For January Godfrey Library has added Kansas and Nebraska links, some miscellaneous links and a group of Sanborn map sites. For those who may not be aware, Sanborn or fire insurance maps were created for insurance companies so that they could determine the kind of building they were considering insuring. Since these maps were created by neighborhood, the appropriate map can give any researcher a pretty good idea of what a neighborhood was like and is also useful to determine the kind of building where ancestor might have lived. Look in the map folder.
We are also continuing with our update and revision of the Hale Collection. As Connecticut researchers know, the Hale Collection consists of every tombstone inscription in Connecticut as of the middle 1930's. Godfrey Library's revision includes updating those inscriptions from 1934 to 2008 or later, adding additional death information and including photographs and directions. Some of these cemeteries exist online at other locations, but we are not aware of other locations that include tombstone photos and thus provide information on tombstone carvers and tombstone materials. The project has already taken thousands of hours, multiple cemetery visits and a lot of computer space. Currently we have done 95 cemeteries with 54,293 photos and 73,403 burials. Progress should slow down during the winter because of the weather, but should resume in the spring. Look in the cemeteries folder.
Just a reminder that we have loose copies of the Barbour Collection (Connecticut vital records by town to 1850) available by town. These are copies of the records as they exist at the Connecticut State Library, not the published version. They are available at a nominal price which varies by the town and number of pages. We have been advertising the Barbour Collection sale on our website and sales have been brisk. Contact Nancy Thurrott (860-346-4375) at the library to see if we still have your town.
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