Godfrey Memorial Library

Bible Project Reunites Family & Long-lost Bible

The Godfrey Memorial Library collects family bibles in order to record the family names included with them. After cataloging and scanning, we try to locate the family to see if they would like the bible returned to them. Family bibles can be lost over time for a variety of reasons, and quite often descendants are quite pleased to have them returned to the family.

The Leonard family bible is one such story with a happy ending. It was donated to the Library in 2010 and after cataloging and scanning the family data, a message was posted on Ancestry.com seeking any family members who might want it back. The bible recorded the marriage of John P. Leonard and Mary A. Renz in San Franscisco, November 1894. It went on to record family births and deaths through 1911, when John P. Leonard died.

The Library was recently contacted by John Leonard, who recognized the names as belonging to his grandfather and grandmother. His nephew, Richard Leonard, happened to be traveling in Connecticut and visited the Godfrey Memorial Library to pick up the bible and reunite it with the Leonard family.

Godfrey Library and the Civil War Sesquicentennial

 

April 12, 2011 marks the 150^th anniversary of the beginning of the American Civil War in which some 620,000 Americans lost their lives.  When the war began Connecticut regiments were called to arms by decrees from both President Abraham Lincoln and Connecticut’s Governor William Buckingham. 

Connecticut sent 55,000 men, or 47% of its male population between the ages of 15-50, in the most massive war mobilization in state's history. 

 The Godfrey Memorial Library, a private, non-profit library open to the public, has in-depth resources for those wishing to research Civil War history and biography in general, and family histories of those who served or were affected by the Civil War.

 Among the specialized resources held by The Godfrey is the American Civil War Research Database, with information on more than four million soldiers and thousands of battles, along with more than 16,000 photographic images.  The Civil War Letters and Diaries Database contains diaries, letters, and memoirs by more than 2,000 authors who lived during those climactic events. Additionally, the library has databases containing many 19^th century newspapers with first-hand accounts of politics and battles. These newspaper resources include seven African-American newspapers 1827 to 1902, offering a seldom-seen perspective on the conflict.

 The Godfrey Library is a unique resource for genealogists and historians. “The Godfrey is one of the best kept secrets in Connecticut,” said library director James Benn. “It is a premier research site for family history research, and perfect for anyone wanting to work on Civil War research during the 150^th anniversary.”

 The Godfrey maintains an extensive collection of essential resources to help in genealogical and historical research. Library staff is available to help users locate relatives through city and business directories, vital records, printed census records, state, county, and local histories as well as numerous family histories, family bible records, and service and pension records. The library is free and open to the public.  Subscriptions to database resources can be purchased to allow for off-site research.

As part of the Sesquicentennial, The Godfrey is offering a Civil War publication at a significant discount.

“A Noble and Glorious Cause:  The Life, Times and Civil War Service of Captain Elijah W. Gibbons”, originally published by The Godfrey Memorial Library in 2005 and priced at $35.00 is now available for $15.00 at the library. Follow the war experiences of Captain Gibbons of the Connecticut Volunteer Infantry and his men from Middletown as they respond to the call to arms and until the battle of Fredericksburg. Call the library to order or stop in to pick up your copy by April 30th.

 The Library is located at 134 Newfield Street in Middletown, Connecticut.  For information, see:

http://www.godfrey.org/

 For information about Connecticut’s upcoming observance of the Civil War anniversary events, see:

http://www.ccsu.edu/page.cfm?p=2296

 

 

 

 

 

Local Genealogy Conference Announced

Next year's NERG Conference comes to Springfield, MA and Godfrey Library will be exhibiting!

Exploring New Paths to Your Roots, to be held April 6-10, 2011 in Springfield, Massachusetts, is the 11th New England Regional Genealogical Conference and will build on NERGC’s tradition of excellence in providing genealogical lectures, seminars and workshops; the Ancestors Road Show; a Society Fair; and banquet luncheons and dinners for new and established genealogists alike at minimal cost.

The conference is being held in two hotels across the street from one another in downtown Springfield. The city of Springfield is located directly off Interstate 91 and only minutes from the Massachusetts Turnpike. The Conference hotels are ½  mile from the Peter Pan bus station and the Amtrak station. Most (but not all) lectures will be at the Springfield Sheraton Monarch Place, while Librarians/Teachers Day and our luncheons and banquets will be at the Marriott Springfield. There is a glass walkway connecting the second level of the Sheraton with Tower Square, of which the Marriott is a part. The two hotels offer the same room rate, and both have the same reservation cutoff date—March 14, 2011. All of the information is available at the web site named below including a group code that will allow you to get the conference rate at the hotels.

