Click here to search the CLAMS catalog for physical materials on Eastham history.
Eastham Guidebooks
Visitors guide book for the Town of Eastham, 1958-2010, published by the Eastham Chamber of Commerce. These guides include photographs, business listings, and community information. They have also been called the "Eastham Vacationist's Handbook." Visit the Internet Archive to view the digitized guidebooks.
Welcome to the library's resource guide on Eastham History & Genealogy!
This guide has links to digital archives on the Town of Eastham, genealogy databases, and additional research tools.
Please note that not all of these digital collections are housed physically in the Eastham Public Library. Many records are maintained by the Eastham Town Clerk's Office, the Eastham Historical Society, the Orleans Federated Church, and the Nauset High School.
For more information on our digital and physical historical collections, please contact Melanie McKenzie, Library Director at mmckenzie@clamsnet.org.
Browse Eastham Annual Town Reports by Year
Digital Books on Eastham History:
Most of these files are hosted by the Internet Archive, a global internet library with backup files in locations around the world dedicated to offering permanent electronic access to historical collections as a means of cultural preservation.
A Comprehensive History, ecclesiastical and civil of Eastham, Wellfleet and Orleans: County of Barnstable, Mass., from 1644 to 1844 by Rev. Enoch Pratt of Brewster.
Early Settlers of Eastham: containing sketches of all early settlers of Eastham, Volume 1 (Library of Cape Cod History & Genealogy, No. 32), by Josiah Paine, 1916.
Early Settlers of Eastham: containing sketches of all early settlers of Eastham, Volume 2 (Library of Cape Cod History & Genealogy, No. 33), by Josiah Paine, 1916.
Ancient Eastham, Massachusetts, two lists of those proprietors there in seventeen hundred and fifteen, by Edward Leodore Smith, 1913.
The history of Cape Cod: the annals of Barnstable County, including the district of Mashie, in two volumes, by Frederick Freeman, 1858.
The history of Barnstable County, 1620-1890, edited by Simeon L. Deyo, 1890.
Mourt's Relation or journal of the plantation at Plymouth, by William Bradford, Edmond Winslow. The Henry Martin Dexter edition, JK Wiggin, 1865.
Of Plimoth Plantation, by William Bradford, Wright & Potter, 1899.
Sparrow Family Genealogy by Sarah Sparrow, 1888.
The Story of the 'First Encounter' at Nauset by Ian Saxine, 2019. View the video of Dr. Saxine's October 2019 presentation at Salt Pond Visitors Center.
The Walter E Babbit papers 1678-1895. Correspondence, church pew and real estate deeds, indentures, wills and escape papers, maritime records, petitions, town warrants, church and school records, transcripts of records (1790-1791, 1911) of Brewster Congregational Church, genealogical data, and other materials, chiefly relating to Cape Cod history, people, organizations, businesses and events. Includes information pertaining to towns of Brewster, Chatham, Dennis, and Eastham.
Atlas of the boundaries of the towns of Barnstable, Brewster, Chatham, Dennis, Eastham... by the Board of Harbor Land Commissioners, Massachusetts, 1907.
