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      New London County CTGenWeb

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        Welcome to New London County, CTGenWeb

and thank you for visiting!

        My contribution to the New London County CTGenWeb is in  maintaining and coordinating the web site, and I hope it will always be an evolving and interesting place to visit.  Because I live near Atlanta, Georgia and have done little actual research in Connecticut,  I regret to say that I am not able to answer personal research questions.

        If you have a question about New London County research that is not answered on this site, I recommend that you search the archived list messages of the  New London County Genealogy Mailing List  .  You may also consider subscribing to this very active list, as there are over 250 dedicated researchers who subscribe.   There are also several free message boards for researchers. 

If you are a new visitor to this site, you are welcome and encouraged to explore!   If you just want to get to the "bottom line" you may want to start here:

1.  Search the New London County CTGenWeb Site Search.  Note:  this will only find information housed on this site at http://www.rootsweb.com/~ctnewlon/ , including the archived queries, transcribed documents, cemetery transcriptions, surname registry, etc.  Any data linked from the New London County CTGenWeb but housed on a town site or personal genealogy page will not be included in the search. It takes approximately a week for the site search to pick up additions of new material, but everything housed on this site will be searched.

2.  Check the New London County CTGenWeb Look-Up list for a volunteer who may have research material relevant to your genealogy search. 

3.  Search the New London County CTGenWeb Queries on Ancestry.Com/RootsWeb or GenForum to see if someone else is researching the same family.  If not, be sure to post your query!   Most of us have made invaluable connections with distant family members through these message boards and mailing lists!

4.  Browse through the many titles listed on the Research page - there may be a linked web site that will be of help.  It  includes links to transcribed documents housed on this site as well as off-site, including single name or family association websites, many of which have large databases.

5.  Browse through the New London County Town pages for transcriptions, links, and local research options specific to town in New London County.

New London County Libraries and Associations

Public Libaries:

Cragin Memorial Library in Colchester
East Lyme Public Library - Niantic
Ledyard Libraries - Ledyard
New London Public Library - New London
Otis Library - Norwich
Stonington Free Library - Stonington
Waterford Public Library - Waterford
Wheeler Memorial Library - North Stonington

Connecticut Genealogy Libraries

The Connecticut Society of Genealogists, Inc.
Office: 175 Maple Street, East Hartford, CT  06118
Mail: P.O. Box 435, Glastonbury, CT  06033-0435
Phone: 860. 569. 0002
$34.00 per year, U.S.
$38.00 Canada

The addresses and telephone numbers for Town Clerks, and the local historical societies can be found listed on the applicable Town sites.

Association of Professional Genealogists - Search for a professional by area

Local Research- Vital Records

Directory of Town Clerks for Connecticut 

If you are planning to visit New London County or order vital records,  the following are suggestions made by fellow researchers to aid in your New London County research:

Contributed by Susan Taylor 

IMPORTANT: Be aware, no public access for genealogy purposes to birth records of the last 100 years is allowed in the State of Connecticut unless you are a certified member of a Connecticut incorporated genealogical society such as Connecticut Society of Genealogists.  Only the following may access birth records (100 yrs. or less):

•     Person who is the subject of the birth certificate;
•     Parent or Guardian or Grandparent, if a minor;
•     Spouse or Children;
•     Chief Elected Official of Municipality or Agent;
•     Local Health Director;
•     Attorneys;
•     Title Examiners;
•     Members of Incorporated Genealogical Societies or Societies
•     Authorized to Conduct Business in Connecticut;
•     Persons Authorized by Court Order;
•     State or Federal Agency Authorized by State Commissioner of Public Health.

Department of Public Health: 1897-present: Birth, Deaths and Marriage (According to the web site, this is up to a 4 month turnaround)

Connecticut State Library: VRs after 1865, Barbour Collection, Hale Collection, local newspapers  before 1982

You should state that, in most cases, in CT, a researcher must be a member of a recognized Genealogy organization in order to do a lot of research.  Specifically, nobody can see birth records less than 100 years old, unless the researcher can prove direct relationship, or that he is a member of a genealogy organization.  Most towns charge $1.00 a copy for documents.  The exception is a sealed or certified vital record document.   In that case, BY STATE STATUTE the charge is $5.00

I would suggest that, until a researcher is familiar with the routine of a town office, that a phone call be made to determine if one day & time that might be better than another.  We have to remember that most of towns in Eastern CT are staffed by one or two people, the clerk and assistant, and they have regular duties to perform, in addition to helping us.

