52 Weeks of Online American Digital Archives and Databases: Connecticut

This is the seventh post in a weekly series of Online American Digital Archives and Databases found for free at state, county, municipal, college and university history, library, and archive websites, as well as public and private library and museum sites, and historical and genealogical society sites.

3DFlags.com

Connecticut State Library: State Archives - http://www.cslib.org/archives/ - databases of individuals listed in State Archives records, online exhibits (this month features Log Books of Slave Traders), WPA Architectural Survey, research databases and online articles (includes Connecticut General Assembly Members 1776 to present, Connecticut Patents Project, Veteran's Files from Fitch's Home for Soldiers, Noble Pension Database, Wethersfield Prison Records, WWI Veterans Database)

Connecticut State Library: Digital Archives - http://cslib.cdmhost.com/index.php - Account Books, Diaries, and Journals; Aerial Photographs; Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company; Town Histories, and much, much more!

Connecticut Historical Society - http://www.chs.org/ - not much online; however, they do have online catalogs and subject guides, as well as images of collection highlights

Connecticut's Heritage Gateway - http://www.ctheritage.org/default.htm - a "comprehensive directory of the state’s history resources for teachers, students, researchers and others who want to better understand the world around them through the stories of our past." This site links to multiple archives across the state, from government, museum, and university sources.

Connecticut History Online - http://www.cthistoryonline.org/cdm-cho/index.html - a search engine for a collection that includes business and company records, diaries, government documents, letters, pamphlets, personal papers, maps, charts, newspapers and magazines, photographs, prints and drawings, postcards, posters, sound recordings of oral histories and radio broadcasts.

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Central Connecticut State University Archival Projects - http://www.ccsu.edu/page.cfm?p=5696 - includes Veterans History Project

Connecticut College Archives - http://www.conncoll.edu/is/library/archives/index.html - "photographs, films, videos, audio tapes, artifacts, ephemera, publications, and official records of the college"

Eastern Connecticut State University J. Eugene Smith Library Archives and Special Collections - http://www.easternct.edu/smithlibrary/library1/archives/archives.htm - some online finding aids, special collections, digital collections (special collections, digital collections, online exhibits, and photographs), online exhibits, and photographs

Quinnipiac University's Digitized Connecticut History Books - http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x915.xml - 31 titles

University of Connecticut Libraries Digital Collections - http://digitalcollections.uconn.edu/ - texts and images include colonial records, bibliographies, maps, yearbooks, and railroad collection

University of Hartford Libraries Archives and Special Collections - http://library.hartford.edu/archspeccoll/archspeccoll.asp - material related to the history of the university (minutes, memos, correspondence, photographs, and memorabilia) and material produced by members of the university community

Yale University Library Judaica & Hebrew Collections - http://www.library.yale.edu/judaica/ - bibliographic databases, online research guides and reference tools

Yale University Manuscripts and Archives Digital Images Databases (MADID) - http://images.library.yale.edu/madid/ - "digital reproductions of photographs, posters, drawings, text documents, and other images taken from the research collections of Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library."

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State of Connecticut Towns and Cities Listing - http://www.ct.gov/ctportal/cwp/view.asp?a=843&q=257266 - many of the towns' and cities' official websites contain links to local historical societies, research websites, and museums

Greater New Haven Labor History Association - http://www.laborhistory.org/intro.html - history and records guides recording the history of the labor movement in the New Haven area

Harriet Beecher Stowe Center - http://www.harrietbeecherstowe.org/collections/ - history and biography of the Beecher family, primary source documents on abolition, online guides to the manuscript collection and Women's History and African Diaspora History materials

Hartford Medical Society Menczer Museum of Medicine and Dentistry - http://library.uchc.edu/hms/images.html - Do you have a doctor or dentist in your ancestry? Check out these images of vintage medical and dental equipment!

Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center - http://www.pequotmuseum.org/ - gallery of exhibits of Native American and natural history

Mystic Seaport - http://library.mysticseaport.org/ - the Museum of America and the Sea: ship and yaght registers, ship database, protection certificates, crew lists, immigration vessels, whalemen's shipping list, rudder designs, logs, oral histories, image archives, and more!

Norwalk Public Library Norwalk Hour Newspaper Index - http://www.norwalklib.org/reference/hourindex.htm - births, marriages, and obituaries from 1983 to the present

Wilton Library Wilton Bulletin Obituaries Index - http://www.wiltonlibrary.org/databases/bullobit/obitquery.htm - January 1937 to September 2005

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Check out my Connecticut Online Historical Directories and Connecticut Online Historical Newspapers pages.