For more information visit: www.NERGC.org

Significant Strides in Sidewalks

Construction workers have been making great strides in completing our Sidewalk/Front Entrance Project since late last week. Forms were built, cement was poured, leveled, and stamped. Today, the crew worked on leveling the huge mounds of dirt and a little bit of landscaping.  New photos are posted in the Sidewalk Album.

Construction Begins on New Sidewalk/Entrance

Digging began bright and early this morning at the ibrary.  The front stairs were demolished, a new pathway roughed out and dust and earth overturned all around.  We are excited to see the finished result!  It will be a slow process as each part of the demolition/construction team does their part.  We hope to keep you up to date with photos as we go along. See photo album for pictures.

Your Research is About to Get a Little Easier

Godfrey Memorial Library announces the Godfrey One Step Search! This new search engine is available to all Godfrey Scholar Levels.  Go to our home page www.godfrey.org, select the Search tab and choose Godfrey Search from the drop down menu. Read the information there and start simplifying your research!

Families Shared

June 9, 2010 

 

 

Families Shared

Godfrey Memorial Library Recognizes New Young Essayists

 

     Family stories were the order of the day as Godfrey Memorial Library celebrated the authors in its Annual Family History Essay Contest, Monday June 8, 2010.  Students from four towns, (Durham, Portland, East Hampton and Hebron) entered essays which shared stories of the special people in their families.  Each essay must have some exhibit with it, many choosing to have photographs, but some did hand drawn art work or maps.  Many of the authors brought  the subjects of their essays to the party.

There are two levels in the contest:  Level 1 for grades 4 and 5; and Level 2 for grades 6-8.  A panel of judges read all the essays from each level and, using a scale of 1-5 rated all the elements of the essays.  The total scores determined three top 3 winners in each group.  All participants receive certificates of achievement, but the top 3 in each group received prizes:  cameras, art sets, scrapbooking kits.

The top winner in the first level – grades 4 and 5 – was  Caroline J. Thompson from Gildersleeve School in Portland.  Second prize went to Aubrey Figoras of The John Lyman School of Durham.   John Herbert Mosley VI from Gildersleeve School in Portland, won third prize.

    In level two – grades 6 through 8 – the top winner was Taylor Muncy of the East Hampton Middle School in East Hampton.  Second prize went to Kylie Flanagan of the RHAM Middle School in Hebron. Annie MacLachlan of the RHAM Middle School of Hebron won third prize.

Every essay becomes part of the permanent collection of the Godfrey Memorial Library.  Each is cataloged and listed in the Godfrey Memorial Library’s Online catalog as well as the OCLC WorldCat (which is a listing of the holdings of libraries all over the world.)  Anyone wishing to look for what holdings the library has, can go to www.godfrey.org and click on the Search tab to find the online catalog, or call the library at 860-346-4375.

    The Godfrey Memorial Library is a library of genealogy and local history and was founded by Fremont Rider in 1947 as a “…free public library of books, pamphlets, periodicals and other materials in the fields of American biography and genealogy and in related fields…”   The Library has continued with its mission of collecting genealogical materials. Its list of titles include a number of genealogies, reference books and indexes, including the 226 volume American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI). AGBI is the largest genealogical reference set ever published.

 

 

All the Attendees:

Caroline J. Thompson, John Herbert Mosley VI, Nathan Fecteau, Colby Townsend,

Aubrey Figoras, David Halsey Mann, Jr., Michael Olayos, Taylor Muncy, Grace Pelletier, Kylie Flanagan, Annie MacLachlan

 The Top Six: 

Aubrey Figoras, Annie MacLachlan, John Herbert Mosley, VI, Kylie Flanagan, Caroline J. Thompson, Taylor Muncy.
  

Newest Issue of Godfrey Update Online

The Spring 2010 issue of The Godfrey Update is now available online at www.godfrey.org.  Go to the About Us tab and choose Godfrey Update from the drop down menu. You'll need a PDF reader to view.  Your comments are always welcome. Happy Reading!

100 Cemeteries and Counting

By Christine Spencer

 

 

Local genealogy hobbyist and Godfrey Memorial Library Board of Trustees Member Ed Laput achieved a milestone for many people both living and dead. He began his journey in November 2007 with the idea of making a special donation for Godfrey’s online resources.  He has been photographing gravestones and recording their vital information throughout Middlesex County, Connecticut and beyond.  Not only does Laput take the photos and create the table of information, he also handles the tedious work of linking the photos to the surnames on the web pages that patrons view. On March 27^th Laput submitted data and photos to Godfrey Memorial Library for his 100^th cemetery.

