If one can find a library that is open to the public and has a copy of the Mass Statutes, each statute usually is annotated with dates and info on when changes were made. That might get the OP the info he seeks. Sadly my town had 2 copies of all the Mass Statutes but trashed them all many years ago, so all that historical info is now lost.
Bonus: at
least the hardcopy Mass statutes which the Hudson, MA public library
had in their Reference section the 80's were not Mass General Laws -
they were WestLaw's MGLA: Mass General Laws,
Annotated.
So you would not merely see the few statutes on-point,
but see thumbnails of what West Publishing's lawyers
thought were the relevant cases on point.
For instance, if you were reading all the statutes on trespassing,
there were numerous rulings from decades ago where Jehovah's Witnesses
were busted for leafleting in apartment buildings,
and got case law that if
one tenant deliberately admits you to common spaces,
you can go up and down the halls quietly leafleting all the apartments.
Nowadays at least some of the cases are published on the Intarwebs,
and searching for Massachusetts MGL "Chapter m Section n",
frequently will find the cases. In fact, I only discovered from online reading
that the Witnesses were deliberately trolling for favorable rulings -
not just getting jacked up willy-nilly.
But if my ass was in a sling,
I would be motivated to at
least access the (expensive) MGLA,
because it may have
more of the relevant cases,
and certainly they're indexed more systematically.
This is an example of what pure Basement Keyboard Lawyers
may not know they're missing.