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Date: 10/18/2022
HATFIELD – Ashes to ashes, dust to paper, Lydia Szych will not let the dead be lost.
Szych, the town clerk, appeared before the Select Board last week to gather support for a Community Preservation Act (CPA) grant for the conservation of town records dating back to the late 1800s.
“Our oldest records,” Szych said, “which I came across when I first got here — these were original marriage records, original death certificates that were from the late 1800s to the early 1900s — they were just in a cardboard box.
Descendants of those families still live in Hatfield. It made no sense to Szych to let important local and personal documents yellow and disintegrate, so 10 years ago she began to apply for grants to preserve the fragile papers. This is the third round of funding the town clerk is applying for, and hopefully the last.
“I’ve gotten them all done except the first certificates,” Szych said. “They’re professionally treated and bound in these books that will last much longer than being stored in cardboard boxes.”
Szych said Hatfield has done a great job preserving the paper history of the town. Szych’s predecessor in the town clerk’s office also worked to preserve documents so that now, maybe, these last marriage and death certificates will complete the preservation effort.
“The previous town clerk has done an excellent job of preserving a lot of the records here,” Szych said. “These boxes of documents were kind of lost somewhere and found in a closet. Then I took it upon myself to continue the work she did.”
The work is important to residents and visitors seeking information about their family roots. Researchers working in the town clerk’s office told Szych the town’s documents are well kept, are in good shape and go back a long way. The town has paper documents over 500 years old, Szych said, all the way back to the 1600s.
“Just the other day I got a call from a woman looking for a birth certificate from 1915, doing research on her ancestors,” Szych said. “I was able to give her a copy of the original birth certificate and she was thrilled.”
The chair of the Select Board, Diana Szynal, spent time with the old papers. “When I first got here I sat down with some of the old records,” Szynal said. “They’re just fabulous.”
Szych is leaving little to chance. She sought supporting documents from the Select Board and Community Preservation Committee. Szych also made her own form, asking for support to preserve the old papers.
“I have a little blank piece of paper that says, ‘Please support the Town Clerk’s efforts to preserve the vital records for the town of Hatfield,’” Szych said. “I go around and collect signatures.”
Szych praised the Community Preservation Act. Municipalities host a Town Meeting vote to participate in the program and decide how much of the budget, up to 3 percent, the town will contribute each year. The state grant matches the local contribution. The town doubles its fiscal resources for open space, historic preservation, affordable housing and outdoor recreation.
“It’s been a wonderful program,” Szych said. “They’ve done so many wonderful things, in so many areas.”