Sidney Miner genealogical papers
Scope and Content
Sidney Miner collected family history, and between 1860 and 1880, mailed out circular letters and family group sheets to those with the Miner name throughout the country. This collection consists of samples of his circular letters, blank and completed family sheets, and correspondence providing family histories that Miner planned to compile into a publication. His correspondence is organized in Series 1. One notable letter in the collection is from E.B. Kellogg in 1857 concerning the printing of the Miner coat of arms by Kellogg, a noted Hartford printer.
Sidney died before a book could be completed so his wife Lydia and his grandson Sidney H. continued Sidney's work. Genealogical notes put into an assortment of volumes may have been written by any of the three individuals; as a result, all raw data and drafts of the book have been grouped together in Series 2, Research. Series 3 contains letters to Lydia related to the family history, including from Mary Fosdick about the Lyme, Connecticut, family of Miners and from C.C. Woodward inquiring into the status of the publication. There is also one letter to Sidney H. asking about publication. Among Lydia's papers are several drawings of Minor family coats of arms.
Dates
- 1672-1907
Language of Materials
The records are in English.
Restrictions on Access
These records are stored at an off-site facility and therefore may not be available on a same-day basis.
See the Rules and Procedures for Researchers Using Archival Records and Secured Collections policy.
Restrictions on Use
See the Reproduction and Publications of State Library Collections policy.
Biographical Note
Sidney Miner was born in New London, Connecticut, in 1805, the third son of Frederick Miner, a merchant of New London. Sidney traced his ancestry to Thomas Miner who emigrated from England with Governor John Winthrop and was an early settler in Saybrook. It was his interest in genealogy that led to the formation of this collection.
By trade Sidney was a carpenter, joiner, and store clerk, eventually becoming a partner with Joseph Lawrence in the whaling and sealing business. In 1834 he married Mary A. Ramsdell of Mansfield, Connecticut., with whom he had three children. His wife died in 1843 and the following year he married Lydia Belcher of Granby, Connecticut. Sidney died in 1881. His grandson Sidney H. Miner (1868-1937) was the son of Frederick W. Miner and it was he and Lydia who tried to compile the elder Sidney’s genealogical research into a book for publication.
Extent
3 cubic feet
Abstract
Correspondence, notes, transcripts of oringinal records and family group sheets related to the Miner family.
Arrangement
Series 1. Sidney Minor incoming correspondence, 1854-1881
Series 2. Research,1672-1899
Series 3. Lydia and Sidney H. Miner Papers, 1878-1907
Arrangement
There was no apparent organization to the papers when they were acquired. Materials were stuffed into unattached covers, a variety of binders and newspapers used as folders. These have been removed and a note on each folder indicates which binder they were found originally. Sidney and his family used any piece of scrap paper they could find for their notes, and they used recycled bound volumes, many of them account books, from which the first pages were removed; one volume was the log book of the Propeller New London and another was a book of blank checks.
A large number of letters to Sidney were numbered and had been adhered to strips of paper, evidently so they could be bound together. Those letters were gathered from the various binders and organized by number (some of which are lacking). Another group of letters is adhered along the left edge, once again indicating they were meant to be bound; they have not been separated.
- Coats of arms Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Connecticut -- Genealogy Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Correspondence Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Genealogies Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Title
- RG 074:011, Sidney Miner Genealogical Papers
- Subtitle
- Inventory
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by Barbara Austen.
- Date
- 2009
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
Repository Details
Part of the Connecticut State Library Repository
