REC/MSS/000. Classified Archives.

The Classified Archives contain many of the oldest and most heavily used records in the Archives. Researchers should check the Manuscripts and Archives card catalog in the History and Genealogy reading room. They include a wide variety of personal and family papers, business records, town records, church records, land records, vital records, organizational records, correspondence and diaries of soldiers in Connecticut wars, papers of prominent political figures, county records, and a small quantity of colony and state records. Collections include the William F. J. Boardman Papers, 1661-1835; Connecticut Land Company Records, 1795-1807; Records of the 1818 Constitutional Convention; Revolutionary War Orderly Books; Jonathan Trumbull Papers, 1631-1784; Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. Papers, 1763-1808; and the Robert C. Winthrop Collection, 1631-1716. The Classified Archives hold a large collection of original Connecticut church records, with a particular emphasis on Congregational church organizations in the towns. Significantly less coverage is provided for Baptist, Episcopalian, and other Connecticut Protestant denominations. The Library also has 135 volumes of indexes to Connecticut Congregational Church Records. They contain vital records and membership status information, materials abstracted from records of the first Congregational churches formed in most towns. Records arranged alphabetically by town make up the largest segment of materials. They include personal and family papers, deeds, diaries, local histories, benevolent society records, account books and ledgers, school society records, town records, vital records, proprietors’ records, land records, not to mention a large quantity of church and ecclesiastical society records.