NEWGEN-L Archives

From: "Sally Rolls Pavia" <>
Subject: Connecticut research
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 06:45:00 -0700

Here is an article from the New England Historic Genealogical Society
newsletter.

Research in Connecticut Towns Part I: Records Kept in Connecticut Town Halls

by Joyce S. Pendery, CG

Visiting Town Halls
Although many Connecticut records have been microfilmed and are widely
available, many researchers like to visit town halls where they can do
"hands-on" research from original records or first-generation copies of
those records. Researchers planning such a visit may wonder what they will
find and whether it will be worthwhile.

Much ink has been spilled over how to get the most out of visiting a town
hall. If you plan your research in advance, allow enough time for careful
and thorough research, and use common sense, your visit can be rewarding.
Offices of town clerks and registrars of vital records, as well as probate
offices, may be open to the public during limited hours. In small towns, the
town clerk may, in fact, hold more than one town position. Call for more
information before visiting these offices.

When planning your trip, determine when the town of interest was founded.
Records there will begin at that date, and earlier records will be found in
the parent town. This information can be found in Betty Jean Morrison's
Connecting to Connecticut (Glastonbury, 1995) and in Marcia D. Melnyk's
Genealogist's Handbook for New England Research (Boston, NEHGS, 1999 and
2001). For example, vital records for the town of Cromwell begin in 1851,
but earlier Cromwell records are found in Middletown. Until the early 1800s
New Canaan and Darien were part of Stamford, where their early records will
be found.

Town Clerks and Registrars of Vital Records
Town clerks have always been responsible for recording information
pertaining to Connecticut's 169 towns, including birth, marriage, and death
records. Vital records in Connecticut have never been kept on the county
level. As towns grew, that work was sometimes reassigned to registrars of
vital statistics, whose offices may not be in the town or city hall. Among
the towns with separate registrars of vital statistics are Bridgeport,
Greenwich, Hartford, Middletown, New Haven, and Waterbury.

Town clerks, registrars, and other town officials fit requests of
genealogists into busy schedules, so be patient and courteous to personnel
and other researchers in the offices. Present your driver's license or other
identification and explain the reason for your visit. Some town halls have
open stacks, while in others clerks bring out requested volumes, perhaps one
at a time. If you follow all the procedures and ask if there are other
records of possible interest, you may be rewarded with an opportunity to see
special records that are not on the open shelves. One Connecticut town
clerk, who used to have a "goodie cabinet" where she stored old records
under lock and key, could sometimes be persuaded to bring them out. Another
clerk in a small Connecticut town who was helping me find information about
a certain family brought out an early nineteenth century handwritten
compilation of information about town residents of that era.

Vital Records
Town halls or bureaus of vital statistics in Connecticut towns and cities
are the only places where you will find all the vital records of a town,
dating from its founding to the present.

The majority of vital records up to about 1850 have been included in the
Barbour Collection of vital records or in separate town volumes. Many have
been microfilmed and are available at the NEHGS Research Library, the
Connecticut Historical Society, the Connecticut State Library, or through
the various Family History Centers. While generally accurate and complete,
these compilations are derivative sources, and genealogists often prefer to
examine the original records kept by town clerks. Even then, some records
may be missed or omitted. In a recent article in Connecticut Ancestry,
"Darien Vital Records, Book 1: Another Barbour Omission," Harlan R. Jessup
discusses vital record keeping in Darien after its separation from Stamford
in 1820. For some time, the new Darien town clerk used the same volume for
recording vital and tax records. Because that volume was eventually filed
with tax records, agents collecting vital records for the Barbour
compilation failed to find the book and omitted early vital records for
about sixteen Darien families.

Connecticut vital records from about 1850 to 1897 are available from town
clerks or registrars, on microfilm at the Connecticut State Library, or
through the FHL. Vital records from July 1897 to the present are kept by
town clerks or registrars, who send copies to the Department of Public
Health in Hartford. The vital records office is currently closed for
microfilming of its holdings. In Connecticut, access to birth records for
the last 100 years is restricted to the actual person or a close family
member, public officials, attorneys, persons authorized by court order, or
members of genealogical societies authorized to do business in Connecticut.
You will need to present identification and show your credentials to see
these records or obtain copies.

For information on ordering vital records by mail, consult Barbara Mathews'
earlier column on Connecticut vital records or read the general guidelines
online. You may also find information about obtaining vital records from
specific towns at this site.

Earmarks
Beginning in the 1640s and continuing through the mid-nineteenth century,
residents of Connecticut towns were required to register the earmark or
brand they used to identify their cattle and swine. Town clerks recorded
descriptions and sometimes included drawings of these marks along with other
town records. In early volumes, earmark registrations were often
interspersed with vital records and town meeting minutes. In later volumes
they were usually grouped on special pages in town record volumes.

Earmarks are an overlooked and important source of genealogical information.
They indicate that the registrant was resident in a certain town at a
certain date. They may state family relationships, such as the following
Stamford, Connecticut, earmark, entered into town records on September 4,
1790: "Catherine Bishop enteres for her Son Isaac Bishop's ear mark the same
that was formerly entred to his Grand Father Isaac Bishop decd., viz. a crop
on the end of the near ear, and two slits in the end of the off ear." Some
earmarks were transferred during a registrant's lifetime, proving that both
individuals were living in the town at that date. Again from Stamford Town
Records, February 1, 1792: "Joseph Stevens junr. enters for his ear mark the
same that was formerly entred to Nathaniel Hoyt & by his permission as he
saith, viz., a crop on the end of the near ear and a hole in the same."

