BRAINARD-BRAINERD-BRAYNARD HISTORICAL TIDBITS - page 2

DANIEL BRAINERD GRAVESTONE

As many know, the gravestone for Daniel Brainerd, our immigrant ancestor, is located in Ye Olde Burying Ground/ Haddam Thirty Mile Island Cemetery alongside Rte. 9A in the center of Haddam, CT. There is a replica headstone next to the weathered original headstone. It was purchased and installed by Stanford Howard Brainerd (664. William line) at his personal expense. Thank you Stanford, for your kind gesture in providing the replacement monument to our British-American forefather.
The date for the death of Daniel Brainerd is 1 April 1715. The cemetery was established in 1719. Before that year, all burials were in the graveyard directly in front of the original Congregational Church which was located in the triangular area across the highway from the cemetery's present location, and/or in the highway right-of way. The original graveyard monuments were relocated when the highway was rebuilt during the 1930's or 1940's. As most of those buried in the original graveyard were buried in shrouds (sheets), most remains did not survive to the time of the highway rebuilding; therefore, only the headstones and footstones were relocated.

HADDAM AREA CEMETERIES

Approximately 350 Brainard-Brainerd bodies are known to be buried in Haddam, CT area cemeteries. Some others were likely buried on private property, and those graves are long-lost. For those who wish to locate an early ancestor's grave in one of the cemeteries, an annotated copy of the cemeteries' gravestones list was, some years ago, sent to the Haddam town clerk. Names are referenced by their genealogical number and first two letters of their second generation ancestor, as listed in the 1908 Genealogy of the Brainerd-Brainard Family in America, by Lucy Abigail Brainard.

DEMISE of AMASA BRAINERD-1789

A winged death's-head carved in stone keeps a lonely vigil over an early 18th.-century New England grave, its blank eyes and grinning visage a gruesome reminder of man's mortality. The epitaph reveals the sad fate of Amasa Brainerd, the seventh child of Amasa Brainerd (13. Joshua line) and Jedidah (Osborne) Brainerd. The epitaph is quoted in full on page 50, Joshua line, of the 1908 Genealogy of the Brainerd-Brainard Family in America, by Lucy Abigail Brainard, as follows:

vii. AMASA, b. Sept. 19, 1778, in East Haddam, Conn.; d. Apr. 27, 1798. His tombstone gives the following
melancholy incident, "Sacred to the memory of Amasa Brainerd, Jr., son of Lieut. Amasa and Jedidah Brainerd, who
received a mortal wound on his head by the falling of the weight of the bell, on Sunday the 22nd. of April, 1798, as he
was about to enter the church to attend on Divine worship, who departed this life Apr. 27th, in ye twentieth year of his
age." The weight spoken of was attached to the bell to cause it to swing true. The occurrence produced a deep sensation,
and the bell was rung no more for years.

CONNECTICUT STATE LIBRARY

The genealogical section of the Connecticut State Library, located in the basement of the Old State House in Hartford, CT, has bound registers of births, marriages, and deaths from roughly 1715 to 1850, in the Barbour Collection. There is a separate register for each town (county) in the state. There are numerous Brainard-Brainerd-Braynard names, as well as many other surnames listed. Names are cataloged in alphabetical order. Many names and dates are, however, missing from the registers, due most likely to fires which destroyed local records. Still, it is a tremendous resource for genealogical researchers.