 

 “My primary motive,” Ed says, “began after I found a family member that came from Russia in the early 1900's and vanished with no one in the family having any idea where she went.”   On line he found a transcription of cemetery stones in West Virginia recorded in 1940 and it documented that her death happened in 1939. “I broke through a wall and completed that lost section of our family history.”

 

Ed’s other motivation is he wants to make sure that some of these old stones will have a record and a photo before they are either stolen, destroyed or deteriorate from old age and that people in the future will be able to see and have at least a copy of that nonexistent stone.

 

Initially, he focused on cemeteries where some of his relatives were buried.  He started with St. Nicholas Cemetery in Norwich, then to Colchester and  St. Bridget in Moodus.  East Hampton came next, and then Middletown, Haddam, Marlborough, and Portland. Many times he worked on multiple cemeteries at the same time, putting them all through their steps toward completion. “Now, I try to complete a town beginning with the smaller cemeteries and then get to the larger cemeteries before going to the next town. Salem, Berlin and Meriden are high on my list to be completed.”  He’s done some cemeteries in Middlefield, Cheshire, Lebanon, Bozrah, Hebron and Marlborough.

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When asked about his plan for the coming year Laput revealed, “I’d like to finish Meriden, Middletown and Lebanon. I plan on keeping the database up to date as new people are being added to the completed cemeteries. Lebanon is important as that was the headquarters during the Revolutionary War and has a high historical value.  I have about 85,000 names at this point and I should reach 100,000 by the fall of this year.”

 

“The biggest challenge with photographing cemeteries,” Laput describes, “is the weather and, of course, the time of day to get the best photo.”  Light and shadows have been frequent obstacles for a good photo as is the direction of the stone in relation to the sun.  He has seen most everything that can get in his way from mammoth overgrown vines and trees in cemeteries long forgotten, to grass-covered, sunken, flat stones and statues or potted plants to the occasional threatening black snake.  He has developed and honed his own method and routine for getting his task accomplished. He says he tries not to make too many return trips to a cemetery, “that slows down my available time to get to the final product, the finished web page.”

 

You might think “creeping” around cemeteries with a camera in your hand would attract some negative attention.  Laput reports, “I haven’t gone to a cemetery in the last year without someone stopping me and asking what I'm doing, why I'm doing it and what I’m going to do with the information.  I’ve had many caretakers help me with my project. At St. Sebastian Cemetery in Middletown, CT they came out with their mowing tractors last fall to mulch and blow the leaves so that the ground stones could be visible for me. Many people think that what I am doing is great and they sometimes tell me stories of their own. The only place that the police talked to me was at the new St. John Cemetery in Middletown, CT. There had been some vandalism at the cemetery in the past and they do patrol it. After talking to them I just get a wave as they go through.” Because of Ed’s passion for cemetery stone preservation, he is grateful to the officers who protect them.

  

Completing the web page has many challenges as well. Laput tries to get the most up to date information on a person, (i.e., the exact death date, birth date, place of birth and death, spouse’s first name and, for the women, their maiden name). “This is what makes the information that I provide more accurate and thorough than other cemetery sites.” It takes time to gather this information and build the HTML file for the website.  He linked almost 85,000 surnames to a photo (accounting for those with no stone remaining or not yet placed). “After a while the eyes do go buggy,” Ed recounts with a laugh.

 

His devotion to his hobby has infiltrated many days and parts of his life these past two and a half years.  The staff at Godfrey Memorial Library chuckles when Ed and his wife Bonnie go on vacation and Ed reports that he’s bringing his laptop and will have a cemetery finished when he gets back.  “On vacation I choose a cemetery that I can complete and they are included in my lists.”  This is why you’ll see a few out of state cemeteries that are a part of the Ed Laput Collection.  Ed has photographed and recorded cemeteries in California, Arizona and Florida while on vacation.  He discloses, “Bonnie is very supportive and sometimes finds a cemetery for me to do. Our friends even get involved and have introduced me to a man that is now helping me with the Salem cemeteries. Without this contact I would have never found some of these.”

 

After having the opportunity to see so many thousands of stones dating back to the 1700’s and those being produced today, Laput views some of these as amazing works of art. “The sculpture works of the stones at St. Sebastian in Middletown are the most ornate. However, Cove Cemetery in East Haddam along with Old Burying Ground in Cromwell display some great tabletop stones. While in Ormond Beach, FL. at Pilgrims Rest Cemetery I photographed some honeycomb graves that are gorgeous and interesting.”

