Making History

The Middletown Eye recently got a "shout out" from a publication that also covers Middletown news. Or perhaps it couldn't really be called news, since it primarily covers events that happened here between 1650 and 1700.

It's called "The Middler", and its the newsletter for the SMFSD. That would be the Society of Middletown First Settlers Descendants. It lists a "Newburyport, MA" address, though it's also connected with the local Godfrey Memorial Library, and their Fall 2008 edition can be read online. In spite of the generation gap, you might recognize some names. (I noticed that the editor is a "Bacon", and members of that family lived in my house for the better part of a century.)

It turns out that this far-flung group of genealogists takes an interest in current-day Middletown as well, in the areas of historic preservation and open space, and they even have an article that gives a few examples of "growth and development" issues that came up here in the late 17th century, just to show that everything old is new again.

Sadly, their upcoming triennial conference is scheduled to take place next August at the Rocky Hill Marriott instead of our own Inn at Middletown. Maybe someday we can host them here, where they can wake up to a walk down Main Street, as their ancestors undoubtedly did.

They do invite new members who happen to be related to any of the "first settlers", who are listed in the newsletter. If you aren't sure whether you qualify, you might want to use the services of the Godfrey Memorial Library out on Newfield Street, which specializes in genealogical research. Personally, I'll be looking a little deeper into that "James Wright" who was here in 1650, since my family did have some "Wright" connections in Durham, CT in those years, before the family moved West and then South, then eventually back North over the past 300 years or so. Perhaps he's a distant cousin! If so, the SMFSD will be hearing from me.