Leave no Stone Unturned by Diane Reid

         Godfrey Memorial Library is an amazing place.  In the more than fifteen years I have been volunteering as a docent and researcher, I have met and been able to help genealogists from all across the United States, and in a few instances, those from other countries. Some people have lots of information about the ancestor they are researching, some have nothing more than a name, a general birth year, and, if we’re lucky, a town.  We are able to find information most of the time using the many resources available to us here at the Godfrey.   

Then there are the people that no one appears to be searching for.   They are the persons who died and are buried in cemeteries across the United States, most with no stone to mark their grave, buried in what used to be called “pauper’s graves”.  Most towns have lots for the burial of those without family or funds, and some churches have lots for that purpose also.

Indian Hill Cemetery in Middletown has both.  A beautiful cemetery opened in 1850,  Indian Hill Cemetery is the final resting place for more than 9,000 souls.  There is a large city lot, and a lot owned by the local Episcopal Church.   These lots contain very few stones to mark the final resting places for those buried here.  I have been researching those buried in the church lots to identify them and document something about their lives.  I hope to see a marker erected on the lots listing the names of those who rest among strangers.

The resources at the Godfrey have been of tremendous help in discovering the resting places of those who would otherwise be lost to history.   The Ed Laput Cemetery Cemetery Project has recorded names and dates from 950 Connecticut cemeteries and 37 in other states, along with photos of the sites if available.  This collection is just part of Godfrey's online materials available to members.

In addition, Godfrey has copies of the records of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity, and the vital records of Middletown and the Sexton Returns from 1892 to 1900. Add to this the Middletown City Directories, the Penny Press newspaper from 1884 to 1921, and the Indian Hill Cemetery burial records, and I have been able to locate information on close to fifty persons buried in the church lot since 1851.

As an example, the sixth and seventh burials in the church lot were the 800^th and 852^nd at Indian Hill.  They were of Elizabeth Martin and her son William Andrew Martin, who died six months apart in 1876. The Indian Hill Cemetery Internment Book says Elizabeth  was 35 years old when she died of pneumonia.  The Middletown Vital Records give her birthplace as Wilmington North Carolina and stated that she  was married to Henry John Martin, a stone worker.  The church records list two children, John Henry, b.2 Apr 1871, baptized the 12^th of that month, and William Andrew b. 15 Jul 1875, and baptized 15 Aug 1875.  William died in  Sep 20, 1876 six months following his mother’s passing and was buried with his mother in the same grave.   In 1880, John Henry was living in the Hartford Orphan Home.  Neither Henry John nor his son John Henry were located in the 1900 census.

This is just one example of the many resources we have available to help you discover information about your ancestors.  To learn more, come in or go to our website.

Finding Your Ancestors in Church Records

In celebration of the Godfrey staff and volunteers being well on their way to adding much of the content from Middletown's Church of the Holy Trinity records as searchable content in our online database, we'd like to share with you an article written by the Godfrey's own Dianne Day Reid.

Finding Your Ancestors in Church Records

Diane Day Reid

      

Church records can be an excellent source of information. The early records, kept by the clergy, were generally basic - the date of baptism, child’s name, father’s name, and the names of the sponsors.  Some are easy to read, having been written in a legible style, while others appear difficult to read and decipher.  Marriages simply listed the names of the couple and the date of marriage.  Deaths were simply recorded, usually with the name of the deceased and the date of burial.  Later records, in the mid to late 1800’s, might offer the cause of death.

Some Church records can also be a rich source of history of local families and social customs.  Records might list not only baptisms, marriages, and deaths, but on occasion provide poignant insights about people and happenings.  Consider the following, found in the records of the Episcopal Church in Middletown:  Imogene daughter of Nathan and Ann Haley, born in Philadelphia August 31^st 1838, baptized in Middletown in private on account of extreme illness, June 13^th and died June 16^th 1840.

They are an excellent source for locating information about your ancestors, but can be difficult to locate.  If your ancestors were from a large city, you might need to locate the section of town where they lived to determine the closest church to their home.  If you are searching in a small town, there are probably only a few churches to check out.  If your ancestors settled in the wilderness, the search is even more difficult, but perhaps not impossible.  You will have to determine if there even was a church in the area in which your ancestors settled.

Daniel Henshaw, b. 1762, and his brother Joshua, b. 1765 were at  Middlebury Vermont about 1800.  The brothers built stores, mills and dwellings; they were also engaged the in mercantile business for several years. They were prominent men in the early history of the town. Daniel Henshaw fitted up a room in which Episcopal church services were held from 1817 until the stone church was completed in 1827.  Joshua and his family were members of the Congregational Church.  The History of the town of Middlebury says that the church at Middlebury was dependant upon visiting clergy for their services. The Episcopal Church at Middlebury was formed on St. Stephen’s Day, 26 Dec 1811, and the church, consecrated in 1827, is named St. Stephen’s on the Green.

The 1790 census shows Daniel Henshaw with one male over 16 and three females living at Middletown CT.  In the Episcopal Church records of Christ Church, Middletown, I found an entry for 1802 showing that the Reverend Joseph Warren, whose contract with the parish allowed him to be absent one-fourth of the time “in case his business should require it”, was in Vermont on June 23 of that year when he baptized thirteen children at Middlebury CT. These baptisms were recorded in the Christ Church,Middletown Connecticut church records, Volume C, as there was no church in Middlebury before 26 Dec 1811 according to the History of the town of Middlebury.  However, the History of the town of Middlebury says that the church at Middlebury was dependent upon visiting clergy for their services. (The Episcopal Church at Middlebury was formed on St. Stephen’s Day, 26 Dec 1811, and the church, consecrated in 1827, is named St. Stephen’s on the Green.)  Eight were the children baptized that day were the children of Joshua and Esther (Burnham) Henshaw, formerly of Middletown. 

The lesson here is that if there was no church in the area, check the church records of the town from which the family lived previously.

At the library, we are fortunate to have the records of several early churches from the Middletown area.  Available to Godfrey Scholars online are the First Congregational Churches of Middletown and Cromwell, the Groton Congregational Church and the Second Church of North Stonington.  Not online are the records of Portland Zion Church, the Northford Congregational Church, and some records from Plymouth Connecticut, as well as the Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity, Middletown, formerly named Christ Church.

If you would like us to search the church records here at the library, simply print out the American Genealogical Biographical Index search request (AGBI), and for $10 per name (and rough date) we will search the church records for you.  Mention that these are the church records you would like us to search.