oversaw the Massachusetts state immigration and pauper relief functions, as well as the state’s charitable and correctional institutions. St 1865, c 162 required municipalities to provide care for those state paupers too sick to be moved to a state almshouse. In such cases, the local overseers of the poor were required to send an immediate notice to the Board of State Charities, in order to receive approval for state reimbursement from the board’s agent for the sick state poor. The overseers were to provide patient location information so that the board, through the agent, could investigate the case if necessary, a role alluded to in St 1869, c 12.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Annual reports [Massachusetts Board of State Charities]
Scope and Content: The Board of State Charities was established in Massachusetts in 1863, replacing the Board of Alien Commissioners, and was succeeded in 1879 by the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: No. 1-2: Public document, no. 19; succeeding reports: Public document, no. 17. Holdings: 1864-1869, 1871-1878 (no. 1-6, 8-15); 1870 (no. 7) lacking. Appendix 1 (1 volumeolumes): Report of the General Agent, no. 6-15 (1869-1878). Appendix 2 (1 volumeolumes): Ancillary documents, 1833-1865. Report of the commissioners…on the subject of the pauper system, Jan. 1833. Abstract of the returns…concerning the condition of pauper idiots and lunatics, Jan. 1843. Memorial [of Dorothea L. Dix] to the legislature of Massachusetts, Jan. 1843. [Report on public charitable institutions] (1843 H 38), Feb. 1843. Report of the Special Joint Committee [on] Public Charitable Institutions, 1858. [Additional copy of Board’s first annual report, Oct. 1864.] Special report of the Board of State Charities on the state almshouse system (1865 S 28), Feb. 1865.
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Reports on the status of paupers in Massachusetts [Massachusetts Board of State Charities]
Scope and Content: Resolves 1858, c 26 appointed a committee to investigate and issue a report on public charitable institutions.The report recommended the founding of a Board of State Charities. The board and its successors from 1863 onward oversaw the Massachusetts state immigration and pauper relief functions, as well as the state’s charitable and correctional institutions. Upon his appointment to the board as secretary in 1863, F.B. Sanborn set out to learn about and report on the charitable institutions in existence, including their objectives, history, annual cost, and results. This series, presumably created by the 1858 committee and by Sanborn, contains such compiled data, similar to that found in the board’s later annual reports ((M-Ar)1318S) per St 1867, c 209. –Vol. 1, arranged by county, gives summary tabular information, 1858-1863, on poor relief and almshouses for each town, including annual statistics on numbers served, costs and expenditures per person, and assessment of town property values. –Vol. 2 contains a narrative history of paupers and almshouses in Massachusetts, along with statistics and tables, including almshouse costs. Back of volume contains brief minutes of an 1865 meeting of the Commissioners on the Hours of Labor, of which Sanborn was also secretary (see its Administrative files ((M-Ar)1692X))
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Massachusetts Infant Asylum case histories [Massachusetts Board of State Charities]
Scope and Content: The Board of State Charities and its successors from 1863 onward oversaw the Massachusetts state immigration and pauper relief functions, as well as the state’s charitable and correctional institutions. The Massachusetts Infant Asylum, founded by F.B. Sanborn among others, was a private institution incorporated in 1867 to house abandoned and destitute infants. Infants were admitted aged nine months and under, and were discharged at two years, unless health conditions warranted a longer stay. Per St 1870, c 136, the Board of State Charities was to be immediately notified when a child with no settlement in any municipality was taken in, and the board was authorized to remove the child, or to reimburse the asylum for its care at an established rate. To ease overcapacity at the asylum and increase life expectancy, St 1880, c 142 directed the Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity in such cases to place state pauper infants out to board with families. The agent for the sick state poor within the Board of State Charities tracked and compiled information on infants, foundlings, and deserted children received at or being boarded out by the Massachusetts Infant Asylum, in order to properly identify those infants eligible for state reimbursement for their care. Attempts were made to identify and/or locate parents to determine if they could reclaim their children or be made responsible for their support, or to identify municipalities where the parents had settlement that should have responsibility for the support of the infants.
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Histories of alien residents of almshouses and other institutions [Massachusetts Board of State Charities]
Scope and Content: St 1851, c 342 provided for a board of commissioners in relation to alien passengers and state paupers (as potentially related classes of persons), commonly called the Board of Alien Commissioners and consisting of a Council member appointed by the governor, the state auditor, and the superintendent of alien passengers for Boston. The first duty the act assigned was for the Board to appoint persons to annually visit almshouses and other institutions holding those alleged to be state paupers to determine whether laws pertaining to the status, support, local settlement, and work requirements of such paupers were being upheld. The commissioners also worked towards the establishment of state almshouses (St 1852, c 275, ss 1-10). St 1863, c 240 transferred these functions to the succeeding Board of State Charities.
Arrangement: In six subseries
Related Catalog Records:
Annual reports [Massachusetts Board of Alien Commissioners]
Scope and Content: The Board of Alien Commissioners was established in Massachusetts in 1851 and abolished in 1863, succeeded by the Board of State Charities.
Notes: Public document, no. 15. Holdings: 1858, 1861-1863; 1859-1860 lacking. Report for 1861 accompanied by report of Superintendent of Alien Passengers (1848-1869), Boston (Public document, no. 16)
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Enacted legislation files [Massachusetts Executive Office of Human Services]
Scope and Content: Since 1971 the Executive Office of Human Services (Executive Office of Health and Human Services since 1992) has been responsible through its constitutent agencies for the delivery of a wide range of services to persons with financial, health, social, protective, rehabilitation, and correctional needs. Its role is one of management and fiscal oversight, coordination of interagency planning and program development, and policy analysis. Series is created to obtain legislation favorable to the goals of the office and its departments.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by year, thereunder by bill no
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