Connecticut Research
9 April 2008
Historical Overview
CONNECTICUT
RESEARCH
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Fiske Genealogy Library
9 April 2008
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Adriaen Block
Dutch fort on Connecticut River
Plymouth Colony trading post
Wethersfield settled from MA
Plymouth settlers at Windsor
Saybrook settled
Thomas Hooker founds Hartford
Gary A Zimmerman
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Historical Overview
¾ 1637
¾ 1638
¾ 1639
¾ 1643
¾ 1644
¾ 1646
¾ 1662
Historical Overview
Pequot War ends
New Haven colony founded
Fundamental Orders of CT
New England Confederation
Saybrook joins CT
New London founded
Connecticut receives royal charter
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Gary A Zimmerman / Fiske Library
¾ 1665
¾ 1666
New Haven and CT united
Lyme formed from Saybrook
County government established
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Connecticut Research
9 April 2008
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Historical Overview
¾ 1665
New Haven and CT united
Lyme formed from Saybrook
¾ 1666
County government established
¾ 16751675-6 King Philip’
Philip’s War
¾ 1684
New England Confederation ends
¾ 1701
Collegiate School authorized
¾ 1717
State House in New Haven
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Historical Overview
¾ 1763
¾ 1769
¾ 1771
¾ 1773
¾ 1774
¾ 1776
¾ 1778
Historical Overview
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First settlers in Wyoming Valley
CT settlers found WilkesWilkes-Barre
CT’
CT’s claim confirmed by the King
Westmoreland settlers arrive
Westmoreland twp created
Westmoreland county created
Wyoming massacre
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Gary A Zimmerman / Fiske Library
1782
1788
Continental Congress overturns
the royal confirmation of CT claim
Yankees refuse to leave; Pennamite
war continues CT and VT send troops
to help Wyoming Valley residents
PA agrees to honor Yankee land titles
and CT gives up its claim to PA land
Congress grants Western Reserve to
CT as compensation for this lost land
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Connecticut Research
9 April 2008
Historical Overview
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1848
1875
1960
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1960
1978
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1983
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New England Records
Slavery abolished in CT
Hartford made sole state capital
County governments abolished
Local justice courts abolished
District courts begin
Common pleas & Juvenile courts
transferred to superior courts
Appellate court created by
constitutional amendment
¾ Town or City
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Records
Vital Records
Town Record Books
Land Grants
Military Records
Probate Records
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Town Record Books
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Town Record Books
Other officers
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¾ Poor and Sick
One or more constables
Tithingmen
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• Ensured that everyone made their expected contributions to
the meetinghouse and the minister’
minister’s salary
• Ensured that everyone attended church services
• (No tithingmen in RI where church and town were separate)
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Fence viewers to ensure property lines were marked
and kept in good repair
Surveyor of highways to lay out new roads and keep
existing roads in good repair
People
Actions of concern and support always
recorded in the town records
Best place to find details of lower class
A decision not to support someone led to a
“warning out”
out”
• Not an order to leave town; just a notice that if you
got sick the town would not be helping you
• A guest in your home might also receive a
“warning out”
out” notice
• Someone who had land taken for a public road was given
other parcels of town land to make up for the lost land
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Town Record Books
Land Grants
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¾ Livestock
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Ear notches were recorded in the town record
books
Colony or state legislature would also grant land
for new towns
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¾ Lands granted to “proprietors”
proprietors” of new
towns are recorded in the town records
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Gary A Zimmerman / Fiske Library
Original inhabitants received town lots for their house
and field lots for their crops and “rights”
rights” to future
divisions of land as the town developed
You could sell your “rights”
rights”, you could sell your
present holdings, but you could sell nothing to a nonnoninhabitant of the town without permission of the
selectmen
Town record books will have sketches of the lot
layouts as land is divided and assigned to residents
Descriptions in metes and bounds
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Connecticut Research
9 April 2008
Military Records
¾ Each colonial town had
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Probate Records
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its own militia
As the need arose, residents would sign up
for service through their town
Payment records and details of the
organization and leadership of militia units are
available for many towns
Handled on a regional basis rather than the local town,
usually
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MA probate jurisdictions followed county lines
CT after 1698 had probate districts that crossed county lines –
and these boundaries changed with time – need to explore these
details to find the records for a given person
Two types of records:
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What was presented to the court (original wills, affidavits, and
receipts of heirs)
What was recorded in the probate books (actions of the court,
divisions of estates, disagreements over the division)
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Connecticut State Library
Godfrey Memorial Library
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www.cslib.org
www.cslib.org/handg.htm
¾ www.godfrey.org
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Located in Hartford CT
Best place to start your inin-state research
¾ Located in Middletown CT
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Barbour Collection of Connecticut VR
Charles R Hale Collection of CT Cemetery Inscriptions
Vosburgh Collection of New York State church records
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• 99 volumes of material
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Extensive CT Newspaper Collection
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Full set of Hartford Courant from 1764 to the present
All daily newspapers in state for last 250 years
Most weekly newspapers ever published in state
Over 2040 different titles!
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Home of the American GenealogicalGenealogicalBiographical Index (also known as the Rider
Index)
Wide selection of links to all states
Godfrey Scholar program (for a fee)
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Connecticut Historical Society
¾ www.chs.org
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Connecticut Ancestry Society
¾ www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ctcas
(in Hartford)
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Genealogy and Family History
Manuscript Finding Aids
Library
Loan collection for members
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Gary A Zimmerman / Fiske Library
Stamford CT
Formerly Stamford Genealogical Society
Focus on southwestern CT Genealogy
Publishes Connecticut Ancestry
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Connecticut Research
9 April 2008
Connecticut Society of
Genealogists
¾ www.csginc.org
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Mystic Seaport Library
¾ www.mysticseaport.org/library/home.cfm
Glastonbury CT
Shelf list on line
Connecticut Genealogy content
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Digitized Books
For Future Reference
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¾ http://books.google.com
¾ http://scholar.google.com
Send queries or research questions to:
• Gary A Zimmerman
• [email protected]
¾ http://books.live.com
or
[email protected]
• 425425-803803-0938 at home 206206-328328-2716 at library
¾ http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu
• Mail query to Fiske Library, 1644 43rd Ave E
Seattle WA 9811298112-3222
www.fiskelibrary.org
¾ www.ancestry.com
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Gary A Zimmerman / Fiske Library
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