Week of July 23 - 29, 2006

Saturday, July 29
Diana Wilkes, a Find A Grave photo volunteer, blessed the socks off of me by not only taking many photos of my Robbins ancestors' graves at Hesperia West Cemetery in Hesperia, Michigan, but also submmitting a cemetery map with all the Robbins' graves marked! In addition, she will be mailing me a CD with all the photos. The photos she submitted to Find A Grave were for Joseph Josiah Robbins, Marinda (Robbins) Robbins, Charles H. Robbins, and Viola Gertrude (Peck) Robbins.

Sent a link to my Robbins Family Page to the McKean County, Pennsylvania GenWeb site.

Found info online about the Wyckoff House Museum, which my ancestor, Pieter Claessen Wyckoff, built c. 1652 on Long Island. It is the one of the oldest standing wooden homes in North America, and New York City's first Landmark.


Friday, July 28
Andrew Whitlock, a Find A Grave submitter, e-mailed to say he had updated my Civil War ancestor Benjamin Henry Kimball's information, which I had sent him a few weeks ago.


Thursday, July 27
Requested photos of my Higby ancestors graves in Old Westfield Cemetery in Middleton, Connecticit from Norma Unger.

Matt and I went to Holy Cross Cemetery and took photos of the graves of George Ogden and Dessie Lola (McCready) Purviance for a requestor. It was my first time there, and I found it to be a beautiful, well-laid-out cemetery with easy-to-find graves. It is a newer cemetery (built 1931).


Wednesday, July 26
Added details to a memorial page on Find A Grave, which I created for my grandaunt, Mary Louise (Hoekstra) Glashower.

Heard back from Judy Zenge, a Find A Grave photo volunteer who is looking into taking a photo of the grave of my infant brother, Aaron James Robbins. She talked to an individual in Metlakatla, Alaska who said his parents are buried right next to Aaron, and he and other Metlakatla citizens continue to tend the grave out of loving respect and memory of all my parents did as Salvation Army officers to that village over 30 years ago. He also stated that the cross Dad made for Aaron's grave was still intact. Judy is hoping to get over to Metlakatla on Annette Island from Ketchikan soon, to take a photo. This news was very touching to me.


Tuesday, July 25
As pre-arranged, I received a telephone call from Laurie Perkins, Education Historian at the Michigan Historical Museum in Lansing. She is in charge of developing and overseeing the Future Historians program for 9 - 15 year olds at the Museum. She told me about the program and answered my many questions. She also gave me contact information for the person in charge of the Genealogy Sprouts Day Camp program through the Library of Michigan. I am hoping that my local genealogical society can develop (a) similar program(s) in the Spokane area, with the help of the Spokane Public Library and/or the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture.


Monday, July 24
My son, Matt, and I went to Greenwood Memorial Terrace to take a photo of the grave of Allene Eugenia (Castlio) Castlio for someone who requested it through Find A Grave. We stopped first at the cemetery office, and were informed that Allene was not buried there; she was buried at Fairmount Memorial Park. Greenwood and Fairmount are both owned by the Fairmount Memorial Association, which also owns Riverside Memorial Park, Spokane Memorial Gardens, and Woodlawn Cemetery, so they have all the records at the central office at Greenwood. I was given the locations of some more Castlio burials; two at Greenwood (Edwin Sparks and Dora A. Castlio) and two at Spokane Memorial Gardens (Raymond W. and Alma L. Castlio). Since I was already at Greenwood, I went and took the photos; then I went to Fairmount and, after a little help from the office there, found Allene's burial place (her grave is unmarked, except for a curbstone family marker off to the side). After adding Allene's photos to her memorial page at Find A Grave, I created pages for the other Castlio individuals at that site. I used information from the Washington State Death Index at Ancestry to fill in some unknown information.


Sunday, July 23
I worked on my friend Bev's family tree website, and I now have three pages up. Once I get it complete, I'll put a link here for my readers, so that they, too, can read it. Bev is a great writer; a professional journalist who writes for many genealogy magazines, and her family stories on her new website will warm your heart and make you feel like you've known these people all your lives!

One of the ladies from the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society contacted me; she recently ordered a copy of the GenSmarts software by phone. She talked to Aaron Underwood, the owner of the program, and suggested that he donate a copy as a door prize for our October workshop. He agreed, and I think that this will make a wonderful addition to a great program (Michael John Neill will be our guest lecturer)!

I've agreed to be the coordinator for the EWGS' educational program for 2007. We offer free computer classes for members each month with a different topic. So far, we covered Using the Boolean Search Method, Using Ancestry.com, Placing Queries for (and Finding) Surnames Online, Using FamilySearch.org, How to Fix Broken Links (see my blog entry of July 16th), Patriotic and Lineage Societies Online, and Using GenSmarts Software. My job will entail signing up people for the classes (there's a limit of 15, due to the amount of computer stations in the computer lab), of which we hold three each program day.

I also started adding a lot of cemetery information from various sources to the Goodrich Cemetery (Atlas Township, Genesee County, Michigan) listing at Find A Grave...kind of an outgrowth to my work on The Atlas Project.