Page 8 - Wallingford Magazine Issue 56 Autumn 2025

Familysearch.org: The Church of Jesus about using newspapers in researching able functions. It indexes thousands of
Christ of Latter-Day Saints offers a free your house history: newspapers are full references, census data, maps, passen-
database of genealogical information— of information about houses and peo- ger lists, court records, church records,
the largest in the world—including bil- ple, especially in the 19th and early 20th and other sources, and assists users in
lions of ancestor profiles, photographs, centuries. They covered parties, trips, building family trees.
and historical documents; as well as the home improvement, family occasions,
capabilities to build your own family illness, house sales, marriages, births American Ancestors: The Boston based
tree. and deaths. Obituaries and wedding New England Historic Genealogical Soci-
announcements provide specific infor- ety’s repository of more than 200 mil-
Newspapers.com: includes thousands mation that can add to the research of lion searchable names covering New
of full-text articles from national and lo- your house and its occupants. We are England, New York, and more.
cal publications dating from the 1800s to fortunate that the The Record Journal
the present. In addition to newspapers. is available to us back to 1851, and pro- ResearchIT CT: includes full-text maga-
com, the Wallingford Library provides vides full coverage of Wallingford. zine and newspaper articles as well as
online access to The New Haven Reg- biographies and more.
ister, The New York Times, The Record Ancestry.com: is a powerful genealogy
Journal, and other newspapers. A note and history research tool with innumer-

Personal Note
When we moved into our 1924 era house in 1976 I did not appreciate it’s history at all. I saw it as a long term project of ren-
ovating, repairing, redecorating and remodeling. Raising our kids, and accomplishing all those “re-“ projects, I finally had the
time and temperament to delve into the story of our house from before it was even built. Depending heavily on The Record
Journal, along with other resources, I compiled a thorough history of the people who lived, worked, married, and died here.
The original land was used as pasture by the early settlers beginning in 1670. One of the first house lots was designated right
around the corner in 1670. I discovered our house was built by Italian immigrant brothers who established a successful busi-
ness in Wallingford. The first owners were Canadian who came to Wallingford for the silver industry. In a bizarre accident soon
after they moved in, in an attempt to blast a huge bolder out of the backyard, a large chunk of rock landed on the neighbor’s
new house leaving a giant hole! I intend to leave this history with the house for any interested future owners. Of course our
family’s chapter will be added to my research.

8 WALLINGFORD MAGAZINE - AUTUMN 2025