Most towns have the Barbour Index for the vital records of the town.  However, there are some towns for which there was no indexing done.  Mansfield and Coventry are two that come to mind.  Also any town formed  after 1850 would not have an index.

New researchers should also be told that the New London Library and the Otis Library in Norwich are very good research facilities.  The Godfey Library in Middletown is also excellent, as the State Library in Hartford.

This summer I was in Connecticut for two weeks, mainly in Middlesex Co. I discovered how deep my New London Co. roots are but was able to spend only part of a day there.  Instead of the local historical society, I chose the public library, which has a good collection of materials on the town and the county.  At first I felt the library was overly protective of its holdings,
but I changed my mind.  The staff was brusque but quite helpful. I greatly appreciated the attention they put into my requests. I was told that the historical society also has a solid collection of New London materials.

The LDS Church has many searchable historic records  for Connecticut at www.FamilySearch.org

The following was contributed by fellow researcher, Earl Colley, on another mailing list.  It is used here with Earl's consent:

Not all LDS Churches have Family History Centers. But the people at any LDS Church should be able to tell you where to find the nearest Family History Center.

Another possibility is to go to the LDS Web site at www.familysearch.org

What you need to see is the Family History Library Catalog. At the Family History Centers
it can be seen on microfiche or on their computers. I prefer the microfiche. Ask one of the Family History Specialists to show you where the microfiche Family History Library Catalog (FHLC) is kept.  Or ask them to show you how to access the FHLC on the computer. I am a
Family History Specialist at our local LDS FHC and I cheerfully do this for researchers over and over.

Let me use my own recent research as an example. I have an ancestor, Absalom Gilly, who is listed on the 1840 and the 1850 census of Carter County, Tennessee. Now I want to learn more about him.

So I went to the FHLC microfiche drawer and looked for the section for the United States. The whole file is alphabetized, so it is easy to search. In the U.S. part of the file I looked for Tennessee (again, alphabetically). Then among the Tennessee microfiche, I looked for Carter County. Now I see subjects and/or place names. I looked under "C" for Court Records. You would see Census, then Church records, then Court Records and then many other subjects further down the alphabet.

Once I found the list of Court Records for Carter County, Tennessee I selected the date interval of interest to me. Opposite the chosen date interval I found a 7 digit number. If that number begins with 0, 1, or 2, what you want to see is a doll of microfilm. If the 7 digit number begins with a 6, then you want to see a set of microfiche. Sometimes the number
of a film roll will begin with one or more zeros, and for convenience the zeros are not copied, but that does not happen very often.

When I found the 7 digit number for the microfilm roll that reproduces the Carter County, Tennessee Court records for the 1840's I used that information to fill out an order form. I paid the person who was taking orders $3.25 and gave her the order. She gave me the carbon copy of the order and sent my order (by computer modem) to the main library at Salt
Lake City. In a little more than 2 weeks the film arrived at the FHC for my use there for about 4 weeks. If I need more time to search the film I can pay an additional fee to extend the time.

So far, I found that Absalom had been ordered to work on the road near his home, which told me the neighborhood where he lived. I also found that he had been charged with selling whiskey to a slave, but was let off by only paying the court costs. I have now ordered the microfilm for the same courts for later dates, and hope to learn more about the life of old
Absalom.

Among LDS families, boys (and lately girls) just out of high school offer 2 years of their life to service to their church. They get no money for that and must pay their own living expenses, usually with help from parents and relatives. One of the tasks that may be assigned to them is to take a portable microfim camera to a place where historical records are available, and copy those records on film. I think there are now a little over 2 million of those rolls of film which have been made and are filed at Salt Lake City for loan to the Family History Centers all over the world. No local Family History Center would be able to store more than a very small portion of these films. They usually keep just a few of the films that are frequently used.

I have helped hundreds of people access these records. Not every attempt is a success, but most people are happy with their results and find this method more efficient than travelling long distances to visit Court Houses, Church Archives, State Archives, National Archives, etc.

I can never give enough thanks to the people who have made this information available to me, but I try to do so by giving my time to help them help others.