Resource access: Two Genealogy Journals and Farmington Life
As part of the process of increasing access to the local history treasures we have here in The Farmington Libraries, I am cataloging things that aren’t currently represented in our online catalog. This is an ongoing effort—last year, with the help of one of our amazing volunteers, we processed and catalogued all the yearbooks we have from Farmington High School and IAR Middle School. The latest addition is two major genealogy journals for our region: the Connecticut Nutmegger and the New England Genealogical and Historical Register.
The content of these two journals is accessible online through American Ancestors at some libraries around the state, including the State Library and the Godfrey Memorial Library, and some public libraries also offer it; and if you’re a member of the New England Historical Society, you have access to it through their website. To use it at a library, you have to be there physically, like we do here with our Ancestry access. Many of our physical volumes were gifted to us over the years, though we subscribed to both for some time. Our coverage is from the 1960s and 1970s to about 2021.
Connecticut Nutmegger
This journal, published by the Connecticut Society of Genealogists, Inc., contains articles, research hints, transcriptions of bible, headstone, probate, and vital records, and updated research on Connecticut families. A published index makes the issues from 1968-1996 more searchable, but one of our volunteers painstakingly combed through the volumes and identified Farmington-specific articles. It would be a much greater undertaking to index family names that might have had ties to Farmington, so we let that prospect lie for the moment! You can see our holdings of this journal here: The Connecticut Nutmegger
The New England Genealogical and Historical Register
Though our holdings range from 1979 to 2021, this publication has been around since 1847! I've been able to find some of the oldest issues at the Internet Archive (archive.org), and some libraries in our consortium do have much older issues as well. The journal publishes transcriptions of church, birth, marriage, and death records, articles on solving complex genealogical problems, biographical information, and much more. While our holdings of this journal are not indexed, a database of names found in this journal between 1847 and 2011 is available through Ancestry, which you can access from here at the library on one of our public computers. New England Genealogical and Historical Register
Farmington Life, 1999-2013
Additionally, we have a nearly complete set of Farmington Life from 1999 to 2013. It is currently not digitized or indexed, and that will be a major undertaking. I am always finding articles from Farmington Life in our vertical file collections, which means that you might find what you’re looking for without having to look at the actual papers. Of course, fifteen years’ worth of a local paper is going to have way more topics addressed than what we’ve photocopied for our researchers over the years. For the time being, you can see what we have, and if you’re trying to find information published in a certain year, you may have luck in finding what you’re looking for. Farmington Life
If you are looking for information on Farmington/Unionville family, event, or topic, make sure you check our catalog! Even though lots of re-configuration is going on in the background, most of what’s in the Farmington Room is reflected in our catalog, INCLUDING most of our archival collections. Furthermore, many of the general histories and collections of biographies from the 19th century can be found on the Internet Archive (archive.org). I am always surprised by what I find there and am delighted to find that some of our more unwieldy and fragile books are on there too.
I hope these additions to our online resources are helpful! Please don’t hesitate to reach out for help with using any of them and stay tuned for more additions to the catalog.
Lastly...Into the Archives!
I just gave my second history talk last month, which drew a wonderful crowd. In my two talks this year, I have covered the genesis of Farmington Library building and the history of the Farmington Room, its contents, and its stewards. As I work with re-housing and re-arranging the collections in our archives room, I get new ideas all the time for future history talks. I would love to know what library history topics you are curious about! Programming, services, technology? The Friends of the Farmington Libraries? The West End Library?
Let me know by email, phone, or dropping a message at the Information Services desk outside of walk-in hours, and I will add it to my list of future talk ideas!
What are you interested in?
As always, I am as fascinated by what I find in the collection as by what I don’t find. What aspects of Farmington/Unionville history spark interest for you? See if we have anything in the Farmington Room about it! Come visit us on a Wednesday or Thursday from 10:00 AM-1:00 PM or make an appointment to come outside of those hours. I can be reached by email at jneely@farmingtonlibraries.org, or by phone at (860) 673-6791 ext. 5213.
Many thanks and happy research!