Jackpot in Haddam CT

Our last genealogy stop on this trip was Haddam CT.  And it was the best!  Charlie's 7th great-grandfather was one of the founders of the town.  In 1630 Gerard Spencer, then 16 years old, came with his brothers to America from Bedfordshire England as part of a migration of Puritans.   He first lived in what is now Cambridge, MA, but lived most of his life in Haddam on the banks of the Connecticut River.












We went to the Haddam Historical Society and met with a very helpful and knowledgeable staffer, Lisa.  (Thank you again!)  Their office is in a cool old building from the 1700's.  There Charlie was able to get copies of various family histories that have been compiled by the Society.  Some of the original documents such as land records and wills are held in the Haddam town vault.  (Let's hear it for those oft unappreciated government administrators!)  Charlie didn't see the originals but was given a copy of the land plots.  Very neat.

Haddam's Thirty Mile Plantation cemetery is where the original meeting house stood in the late 1600's, and this is where the earliest residents are buried.  Not surprisingly, markers for the earliest graves no longer exist, but Charlie did find a marker dated 1715.  That's pretty impressive given it's nearly 300 years ago.

Our last stop in Haddam was the First Congregational Church.  Unfortunately, the church office is not open on Wednesday and I didn't think genealogy qualified as a "pastoral" issue, so I didn't call the Pastor.  In Gerard Spencer's will, he gave the church a "flagon and urim" which is still displayed in a place of honor in the present church building.  (My plan is to contact the Pastor, during office hours of course, and ask him to send me a picture.) 

As much fun as it was to visit Haddam, our visit suggested many more avenues of genealogical sleuthing about Gerard's siblings and their children, one of whom was Major General Nathanial Spencer who worked with George Washington.  I guess we'd better get Charlie's application filed for the Sons of the American Revolution, huh?