Massachusetts car history.

[Den41Buick]

Has anyone been successful in doing any car ownership research in Massachusetts?

 

I am trying to locate ownership history on my 1937 Packard. For the last 70 years it was owned by one family. They purchased it from a Garage in 1952. The car data plate indicates Beverly Farms, MA. It was possibly owned by someone in that well to do community. I went to the tax collector/assessor in Beverly. I was told Mass General Law prevents disclosing personal information from the RMV. I cannot imagine the original owner to still be alive. Even Census records become available after 50 years. I am only looking for maybe 15 years o ownership 1937-1952. Any ideas would be appreciated.

[alsancle]

42 minutes ago, Den41Buick said:

Has anyone been successful in doing any car ownership research in Massachusetts?

 

I am trying to locate ownership history on my 1937 Packard. For the last 70 years it was owned by one family. They purchased it from a Garage in 1952. The car data plate indicates Beverly Farms, MA. It was possibly owned by someone in that well to do community. I went to the tax collector/assessor in Beverly. I was told Mass General Law prevents disclosing personal information from the RMV. I cannot imagine the original owner to still be alive. Even Census records become available after 50 years. I am only looking for maybe 15 years o ownership 1937-1952. Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

You will get zero help from any gov agency.   Besides the privacy stuff, my understanding is that Mass lost all their early records in a fire or flood or tossed them years ago.

The best bet when researching a car is always going backwards through the ownership history and writing as many polite letters to family members as you can.   Sometimes if the car is unique enough you can find stuff out orthogonally through clubs, or other means.  But it requires the ability to see a picture and know that is your car.   Hard with production bodies.

[alsancle]

Beverly Farms is an uber wealthy area so combing through the historical society photos may provide some leads.  

[joe_padavano]

36 minutes ago, alsancle said:

  Besides the privacy stuff, my understanding is that Mass lost all their early records in a fire or flood or tossed them years ago.

"Tossed them" is the usual problem. These were paper records and there was zero reason to pay to store documents like this for 50 or 75 years, especially when the cars they referred to were mostly scrapped decades ago.

[Walt G]

I agree with the recommendations for research above. Historical Society or village/town period photographs owned by them

Long shot but perhaps an inquiry in a local newspaper if still printed as to anyone who worked at the agency that sold the car - you may hear from a niece, grandson? that they had a relative that worked for the dealership and then a slim possibility of any records of that company may exist or they were told of who had a special car that they sold to locally.

As I say - long shot - but I look at things from both a auto historian , writer and the appointed historian for the village in which I reside .this has worked sometimes in the past 45 years.

Edited November 5, 2023 by Walt G (see edit history)

[alsfarms]

This chat is of interest to me also in my attempt to track down ownership of a 1925 Locomobile Limousine that for years lived in Connecticut. Bless their historical hearts in the state of Connecticut as they have a library, in Hartford, that has digitized much early historical information which includes more than a few years of early automobile registrations. I searched from stem to stern for any Locomobile but did not find my serial number...... sadly. I did run across other very interesting information relating to all things early automobile. If you are an old car enthusiast, who has family residing in Connecticut during the early years of automobile development, I encourage you to spend some time pouring over these online records to track history relating to automobile ownership of your families or relatives.

Al

[prewarnut]

Al there's this: https://www.mass.gov/how-to/request-a-rmv-history-search-or-photocopies

but as AJ mentioned I have no idea if it will work or go back far enough.

I know I lived and worked in Boston many years ago but man, the number of state agencies....It took me 5 minutes to find the motor vehicle dept out of their list as it is titled starting with "Massachusetts Registry of...." If I say anything more I'll probably be banned on account of politcal comments...