Press Release (July 11, 2022)
The Godfrey Memorial Library won first prize in the SLAM! video
category for its Manumissions Project. Carol
Ansel, Executive Director of the Godfrey, accepted the prize – $250 and one
year of access to VIVID-PIX commercial software – at the SLAM! Idea Showcase
held at the national conference of the National Genealogical Society (NGS) in
Sacramento, CA in May 2022.
Each year the NGS holds a competition for innovative genealogy and
family history projects or programs by societies, libraries, archives, and museums
(SLAM). The projects and programs are
designed to assist librarians and others who serve genealogists.
Located in Middletown, CT, the Godfrey is a member-based, private
library specializing in genealogy and local history. The library was founded in 1947 by Fremont
Rider, then Director of the Olin Library at Wesleyan University. The building opened to the public in 1951.
In 2020 and 2021, staff and volunteers at the Godfrey Memorial
Library worked to create a searchable online database about slavery and manumissions
(the freeing of enslaved people) in Middletown.
All the information was extracted from the city’s land records, which
are digitized and available on the FamilySearch.org website. Ansel noted that other manumissions may
possibly be found in court records, but they are outside the scope of the library’s
project. The earliest manumission found
in the Middletown land records was in 1774, while the latest one was in
1823. In total, over 50 manumissions
were found. The new database provides a
transcription and digital image of each record.
In 1848, Connecticut passed legislation that banned and abolished
slavery.
The use of the manumissions database is open to the public, free
of charge. For access, go to the
library’s website at www.godfrey.org, click on
Search Scholar Databases, click on Register or Renew to fill out the form
as a guest, then navigate to the People
of Color database to begin your search.
To browse the database, click on People
of Color > Connecticut > Middletown Slavery > Middletown
Manumissions. Call the library at
860-346-4375 for additional assistance.
