Hale Collection

Charles R. Hale Collection of Connecticut Cemetery Inscriptions

In order to combat the devastating effects of the Great Depression, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1935, created the Work Progress Administration (W.P.A.). His order was made law by Congress with the passage of the Emergency Relief Appropriations Act of 1935. All over America, projects of all kinds employed, at the height of the program, more than three million Americans.

One of these projects was locating all the cemeteries in the State of Connecticut and retrieving the vital information contained on the headstones. Under the direction of Charles R. Hale, W.P.A. workers scoured the record books, woods and fields of Connecticut searching for cemeteries big and small. As a result, 2,269 cemeteries, 20 in Thompson, Connecticut were found and the headstones‘ inscriptions documented. The project began in 1932 and was completed in 1935. The following list of Thompson cemeteries is just a small piece of Hale’s work.

There are three different formats of the Collection for the Town of Thompson. The first is an alphabetical listing by the deceased person’s last name followed by the name of the cemetery; the second is a listing by cemetery name that then has its burials listed alphabetically by the deceased person’s last name; the third is the original Hale listing that records the location as the person who collected the information walked through the cemetery.

Alphabetical by Last Name
Cemetery List with last name of deceased alphabetically
Original Hale Listing
— Listings for each cemetery … coming soon

There are several formats of these transcriptions available; these lists may help locate a person’s burial if the person died before 1935; suggestions on how to better use these lists follow.

If the name of the deceased is known, one would first utilize the Hale Alphabetical List; this is the list that will tell whether or not the person being searched is buried in Thompson; it will give the name of the cemetery.

If the name of the cemetery is known, there is an alphabetical listing of those buried in that cemetery.

Once the name of the person and the cemetery is known, the task is then to find the stone in that particular cemetery. A helpful tool for that is the Hale Original List; this is the listing by Town and Cemetery of the Hale Collection that is found in various online sources. In the identified cemetery, one physically locates one or two adjacent tombstones; these stones are then found on the List; looking to the right and left of those physical stones and referring to the list one can see the direction the volunteer who recorded the inscriptions was walking. By following the listing one may be able to better find the appropriate tombstone.

This Hale Collection along with the research done by the Town of Thompson Conservation Commission under the direction of Carolyn Werge have formed the research basis of the Thompson Historical Cemetery collection.

“Although gravestones are undoubtedly valuable sources of data, it is the unique insight and sense of connection some markers can provide that makes them truly compelling and a source of enduring fascination.” Lynn Betlock,New England Historic Genealogical Society.

– Ida Ransom, July 2024