Combining Archival and Archeological Research: The Connecticut School for Boys Cemetery

Gregory F. Walwer’s 1996 cemetery study separates deaths at the Connecticut School for Boys from burials on its grounds. State reports counted 121 deaths by 1940; researchers independently confirmed 86 people as having died at the school. They substantiated 23 on-site burials and 24 burials elsewhere, leaving 39 burial locations unresolved. Another 21 names from initial lists lacked a verified school connection. The author estimated 50–60 burials on the property and reported that the planned hospital preserved the cemetery area. These figures describe different bodies of evidence, not a single interchangeable death total. The study used Meriden death indexes, certificates provided by the Connecticut Office of State Archaeology, an 1899 superintendent’s ledger, and the Hale headstone index. No named death list or individual certificate is reproduced in the article.

Source: Gregory F. Walwer; National Park Service, CRM, volume 19 no.10, pages 8–11