Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Looking for historical photographs?

Check out the New York Public Library's digital collection of historical documents and photographs from all over the world.  You never know what you might find on this easily searchable site, which is updated daily as they add more items.  As of today, there are dozens of images from the Greater Waterbury area, including a photograph of Ansonia, taken in 1865.

Monday, November 14, 2016

Hidden from view . . .
Do you know where Waterbury's potter's field is?  


The phrase "potter's field" comes from the Passion story in the New Testament.  Remember, they didn't know what to do with the money Judas flung back at them?  Every town has a potter's field.  It's where they bury people too poor to own their own cemetery plot.  Did you know that there is a potter's field here in Waterbury?  An inquiry from a patron led me to seek information about what is called "Town Cemetery."  According to findagrave.com, Town Cemetery, which is located at the intersection of Sunnyside Avenue and Draher Street, was where they buried the poor starting in the 1850's.  Only a few gravesites have headstones.  The cemetery has long been inactive.  It was closed in 1911.

You can find lots of interesting information as well as photographs about Waterbury cemeteries on findagrave.com.  Many people use this site to post requests for photographs of the gravesite of an ancestor.  In fact, I was recently contacted by a woman in Texas who would like to have a photograph of a particular gravesite in Calvary Cemetery, and I encouraged her to post her request on findagrave.com.  If you are interested in volunteering to go to Calvary to take the photograph, please let me know so that I can forward your contact information to this patron, who is unable to travel to Connecticut.