Church and Cemetery Records
October 19, 2022 / 9:30 to 2:30 • South Congregational Church, 20 Church Street, Newport, NH
October 19, 2022 / 9:30 to 2:30 • South Congregational Church, 20 Church Street, Newport, NH
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Join the New Hampshire Archives Group on October 19 at the South Congregational Church in Newport for its Fall 2022 workshop and annual meeting — or attend this event online.
IntroductionChurch and cemetery records can provide a wealth of information about early life in many New Hampshire towns, but those records are often mistreated, discarded, or destroyed. This workshop will highlight the historic value of those materials and show how Sunapee is attempting to recreate its lost cemetery records. We will hear from the Congregational Library & Archives in Boston about its work to preserve and provide access to that denomination's records, and we will learn about the New Hampshire Old Graveyard Association's efforts to preserve and document the state's small burial grounds, often overlooked and overgrown.
ProgramWe are pleased to offer the following live presentations for this timely discussion (click on title for synopsis & presenter):
9:30 AM — NH Archives Group Annual Meeting
Members are requested to hear brief reports on the past year and vote on new officers and board members. 9:45 AM — Gods, Graves, and Scholars
Borrowing the title of a classic history of Archaeology published in 1957, Jim Perkins will introduce the day's themes with a look into both church and cemetery records for Newport and New London — looking beyond genealogy and into the early social history those records can reveal to researchers.
Jim Perkins is church historian at Newport's South Congregational Church, Town Archivist in New London, and a historic preservation consultant who researches towns and their buildings throughout the state. 10:30 AM — Lost Records: Documenting sunapee burial grounds and cemeteries
Sunapee’s burial and plot ownership records from 1801 to the mid-1930s, along with nearly all the cemetery maps, no longer exist. Barbara Chalmers, a Sunapee historian and recently elected Cemetery Commissioner, will present how she has re-established burial and plot records since 1801, and created new maps for all seven cemeteries using gravestone transcriptions, field investigation, county deeds, newspaper archives, and a 25,000 person database of town residents from 1768 to present.
Barbara Chalmers - is a retired NH architect, with deep roots in Sunapee, who has a passion for discovering and sharing history. As lead researcher for the Sunapee Historical Society, she has written six books about the history of the town and Lake Sunapee. 11:30 AM — Congregational library & Archives
Congregational church records are an unparalleled source of information about the religious activities of the early colonists, and about many other aspects of early American life. The Congregational Library and Archives works to preserve these records and other material related to Congregationalism’s historical and on-going influence and makes them available to the public.
Zachary Bodnar graduated with a Masters of Library and Information Science from Simmons University, with a concentration in archives management, in 2018. Prior to his work at the CLA, Zachary worked at the Bellamy-Ferriday House and Garden archive, the Vassar College Special Collections, the Harvard Law School Library, and the Harvard Botany Libraries. Zachary joined the CLA as an Archives Assistant in 2017, helping to prepare materials for digitization through the New England’s Hidden Histories program. In 2018, he took on the title of Archivist. His professional interests include metadata collection and management, digital archiving, audio/visual preservation, and archives management. Sara Trotta is the Librarian at the Congregational Library & Archives. She graduated with a B. A. in English and Cultural Anthropology from Boston University and a Masters of Library and Information Science from Simmons University. She was first introduced to the CLA through a graduate internship in reference and cataloging and joined the staff permanently in 2015 as Assistant Librarian and became the Librarian in 2017, managing all aspects of the CLA’s print collections. She has presented on her work at the library for ALA’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Section and the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, among others. 1:00 PM — new hampshire old graveyard association
The New Hampshire Old Graveyard Association is a non-profit organization composed of genealogists, historians, cemetery officials and other interested individuals dedicated to preserving the historical graveyards of New Hampshire. Clark Bagnall will provide an overview of the group and then discuss the process of collecting records and lessons learned while making them available online.
Clark Bagnall is a retired software engineer with 48 years in the industry. Long interested in genealogy, he first joined the NH Old Graveyard Association in 1978 and has been its webmaster (1999–) and records custodian (2007–). He is currently working to improve the organization's database and website. 1:45 PM — sharing & discussion time
What's on your mind? Need advice on a project? Take advantage of the collective expertise at this workshop by sharing your experience and/or questions on any archives-related topic... Post-workshop tour: Visit the nearby Sunapee Archives, located in the town's former Abbott Library building — purchased, rehabilitated, and operated by the Sunapee Historical Society. (10-minute drive). |
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