Godfrey Memorial Library Wins First Prize for Manumissions Project

Press Release (July 11, 2022)

The Godfrey Memorial Library won first prize in the SLAM! video category for its Manumissions Project.  Carol Ansel, Executive Director of the Godfrey, accepted the prize – $250 and one year of access to VIVID-PIX commercial software – at the SLAM! Idea Showcase held at the national conference of the National Genealogical Society (NGS) in Sacramento, CA in May 2022.

Each year the NGS holds a competition for innovative genealogy and family history projects or programs by societies, libraries, archives, and museums (SLAM).  The projects and programs are designed to assist librarians and others who serve genealogists. 

Located in Middletown, CT, the Godfrey is a member-based, private library specializing in genealogy and local history.  The library was founded in 1947 by Fremont Rider, then Director of the Olin Library at Wesleyan University.  The building opened to the public in 1951.

In 2020 and 2021, staff and volunteers at the Godfrey Memorial Library worked to create a searchable online database about slavery and manumissions (the freeing of enslaved people) in Middletown.  All the information was extracted from the city’s land records, which are digitized and available on the FamilySearch.org website.  Ansel noted that other manumissions may possibly be found in court records, but they are outside the scope of the library’s project.  The earliest manumission found in the Middletown land records was in 1774, while the latest one was in 1823.  In total, over 50 manumissions were found.  The new database provides a transcription and digital image of each record.  In 1848, Connecticut passed legislation that banned and abolished slavery. 

The use of the manumissions database is open to the public, free of charge.  For access, go to the library’s website at www.godfrey.org, click on Search Scholar Databases, click on Register or Renew to fill out the form as a guest, then navigate to the People of Color database to begin your search.  To browse the database, click on People of Color > Connecticut > Middletown Slavery > Middletown Manumissions.  Call the library at 860-346-4375 for additional assistance.