Triple trouble during our research trip to Hartford, Connecticut

We recently made a genealogy research trip to Connecticut.  It was a "genea-jaunt" according to blogger Jill Ball.*  We visited Wethersfield and Windsor and saved Saturday for exploring the nearby state capitol of Hartford.  For two New Hampshire Yankees, Hartford was a big city.  It has a population of over 125,000 and a much bigger downtown area than I expected - with skyscrapers and a business district that was very deserted on the weekend.  It was not at all like New Hampshire, nor like Manchester, where I live, which has a thriving and busy downtown seven days a week.

Because of the urban downtown of Hartford, we encountered three problems that interfered with our genealogy tourism.  See if you can pinpoint our rookie mistakes in the big city.

Venue #1

We wanted to see the Rev. Thomas Hooker Statue and the plaque to the first meetinghouse, which are both located on the grounds of the Old State House.  I checked online, and the museum inside the Old State House was closed on Saturdays in April.  That was OK with us, because we wanted to see the memorials and plaques outside the Old State House.  So we found the location of the building and...

There was a locked gate and fence all the way around the Old State House grounds!

Well, we never would have guessed that this would happen.  And the website said nothing about this.  We were quite shocked to find that we could not stroll the park inside the gate. For two country bumpkins from New Hampshire, we were unhappy and surprised.  I guess there must be a reason for the lockdown.  It didn't look like a crime area, but the neighborhood was very deserted for a Saturday morning. 

Even though we couldn't get inside, we were able to get a few photos (but not the first meetinghouse plaque):

Reverend Thomas Hooker, Founder of Hartford

Colonial Puritan Era Amusements

We decided to walk one block over to our next destination.

Venue #2

The Ancient Burial Ground is located behind the First Congregational Church.  This cemetery has several of my ancestor's tombstones, plus various memorial obelisks to the founders of Hartford, first settlers and other interesting things.

This is what we found when we arrived...

Another locked gate.

OK, I should have known better. The only other time I ever encountered a locked cemetery was in South Boston.  I now know that in big cities there is a chance that the cemetery is locked up behind a fence and wall.  You can blame this one on me.  However, we were able to still photograph a few interesting things here.  (See the big white obelisk through the fence?  That's the Founder's Memorial and it wasn't close enough to photograph)

Rev. Samuel Stone (1602 - 1663) 

THIS APPROACH

TO

HARTFORD'S ANCIENT BURYING GROUND

WHICH WAS SET APART IN 1640 AND

CONTAINS THE GRAVES OF THOMAS HOOKER

AND THE OTHER FOUNDERS OF HARTFORD,

WAS COMPLETED IN 1952 BY THE

GENEROSITY OF

EDWARD M. DAY

AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE FIRST

CHURCH OF CHRIST AND CITIZENS OF

HARTFORD, WHO BELIEVED THAT THE

FAITH AND COURAGE OF THOSE WHO

FOUNDED THIS CITY WOULD ENDURE

THE BETTER IN SURROUNDINGS WHICH

ADD TO THE BEAUTY OF THEIR LAST

RESTING PLACE AND TO THE CITY

THEY LOVED.

THIS REPLICA OF THE ORIGINAL PLAQUE HAS BEEN PROVIDED BY

THE LAW FIRM OF DAY, BERRY & HOWARD ON THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY

OF ITS FOUNDING BY THE LATE EDWARD M. DAY 1994

Sacred to the Memory of

the Three Hundred or more

AFRICAN AMERICANS

Free People, Slaves and

five Black Governors

Who rest in Unmarked

Graves in Hartford's

Ancient Burying Ground

1640 - 1810

HARTFORD

Hartford was named in 1637 after the English

town of Hertford.  The Indian name was Suckiaug.

The first colonial settlement, called

House of Good Hope, was made by the Dutch

in 1633.  The Reverend Thomas Hooker arrived

overland from Newtown (Cambridge)

Massachusetts with his congregation in 1636.

At first the settlement was called Newtown.

In 1639 the Fundamental Orders were adopted,

often considered the first written

constitution creating a government.  Hartford

served as a capital of Connecticut Colony

until 1701, when after absorption of New Haven

Colony there were two capitals, Hartford

and New Haven.  In 1875 Hartford became

the sole capital.

Erected by the City of Hartford                                                         

the Connecticut Historical Commission and the                                         

Society of the Descendants of the Founders of Hartford                                   

1971                                                                   

Venue #3

I wanted to see the Traveler's Square Monument, which is a statue of a Puritan family arriving in Hartford.  According to our map it was across the street from the church, so we turned around and this is what we saw...

Traveler's Square was under construction, closed to the public

OK, this was a problem that no museum or church website could solve. But it was not a total loss.  Vincent was able to take a nice photo of the statue - sideways.  You can't see the little boy figure in this photo, but it's not too bad.  The name of the statue is "The Safe Arrival:  He who brought us here sustains us still".   The plaque on the wall behind the statue describes the arrival of Rev. Thomas Hooker's congregation in June 1635, and was dedicated by the Traveler's Insurance Company in 1964. 

Yes, our rookie mistake in exploring this urban landscape was NOT CALLING AHEAD.  If we had called the museum at the Old State House or if we had called the First Church we could have learned about the locked gates.  Maybe someone could have unlocked the cemetery - like a church sexton or someone with the key.  I don't think anyone could have helped us with the construction at Traveler's Square, but it all turned out OK.  

We are planning a return trip some other year.  We can laugh about our triple trouble now, but as you can guess there was no laughing that Saturday morning! 

Founders of Hartford webpage for these downtown monuments:

http://foundersofhartford.org/sites/index.htm 

*  Check out Jill Ball's "Geneadictionary" for obscure words used by genealogists:  https://geneadictionary.wordpress.com/   

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo,  "Triple trouble during our research trip to Hartford, Connecticut", Nutfield Genealogy, posted June 19, 2016,  (  http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/05/triple-trouble-during-our-research-trip.html:  accessed [access date]).