Genealogy Sources – CT Apprenticeship Records
Experienced Genealogists Use Lesser Known Sources
Aug 24, 2009
Family researcher Kathy Ritter couldn’t find parents for great-great-grandfather Ira P. Sweetland, located in the 1850 census at the Mansfield, CT home of Luther Martin. Could this ancestor have been an indentured servant?
The Ancestor Search Begins
The ordinary ancestor paper trail furnished no clues. Next, Kathy checked Connecticut record sources for apprenticeship records. They were scattered amongst several record categories. As the search for Ira Sweetland continued, Kathy abstracted every discovered apprenticeship contract. The result was the 1986 book, Connecticut Apprenticeship Records.
Apprenticeship Record Contents
These records can contain all or some of the following information:
- Birth date and names of parents
- Town and/or county of birth
- Names of remarried parents
- Circumstances of the indenture
“Typically, males were indentured until age 21, females until age 18,” Kathy explains.
Contents of Indenture Agreement
The indenture agreement was a legal contract. Some of the conditions the apprentice was bound to observe include:
- Keep secrets of their master/mistress “close”
- Obey all legal and reasonable commands
- Not willfully damage, waste, embezzle, steal or lend to others the possessions of the master/mistress
- Not frequent taverns and alehouses
- Not play at cards, dice or other unlawful games
- Refrain from fornication and marriage
Conditions to which the master or mistress were bound include:
- Teach, or have the apprentice taught, to read and write English, and teach the trade of the master
- Provide sufficient meat and drink
- Provide lodging, including a means of washing
- Provide clothing suitable for an apprentice
- At the time of discharge provide two suits of clothing, one fit for working days, the other for holy days
Runaway Apprentices
Kathy’s book also includes newspaper announcements seeking runaway apprentices, or otherwise referring to them. Here are samples:
- Bradley, William, ran away from Ebenezar Allen of Watertown. William is age 15, has red hair and freckles; reward, $2. (Newspaper dated 21 May 1792).
- Graham, Anna of Wethersfield, child of Silas Graham and Elizabeth, bound to Asa Talcott of Glastonbury until age 18, which will be 22 Oct. 1782. Elizabeth Graham is now the wife of Edward Boborn (Indenture dated 12 Dec. 1774).
- Manahan, Thomas, Irish boy, ran away from Tierbout & O’Brien (printing office in New Haven.) Thomas is 5’4” tall, has sandy hair, surly down-looking gaze, thick build, pitted from smallpox, and usually found quarreling as he is fond of strong drink. (Newspaper dated 31 Aug. 1795)
- Carpenter, Oliver—Obadiah Rhods and wife Abigail of Voluntown were tried for the murder of their apprentice Oliver Carpenter. May, 1733, Court sent Rhods to Rhode Island.
Kathy A. Ritter’s 183-page book, Apprentices of Connecticut, published in 1986 by Ancestry, Inc., can usually be located and ordered from online booksellers. Put “Ritter” and the book’s title in the browser.
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