We are to blog about an ancestor or family connections to Connecticut. And if you don’t have any family connections to Connecticut, you are to find a Connecticut resource useful for genealogy research to highlight and write about.
Finding the birthplace of Mary Janet Wood in New England in 1858 and confirming the details was one of my first 'official' genealogical quests quite a long while ago. Mary Janet, daughter of Samuel Wood and Harriott Heeley, was my great grandmother. Her parents were both born in Yorkshire, England; her father was a weaver and her mother, a mill worker, and they emigrated separately to New England. However, I believe they already knew each other as Harriott apparently came to the United States in 1856 with Samuel's daughter Elizabeth, from his first marriage.
We had family information giving Mary Janet's birthplace as 'Bean Hill' in New England. It took a while, but one happy day I found a mention of a 'Bean Hill' near Norwich, Connecticut on the early web. And indeed, I was able to obtain a copy of her birth record there from the City Clerk's Office in Norwich. Somewhat later I went on a great research trip to New England and was able to find more details of her family's life in New England. I recommend the Otis Library for Norwich area research.
Mary Janet and her parents could not have stayed in Bean Hill too long, as by 1860, they were living in New Jersey. Later they settled in Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada, where Mary Janet spent the rest of her life.
Ann Wood, one of Mary Janet's step sisters, married George Woodman in New Jersey in 1862, and they and their family settled in Rhode Island. I believe that several people in the photograph above must be among the Wood and or Woodman family members. Mary Janet is the older woman shown in the centre back of this photo. Her father Samuel is on your far left. I believe this photograph was taken by Mary Janet's son, my grandfather, Walter Scott. For more information on this family, please see my Scott family website or contact me.
Norwich area, Connecticut Genealogy Sources
Norwich Historical Society
Otis Library Local History & Genealogy
Old-Maps of New England has several maps of the Norwich, Connecticut area, including one from 1854 showing Bean Hill's location. For other 1854 maps of the area, go to this page of 1854 Town & Village Map Prints - New London County, CT.
For more about the Genealogy By The States 2013 prompt series, see Hidden Genealogy Nuggets post here. Week 6 will be for Massachusetts.
1 comment:
If you have ancestors in Connecticut, you can count yourself lucky. They kept great records. Local libraries and local historical societies are great which are often overlooked by genealogists.
I look forward to reading about your Massachusetts connection.
Regards, Jim
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