Killingworth, Connecticut, I Have More Ancestors from Here than Anywhere Else!

Killingworth, Connecticut has one of the largest concentration of my direct ancestors, and a custom report revealed that I had 34 direct line couples married there. I have 753 source citations from the Vital Records of Killingworth!

What is special about Killingworth? When I first began the hobby, I became familiar with the name; often misspelled Killingsworth, and confused with the other town, Killingly. My mother's DAR patriot, Asher Wright, died there, and my DAR patriot, Jonathan Kilborn was married there (I was happy to find a new patriot, so I didn't have to share hers.)

I was hooked on this town when I inquired about records, then soon received quite a packet from the Killingworth town hall. An employee made copies of selected original records for me. Soon I was planning a visit, and when I went, it became my first cemetery trip, (about 2.5 hours away).

Of all the direct surnames, there are many with multiple generations, the families are:
Crane (3);
Davis (5);
Farnham (4);
Griffin (4);
Hayton (3);
Hull (4);
Kelsey (8);
Kilborn (2);
Steevens (2);
Turner (3);
Wilcoxson (3)
Wright (5)

Fortunately, there are many records for this area, and family genealogies as well. Almost every early family is related to somebody in the Hull, Kelsey or Steevens family. Knowing where your ancestors lived can help in doing research, and it helped me even solve a brick wall. There are three genealogies I constantly used:

1.  Hull, Robert E., The Ancestors & Descendants of George Hull and Thamzen Mitchell.

Page 36 "The following 'Allotment of the several inhabitants of Hammonascitt' is from page 1 of the Town Records of Killingworth.

"Thomas Smith, William Barber, Henry Farnam, William Wellman, George Chatfield, Thomas Stevens, Edward Griswold, William Heyton, Samuel Buell, John Kelsey, Robert Williams, granted, John Nuthton, granted, -- Turney, purchase John Rositer by agreement, John Miggs, granted John Shether, purchase of Jonathan Dunnin, George Sanders, granted William Stevens, Josiah Hull, Senr., Eliezer Isbel, granted, Isaac Griswold, purchase Jonathan Dunnin'"

"In 1669 the following list of freeman of the 'Town of Killingworth' is recorded: Mr. John Woodbridge, Mr. Edward Griswold, Josiah Hull, John Wilcockson, Samuel Buell, Jonas Westover, Eliazer Isbel, William Stevens, Nathaniel Parmerly, William Barver, John Miggs, Sr., Andrew Wards, William Kulsey, William Wellman, George Chatfield, Thomas Stevens, John Kielsey, John Muggs, Jr., Josiah Hull, John Rosseter, townsmen; George Chatfield, Constable."


2.  Claypool, Edward and Azalea Clizbee, A Genealogy of the Descendants of William Kelsey, Vol. I, (Pub. Tuttle, Morehouse and Taylor Co., 1928).

3.  Barlow, Claude Willis, John Steevens of Guilford, Connecticut,  (Rochester, NY: John M. Stephens, 1976).

Several bloggers have written about towns they have felt connected to. For me, it is Killingworth.  For some reason, I've always traveled to the town in early April, just before spring. So all my photos look like fall with huge ugly brown oak leaves on the cemetery grounds. I am hoping to go again, but in early May. When I looked at Google's images for Killingworth, there a few scrolled pages down, I couldn't believe my own picture, one being my flower logo, a click pulled my blog of December 11, 2010 for my Kelsey line, and then the logo for My Heritage Award had my Davis line post.  Both Kelsey and Davis were from Killingworth. You just don't know where your information is going to show up!

New: Historical information from Tercentenary, Clinton, CT 1663-1963, (Pub. Clinton, CT, 1963).

Page 5. "The names of the settlers and proprietors, were as follows, viz. John Meigs, Bryan Rosseter, John Rosseter, George Chatfield, Nathaniel Parmelee, Thomas Stevens, William Stevens and Benjamin Wright from Guilford; William Griswold from Saybrook; Josias Hull, from the county of Barnstable, Mass.; Henry Farnum and Eleazer Isabel, from Long Island; Samuel Buel from Wales; William Barber from England; and Matthew Allen, Henry Crane, Jonathan Drummer, Joseph Hand, William Heyden, John Hodge, John Nettleton, Thomas Smith, William Wellman, Jonas Westover and Robert Williams."

Page 7. "Ananias Turner and Andrew Ward moved into Killingworth as early as 1670. Robert Lane, from Derbyshire in England, and the ancestors of the Merrills and Rutty families were also early settlers. Robert Carter from Bristol in England became an inhabitant about 1700, and Ebenezer Hurd, from Waterbury in this state, around 1706. The Morgans in this town are from Groton, and the Hillyards from Stonington."

The settlement in North Killingworth began in 1716. The first settlers in this parish, were Isaac Kelsey Esq., Dea. Josiah Hull, Dea. Joseph Wilcos, Dea. Daniel Buel, John Wilcox, Joseph Griswold, Nathaniel Parmelee, Ebenezer Hull, Samuel Stevens, and Edward Rutty. These were all from the first parish in the town. Solomon Davis, Timothy Chittenden and Theophilus Redfield soon united with them;  but from what places they emigrated is not known. James Hill, David Blatchley and Bezaliel Bristol, moved into this place from Guilford about 1750.The Graves and Harris families are from Saybrook."

Page 9. "The present Killingworth is called North Killingworth. At that time the two parts were one town, but North Killingworth did have its own church, a Congregation and an Episcopal Church, both established prior to the separation into the two towns."

(Photo by Mary Frances Studzinski of Killingworth, used with her permission.)