Research & Education : Research
History
Qualified researchers may utilize the Historical Society’s extensive collections pertaining to Middletown and others Middlesex County communities. Highlights include early town records, maps, diaries, letters, account books, prison and early court records, and thousands of photographs and paintings. Other objects from the museum collection are available for research as well. Appointments are required and are available after contacting the Executive Director. Members may research for free, and for all others, the fee is $10.00 per day. Photocopying is $0.25 per page.
Genealogy
The Historical Society’s archives feature a significant collection of family papers, church records, diaries, cemetery inscriptions, family Bibles, city directories, and more for people tracing their roots in Middlesex County.
In the late 1930’s, founding member and nationally renowned genealogist, Frank Farnsworth Starr, died, leaving his enormous collection of research and historical papers to the Historical Society. The collection includes many volumes of individual family histories, and histories of various Connecticut towns and churches. Starr thoroughly researched the families of all of Middletown’s early settlers from England, and kept files on them and their local descendants into the first half of the 19th century.
The Historical Society also possesses the Milo Wilcox collection of local African-American history. This collection contains information drawn from census records, deeds, probate records, city directories, burial records, city accounts, gravestone inscriptions, vital records and more.
There is no charge for members conducting in person research. For all others, the fee is $10.00 per day. Appointments are necessary and available Monday through Thursday.
If you cannot come to the Mansfield House …
The Historical Society does research in its collections for long distance patrons.
Fees for research undertaken by staff or volunteers will be charged at the rate of $40/hour (pro-rated for 30 minute intervals at $20); Sustaining and Life members will receive a 10% discount on research fees. A $20 initial assessment fee will be collected on research undertaken by staff or volunteers.
Photocopying is $0.25 per page.
Requests may take up to eight weeks.
Middlesex County Historical Society 