 

Some of the stones Ed speaks of have a big curiosity factor like one from an Arizona cemetery where a single cowboy boot protrudes from the top of the casket-shaped cement grave covering.  The stone reads:  “If you want the other one, you’ll have to come down here and get it!”  Another is at Ormond Hillside Cemetery in Florida where the founder of the Daytona Racetrack is buried and just this past year the owner of the world’s largest chain of Harley Motorcycles was buried there after he was killed riding his bike in Montana.

 

Ed Laput is committed to documenting as many cemeteries and their occupants as he has the strength and time to do. He told his wife this was something he wanted to get involved with when he retired.  His happiness comes from knowing that his efforts preserve history and makes it easier for relatives of the deceased to locate their ancestors’ final resting place. But if you ask him what he enjoys most, he’ll tell you, “It’s the people that I have met who stop and talk to me about what they know about the cemetery and the people buried there. They have interesting stories to tell. That is precious.”

 

Look for the complete Ed Laput Collection of cemeteries online at www.godfrey.org. Full access to all cemetery databases requires the purchase of an online subscription (starts at $45). To view cemeteries on the Free Search page; go to our home page and put your cursor over the Search tab at the top, the click on Search Free! to view the current list of free resources.

 

Godfrey Memorial Library is the recipient of a grant from the Middlesex County Community Foundation to assist in making our cemetery databases in Middlesex County more accessible to the general public.  All Middlesex County Cemeteries will be put on the Search Free! page beginning May 1^st, 2010 and will remain free to view for one year.

 

Godfrey Memorial Library is a private library of genealogy, biography and family history, incorporated in 1947. It is free and open to the public Monday-Saturday, located at 134 Newfield Street, Middletown, CT 06457.  Call 860.346.4375 for more information.

 

 

 

 

Unlimited Priorities Negotiates Content Licensing from Godfrey Memorial Library to Accessible Archives

Malvern, PA - Accessible Archives, Inc.©, a publisher of electronic full-text searchable historical databases, has announced the expansion of its existing database, The Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective, with the addition of two new parts, each of which may be acquired individually. The enhanced database will be renamed simply The Civil War. This cooperative venture was initiated by Godfrey Memorial Library, an Accessible Archives© customer, and coordinated by Unlimited Priorities Corporation, a company specializing in support for organizations within the information industry, acting in a consultative capacity. Godfrey Memorial Library has a wealth of archival materials and thought they would complement Accessible Archives’ offerings. A review of the Civil War-related materials persuaded Accessible Archives and Unlimited Priorities that a potential existed for a commercial product within the Civil War area. Accessible Archives agreed to perform the conversion in return for commercial rights. The new parts consist of book titles supplied by the Godfrey Memorial Library, Middletown, Connecticut, a library dedicated to promoting the study of family history by making genealogical and historical resources available to all on both a national and international level. It is interesting to note that, depending on the author, the war might be referred to as the War Between the States, War of the Rebellion, War of Secession or Civil War. The Civil War: The Soldiers’ Perspective. Provides an in-depth look at the day-to-day actions of the troops themselves, primarily in the form of regimental histories. Usually written by an individual, but sometimes compiled by a committee, these books were published after the war to document what actually happened. While some battle and war narratives are included, the focus was primarily on the individual rather than on regimental action. Additional contents include rosters and muster lists containing the names of those killed, wounded and missing in action. All Union regiments are represented. The Civil War: The Generals’ Perspective. These volumes allow a look into the way the battles within the war were fought. Here the emphasis is on strategies and tactics as planned and executed by the commanding officers, with a longer-term view as opposed to daily concerns. Many of these books were written to raise money. For example, General Grant wrote his memoirs to provide for his family as he was dying of cancer. As memoirs, many of the books go beyond the war to describe an officer’s entire career. There also is a large variety of letters and other correspondence. While the emphasis is on the Union, a number of Confederate generals’ narratives are included, as well. Iris Hanney, President of Unlimited Priorities, added, “This is a wonderful collaborative effort between two organizations with the same mission to distribute historical materials to as wide an audience as possible. We plan to expand our efforts to hopefully make this happen on a regular basis.” Bruce Tyler, Director of Godfrey Memorial Library, commented on the relationship with Accessible Archives: “Godfrey Library is in the business of making its historical and genealogical materials open to the public in a cost effective way. We are happy to work with Accessible Archives in this regard to make these rare historical works available to university libraries.” Tom Nagy, Accessible Archives' COO, responded, “These new collections mesh perfectly with our current Civil War collection. With the 150 year anniversary of the beginning of the war this is the perfect time to provide additional content to scholars and researchers.”