Town Meeting Minutes
Town clerks sometimes recorded minutes of town meetings in the same volumes
as vital and land records. In some Connecticut towns, these early volumes no
longer exist; elsewhere you may find originals or early copies. Microfilmed
copies of original or transcribed town meeting minutes are available for
some towns.

Each town held an annual meeting of freemen or property owners and
additional meetings took place during the year, as needed to transact town
business. Elections of town officials were held at annual meetings. Reading
town meeting minutes is a good way to learn about the history of your
ancestor's town and to flesh out the skeletons of (male) ancestors who
actively participated in town government. One of your ancestors may have
served as a selectman, grand juryman, surveyor of highways, sealer of
weights and measures, brander of horses, or pound keeper. When someone fell
upon hard times, they might be "warned out" of town or assigned to a
townsman as a boarder. In Cornwall in December 1774: "Daniel Steward agreed
to keep Abiel Dudley one year next ensuing for L6-15s-0 lawful money and
keep his clothes in good repair…" For several years, responsibility for the
care of Abiel Dudley was passed around to the lowest bidder. Town meeting
minutes also include discussions on schools, taxes, smallpox inoculations,
bounties for killing rattlesnakes, foxes, and wildcats, annexations, Sabbath
Day houses and meeting house pews, construction of highways and bridges,
liquor licensing, and other topics of local concern.

Land Records and Town Maps
While some Connecticut deeds have been microfilmed, visiting a town hall
enables the researcher to see every deed of interest. Since the founding of
their towns, Connecticut town clerks have been responsible for keeping land
records that include deeds, mortgages, attachments, liens, tax liens,
judgments, releases, conveyances, and grantor-grantee indexes to those
records. Maps of towns and subdivisions, surveys, and planning and zoning
records may also be found in town clerk offices.

Deeds are a source of information that no family historian should overlook.
Information about family relationships included in deeds has solved many
genealogical problems. Other important genealogical information found in
deeds may include places of residence of both grantor and grantee and
occupations or titles. Relationships may be stated as well as the names of
earlier owners of the same parcel of land, often family members. Since
indexes to land records include only the names of grantors and grantees,
studying deeds is essential for ferreting out important information. For
more about land records, consult Patricia Hatcher's article under "Hot
Topics," Land Records: An Under-Appreciated Genealogical Resource.

One of my favorite projects that used information from land records is
Genealogical References in Stamford, Connecticut. Land Records, Volumes A-S,
1666-1800+ (Stamford, Connecticut Ancestry Society, 1999), available as both
a book and CD-ROM. While abstracting early Stamford deeds, Edith Wicks noted
and later prepared a separate index of all genealogical references in those
deeds. Under entries for the surname "Allen," for example, one finds the
names of Eunice Allen and her deceased husband John, originally of Stamford
and later of Mamaketing, Ulster Co., New York. Also listed are the names of
their children, Lydia, Reuben, and Seymour of Ulster Co., and Trowbridge,
who had moved to Irish Settlement, Northampton Co., Penn.

Other Records Kept by Town Clerks

* Voter registration records: Town clerks keep current voter registration
lists, and some town clerks save old voter registration books. They might be
in the town hall basement or attic or in out-of-the way storage rooms. In
Stamford, for example, the town clerk still has the separate registration
books for men and women used after 1893 when, in Connecticut, women were
granted the right to vote in local school elections.

* Election and absentee ballot information

* Veterans' Records: Town clerks keep on file limited military records of
veterans who apply for tax exemptions or for patients in veterans' hospitals
who require assistance.

* Trade name registrations

* Notary Public applications, filings, and certifications

Probate District Court Offices

Probate Records
For an historic overview of probate record keeping in Connecticut, consult
Barbara Jean Mathews' column on probate records previously published in this
series.

Connecticut's probate records are kept in 131 probate district court
offices, not quite one district office for each of Connecticut's 169 towns.
Over the years there have been many changes in district boundaries, so
consult Connecting to Connecticut or Genealogist's Handbook for New England
Research to determine where you should look for probate records that include
the years of interest to you.

Probate district courts handle estate settlements of deceased town
residents, guardianships for minors and jurisdiction over their trusts,
legal matters pertaining to adoptions, and powers of attorney for adults
judged incompetent. Probate offices in town halls maintain indexes to
probate records of their district. Most Connecticut towns sent their probate
packets of original documents through about 1880 to Hartford, so most
original probate records for the early years are available only at the
Connecticut State Library or on microfilm. Towns maintain an index of
records sent to Hartford. However, most town probate district offices have
probate court record books containing handwritten copies of the original
records, and these volumes are available for research. As Barbara Mathews
points out, information in original probate packets and in probate court
record books may vary, so both should be consulted.

Most twentieth century probate packets of original documents as well as
record books with copies of those documents will be found in probate
district offices.

Assessor's Records
Grant lists or property valuations for tax purposes are kept in assessor's
offices in town halls. Although information for several recent years may be
found there, historic tax lists may be in town archives, historical
societies, or at the Connecticut State Library.

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• Connecticut research by "Sally Rolls Pavia" <>