Many of the indexes and abstracts noted below were compiled by Jane Peterson Bouley, Town Historian.
In addition to all of the resources listed below, online access to AncestryLibrary, the Godfrey Library collection and American Ancestors are available to anyone using a library computer or their own personal laptop while in the library.
- Branford Town Hall has vital records from the mid-1600’s. Early records are not fully indexed; full certificates with indexes from 1890 – present. Please note that there are state restrictions on access to birth certificates less than 100 years old.
- Blackstone Library and Branford Town Hall have the Barbour Collection for Branford (index to births, deaths, and marriages covering the years 1644 – 1850).
- Blackstone Library has vital records index 1646 – 1895 and 1895 – 1910.
- Blackstone Library has many published genealogies for Branford families.
- See also the Branford Review at the Blackstone Library.
- See also assorted local church records indexes at the Blackstone Library.
- See also births and baptisms abstracted from Branford newspapers at the Blackstone Library.
- Branford Town Hall has books kept by the sexton for burials in Branford from 1884.
- Blackstone Library has an index to the sexton books.
- Blackstone Library has a cemetery index known as the Hale Collection as well as books listing all headstones, with photographs, of Damascus Cemetery, Mill Plain Cemetery and Stony Creek Cemetery by Jane Bouley.
- Blackstone Library has a copy of the 1670 Branford census.
- Blackstone Library has microfilmed copies of the federal census for 1790 – 1930 for Branford, except for 1890 (the census that was destroyed in a fire in 1921).
- Blackstone Library has abstracts of the federal censuses of 1790, 1800, 1810, 1820, 1830, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, an 1890 census substitute, 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930, with information on heads of household for Branford.
- Blackstone Library has an index to the 1790 Connecticut census; indexes for other years can be found at the New Haven Colony Historical Society and the Connecticut State Library.
- Baptist Church minutes, 1838 – 1954 (Blackstone Library).
- Congregational Church has original records; these records are compiled and available at the Connecticut State Library. Blackstone Library has church manuals and a database of records for baptisms, deaths and marriages.
- Episcopal Church records are available on microfilm at the Connecticut State Library.
- North Branford Congregational Church Records, 1769 – 1858 (Blackstone Library).
- North Branford Episcopal Church Records, 1812 – 1899 (Blackstone Library).
- Other records may exist at the individual churches.
- St. Mary’s database of church records (Blackstone Library).
- Trinity Church database of records 1784 –1895 (Blackstone Library).
- Branford Town Hall has vital records from the mid-1600’s. Early records are not fully indexed; full certificates with indexes from 1890 – present.
- Blackstone Library and Branford Town Hall have the Barbour Collection for Branford (index to births, deaths, and marriages covering the years 1644 –1850).
- Blackstone Library has vital records index 1646 – 1895 and 1895 – 1910.
- See also the Branford Review at the Blackstone Library.
- See also Branford City Directories at the Blackstone Library. There are some notations of deaths in the city directories.
- See also deaths abstracted from Branford newspapers at the Blackstone Library.
- See also Mortality Schedules abstracts, 1850 – 1880 at the Blackstone Library.
- Branford Town Hall has Land Record volumes indexed by grantor (seller) and grantee (buyer) from the colonial period.
- Blackstone Library and Branford Town Hall have a variety of maps.
- Blackstone Library has abstracts of records with genealogical interest in land records Volumes 1 – 25 (1800’s).
- Blackstone Library has a multi-volume set of the architectural survey taken in the 1980s.
- Blackstone Library has a collection of real estate cards from the 1970’s.
- Branford Town Hall has vital records from the mid-1600’s. Early records are not fully indexed; full certificates with indexes from 1890 – present.
- Blackstone Library and Branford Town Hall have the Barbour Collection for Branford (index to births, deaths, and marriages covering the years 1644 –1850).
- Blackstone Library has vital records index 1646 – 1895 and 1895 – 1910.
- Blackstone Library has Early Connecticut Marriages Prior to 1800 edited by Frederic W. Bailey and New England Marriages Prior to 1700 by Clarence Almon Torrey.
- See also the Branford Review at the Blackstone Library.
- See also marriages abstracted from Branford newspapers at the Blackstone Library.
- Blackstone Library has a list, by regiment, of Branford soldiers who served in the Revolutionary War.
- Blackstone Library has a number of Civil War regimental histories and a list of Branford Civil War soldiers.
- Blackstone Library has a list of veterans buried in Branford.
- Blackstone Library has WWI Service Records for Connecticut.
- Branford Town Hall has some 20th century military records
- Blackstone Library has the Branford Review on microfilm:
- Branford News, February 1878 – August 1878
- Branford Gleaner, February 1878 – September 1879 and October 1879 – March 1880
- Branford Opinion, January 1896 – March 1913
- Branford Review, April 1928 – December 2008, when it ceased publication.
- There are a number of years of the New Haven Journal Courier that are a part of the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America collection.
- The library has digitized a large collection of scrapbook clippings files for local newspapers in various years. Access the collection anywhere at http://branford.advantage-preservation.com/.
- Blackstone Library has a large collection of biographies and obituaries of local people.
- There is an extensive index to Branford people in town histories and in the library’s and historical society’s archives.
- Branford Town Hall has probate records from 1850, indexed in a card file. The New Haven Probate included Branford from 1685 – October 1719. The Guilford Probate District was constituted October 1719 from the New Haven Probate District. It served Branford from October 1719 – June 20, 1850.
- The Connecticut State Library has microfilmed copies of probate records.
Additional notes on vital records
- The original vital records for the town of Branford are found in the Town Clerk’s vault at the Branford Town Hall on the Green.
- During the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries some of the vital records were mixed in with the minutes to town meetings. All of the early vital record and land record books have been restored to preserve the pages.
- In the latter part of the 19th century, vital records were kept in vital record ledgers and have indexes. Some of the indexes are difficult to correlate to the actual pages. The vital record books may have an index in the book or there may be a separate index, or both.
- Starting in 1890 there are birth, marriage and death certificates kept in volumes by year.
- Each volume is indexed. Some years have births, marriages and deaths all in one volume, for other years the events are in separate volumes. In the State of Connecticut, birth records are restricted for 100 years.
- The Barbour Collection was a Works Project Administration project done in the 1920s and 1930s to collect vital records of almost all Connecticut towns up to 1850. The vital records were recorded on slips and placed in a card catalog at the Connecticut State Library. In addition, an alphabetical listing by surname was done for each town and placed in a bound book. The Branford Town Hall has a copy the Branford bound book. In 2000, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. began publishing the alphabetical town Barbour Collection books. The Blackstone Library has a copy of the published Branford Barbour collection.
- For one of the Branford vital records volumes, the pages noted by the Barbour Collection does not match the page in the actual volume. It is not known whether the page numbers were altered when the volumes were preserved beginning in the 1960s. Barbour also uses volume 3 as a reference to three different volumes adding to the confusion.
— Jane Bouley, Town Historian
Other sources are available, including our digital scrapbooks and a number of databases compiled by library staff and the town historian. Please contact the Reference Department for additional assistance at 203.488.1441, ext. 318 or by email.
