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Litchfield County
CTGenWeb
Torrington, Connecticut Vintage Postcard


WELCOME to the Litchfield County CTGenWeb! Litchfield County is part of the CTGenWeb Project and The USGenWeb Project and is up for adoption. Although all CTGenWeb County and Town Coordinators have deep family connections to Connecticut, most of us do not live in Connecticut, and may be unable to answer personal genealogy question. We hope to provide data on this site to help in your genealogy research. My name is Jana Cortez and I am the temporary county coordinator for Litchfield County. I welcome your participation in this project! Our goal is to offer free access to genealogical information now and in the future. If you have Litchfield County historical or genealogical resources, including transcribed obituaries, deeds, wills, biographies, or have other family information, please consider sharing with your fellow researchers in this permanent online repository. It is our hope that the information contained on the Litchfield County CTGenWeb site will be of help in your research. If you would like to participate in adding data to this site, please check out this page and contact me if interested. Jana

History of Litchfield County

Litchfield County was created on October 9, 1751, by an act of the Connecticut General Court from land belonging to Fairfield, New Haven, and Hartford counties. The act establishing the county states:

That the townships of Litchfield, Woodbury, New Milford, Harwinton, New Hartford, Barkhempstead, Hartland, Colebrook, Norfolk, Canaan, Salisbury, Kent, Sharon, Cornwall, Goshen, Torrington, and Winchester, lying in the northwesterly part of this Colony, shall be and remain one entire county, and be called the County of Litchfield, and shall have and exercise the same powers, priviledges [sic] and authorities, and be subject to the same regulations, as the other counties in this Colony by law have and are subject unto. The bounds of which county shall extend north to the Colony line, and west to the Colony line till it meets with the township of New Fairfield, and to include the towns abovementioned.

Between 1780 and 1807, several new towns were created at the boundaries between Litchfield County and other counties in Connecticut. The town of Watertown was established in 1780 from Waterbury and was placed under Litchfield County jurisdiction. The establishment of the town of Brookfield from part of New Milford in 1788 resulted in Litchfield County losing territory to Fairfield County. In 1796, the town of Hartland was transferred to Hartford County. In 1798, the town of Oxford was established from part of Southbury causing Litchfield County to lose territory to New Haven County. In 1807, the town of Southbury was transferred to New Haven County. The final boundary change occurred on October 8, 1807, when the town of Middlebury was established from part of Woodbury.

In 1862, during the Civil War, Litchfield County raised the 2nd Connecticut Regiment of Volunteers Heavy Artillery. This regiment, originally the 19th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, served in the defense of Washington, D.C. from September 1862 to March 1864, at which time it was transferred to the Army of the Potomac. On June 1, 1864, the 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery fought as infantry (as it continued to do through the war) in the Battle of Cold Harbor, experiencing the heaviest proportionate losses of any Connecticut regiment in the Civil War. The regiment remained active to the end of the war, and its final mustering out September 5, 1865.


Litchfield County Archives




Helpful Links


CTGenWeb County Index CTGenWeb Archives
Social Security Death Index
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This site is maintained by Jana Cortez
Litchfield Temporary County Coordinator


Would you like to adopt an orphan CTGenWeb county?  Just contact the CTGenWeb State Coordinator.