Part of Thomaston's History

As my half-brother pointed out to me, our grandparents home was included in a book on the history of Thomaston, CT that was published back in the mid-1970's.   Just checked, and I do remember right, that the book was published around the time of the town's centennial celebration.  Thomaston's website notes that:

  On July 6,1875 Thomas Town became Thomaston in memory of Seth Thomas and the separation from Plymouth was confirmed by the State Legislature.

So, it was in the summer of 1975 that Miss Rosa Gangloff's extensive book "Thomaston - It's Origin and Development" was published.  I think everyone in town at the time remembers seeing this book and poring through it to see if you could find anyone you knew in the many pictures included throughout the book.   I found a used copy for sale today on Amazon!

http://www.amazon.com/Thomaston-Development-Rosa-F-Gangloff/dp/B004440AH6

If you're from town, and the link still works, take a peek at the cover - I'm sure it will bring back memories.

Well anyhow, on Bob's advice, I figured I'd stop by and see if the town library had a copy.    So one Saturday afternoon last month, about 5 minutes before they closed I rushed into the library.  Tried to get over my flashbacks of how it looks exactly the same as when I was a kid!   The librarian knew exactly what I was talking about and went in the back to get me their copy.   So, as both Bob and I remembered, there was a picture of our grandparent's house right there on page 70!



Here is the description included of the house:

Two houses above the Lundberg's property is the Andrew Goldsmith house.  Andrew Goldsmith was the father of Samuel, who with his son built several houses on Walnut Hill.  The Goldsmiths preferred houses with an ell.  They also built a multipurpose room upstairs for weaving, sewing or quilting and spinning.  Here looms or quilting frames could remain until completed without disturbance.

Otherwise their houses followed the pattern of large granite blocks "set in the dry," chestnut timbers and wide planked floors.  The windows were six over six.  In the Andrew Goldsmith house the wide boards around the bottom of the kitchen walls are original.  The fireplace has a Dutch oven and a cupboard above the mantel.  There is a butler's door to the pantry. All of the hardware on the doors is original.  There are six rooms downstairs and three bedrooms upstairs plus the multipurpose room.  The bathroom and electric wiring are modern additions as is the closed-in porch and carriage house.  The barns were built across the road from the house near an excellent spring of water.  A wooden trough allowed the cattle to drink at the spring which ran constantly.  In dry weather neighbors were allowed to take the water needed.

We lived in the house for just a bit when I was in kindergarten.   I do remember playing jacks at Easter in the closed-in porch and liking the old farmhouse.  It had a lot of character.  As the story was told to Bob, Charles Skerstonas purchased this farmhouse and the sixty acre farm for cash after working as a crane operator upon arriving in the US from Lithuania. 

Mrs. Gangloff's book doesn't note when the house was built nor when it became the "Chas Skerstonas House" but I thought it was every exciting that we got our place in the history book of our town!

  

1930 Federal Census - Thomaston CT

The Federal census gives us some interesting information about our relatives – insights we may not have known or tidbits of information that might help us in our genealogical search.   I hope to post census information from time to time on various family members.   This time I’ll start with a census that includes my Dad! 

So the genealogy/family tie-in:

·         Joseph and Peter Skerstonas were brothers.  

·         Joseph Skerstonas was my great-grandfather. 

·         His son was Charles Skerstonas (b. 1888 Lithuania, d. August 1956 Thomaston, CT).  

·         And his son (my Dad) was George Skerstonas (b. April 1930 Thomaston, CT d. Feb 1930 Thomaston, CT).   

The 1930 Census – the Fifteenth Census of the United States

State: Connecticut                                      County: Litchfield

Township: Thomaston town                         Enumerated on: April 21, 1930

Street: Walnut Hill – Farming District           Number of Dwelling: 443


Name of each person whose place of abode on April 1, 1930 was in this family (omit children born since April 1^st):

Skerstonas, Charles
     Relation: Head
     Home Owned or Rented: Owned 
     Does Family Own a Farm?: Yes
     Sex: Male
     Color or Race: White
     Age at last birthday: 39
     Marital Condition: Married
     Age at first marriage: 25
     School or college at any time since 9/1/1929: No
     Able to read or write: Yes
     Place of birth: Lithuania
     Father’s place of birth: Lithuania
     Mother’s Place of birth: Lithuania
     Language spoke in home before coming to the US: Lithuanian
     Year of Immigration to the US: 1906
     Able to Speak English: Yes
     Occupation: Farmer
     Industry: Dairy Farmer
     Actually at work yesterday: Yes
     Veteran of US Military or Naval Forces: No

Skerstonas, Rosa
     Relation: Wife
     Sex: Female
     Color or Race: White
     Age at last birthday: 35
     Marital Condition: Married
     Age at first marriage: 21
     School or college at any time since 9/1/1929: No
     Able to read or write: No
     Place of birth: Lithuania
     Father’s place of birth: Lithuania
     Mother’s Place of birth: Lithuania
     Language spoke in home before coming to the US: Lithuanian
     Year of Immigration to the US: 1914
     Able to Speak English: No

Skerstonas, Della
     Relation: Daughter
     Sex: Female
     Color or Race: White
     Age at last birthday: 12
     Marital Condition: Single
     School or college at any time since 9/1/1929: Yes
     Able to read or write: Yes
     Place of birth: Connecticut
     Father’s place of birth: Lithuania
     Mother’s Place of birth: Lithuania
     Able to Speak English: Yes

Skerstonas, Albert
     Relation: Son
     Sex: Male
     Color or Race: White
     Age at last birthday: 9
     Marital Condition: Single
     School or college at any time since 9/1/1929: Yes
     Place of birth: Connecticut
     Father’s place of birth: Lithuania
     Mother’s Place of birth: Lithuania
     Able to Speak English: Yes


Skerstonas, Isabel
     Relation: Daughter
     Sex: Female
     Color or Race: White
     Age at last birthday: 9
     Marital Condition: Single
     School or college at any time since 9/1/1929: Yes
     Place of birth: Connecticut
     Father’s place of birth: Lithuania
     Mother’s Place of birth: Lithuania
     Able to Speak English: No

 Skerstonas, Mildred
     Relation: Daughter
     Sex: Female
     Color or Race: White
     Age at last birthday: 6
     Marital Condition: Single
     School or college at any time since 9/1/1929: Yes
     Place of birth: Connecticut
     Father’s place of birth: Lithuania
     Mother’s Place of birth: Lithuania
     Able to Speak English: No

 Skerstonas, George
     Relation: Son
     Sex: Male
     Color or Race: White
     Age at last birthday: (1/12th is crossed out) 0
     Marital Condition: Single
     School or college at any time since 9/1/1929: No
     Place of birth: Connecticut     Father’s place of birth: Lithuania
     Mother’s Place of birth: Lithuania

So, some interesting facts we can get from this census are

• The years of immigration for Charles and Rose.  This should help in later research in trying to find details on their immigration.
• If we didn’t know that Albert and Isabel were twins – we would know this now.  Interestingly in all of the other family information from Martha I have not yet found another set of twins.  Also, it seems odd that Albert would speak English by 9, but not Isabel since it indicates they are both going to school.  Was this really this case or an error in the part of the census taker?
• I personally love that this census was done on April 21^st 1930 – my Dad would have only been 3 days old.  Per the instructions he really wasn’t supposed to be included – but there is little George – Age 0 – listed on the census for perpetuity!
• The age when Charles & Rosa were first married is also great genealogy data – assuming their first marriage was to each other J  We’ll save that piece of information for further research too… 

Not sure if you can see the details for yourself (still learning how this blog works)