The Yale Family History Project
Yale/Peck Family Material
I am descended from the Yales and Pecks on my father's side
This page is continually under construction, I am planning on periodic updates.
My Family History
The Yales came to the New World in the first group of people to settle the New Haven Colony in what is now Connecticut. The colony founders were of Puritian Stock and were hoping to establish a "New Jerusalem on the Hill."
I am decended From Thomas Yale, who came to New Haven with his brother David (Elihu, the person Yale University is named for's father), his mother Anne, his step-father Theopilus Eaton, and some other family members.
My ancestors came to Wallingford, CT in 1669 and built the family home in 1760, in what is now southern Meriden.
My family has resided in Meriden until my father moved off the farm in the late 1950's.
The Old Yale Avenue House is gone- it was falling down and nobody had the resources to fix it. The pieces were bought by an individual in Indiana, and it leves again! Here are some pictures as it was being disasembled.
Walnut Vale Farm Album
Can Be Found HERE
Walnut Vale Farm was on Yale Avenue in Meriden, and as you might
guess it was owned by the Yale Family. The house on the farm was
built in the 1760's but the farm was in existance before that. This is an album of photographs that I have preserved and made available on-line.
Family History Library
I have started collecting on-line versions of books that are in the public domain and relate to the family:
"Peck- A Sketch" by William H Russell, 1922 PDF version
"Peck- A Sketch" by William H Russell, 1922 as a webpage sort of
"Peck- A Sketch" by William H Russell, 1922 as a flat text file
Broad Street Cemetary in Meriden, CT
I have OCRed and typed the Hale Cemetary Collection listing for this cemetary. Many of the stones are not readable any more and this list was done in 1934 in the order that the stones stood- so you hopefully can determine which stone is which sometimes by the surrounding stones. I will be adding inscriptions from "A Century of Meriden" as I go along.
Click here for the Broad Street Cemetary
Information on the excommunication of Anne Yale Eaton from the New Haven Historical Society Papers, Volume 5.
I have a BUNCH of old photos from the Yale and Peck Families. I will be scanning them and putting them online. The first two albums are:
The Old Soule Album - Photos from the 1890's through 1910's with many from the Guilford Area, including the Guilford Fair, Town Hall and other historic images. Some include Wilbur Soule.
Uncle Arthur's Slides
- These slides look to be from the 1940's. Arthur Yale lived on Yale Avenue in Meriden Connecticut.
Some of these pictures might be from other parts of the country and include distant relatives. Some images may be duplicated in
the Walnut Vale Album.
Faces Lost to History
Can Be Found HERE
My Grandmother (Amy Peck Yale) had these pictures. Most are people and most had the names on the back. Many were friends of her
Ancestors, but I never knew their families. These are lost faces. Perhaps by putting them here someone will find the face of an ancestor,
but if not, at least they are remebered in this little way.
Uncle David Lewis Yale Album
Can Be Found HERE
David Lewis Yale was a minister. He was also a photography enthusiast. He took these photos
around 1926 and put them in an album. Although there are certain images that are duplicates to other pictures on this site,
this is how he organized them in a manner important to him.
Clark / Quigley Family Material
I am descended from the Clarks and Quigleys on my mother' side.
Laura Quigley Clark Photo Albums
Click HERE for album 1
Click HERE for album 2
Click HERE for album 3
These are albums from my Grandmother. They include pictures of friends and family and date from the
early 1900's.
Beverly Jean Clark Yale's Baby Book
Can Be Found HERE
This is a baby book that my Mom's parents made in the late 1920's and 1930's.
A NEW Family Tree Display
Can Be Found HERE
This is from a program called Ged Mill and so far I like it the best.
ONLINE MATERIALS
I spent the $20 to register GED2HTML and have the output available. My online material goes far and wide, with material from THE YALES AND WALES, genelogical data CD's, and LDS materials. I can't vouch for much of it to be honest. It is a starting point.
To view an online GENDEX style output you can
click here to go to a surname list. or
click here for an index of persons.
BOOKS AND OTHER SOURCES ABOUT THE YALES
The Book "Yale Genealogy and History of Wales" published in the early 1900's has apparently gone public domain. You can read it online or download it in many formats, including epub and kindle at http://archive.org/details/yalegenealogyhis00yale
I have also put a PDF edition online here http://www.dcyale.com/yale_family/yaw.pdf
It is large, about 35 megs, so be warned.I have put the following parts online- they are a work in progress and are only flat text files so far, but that will get them searchable.
The Title page and preface.
The Introduction.
Information on Wales.
The History of Wales.
Owen Glyndwr.
The Entire Book as a single web page- (about 12 megs) you can read it,
but it's an OCR conversion with errors- even though it's got the pictures, but it's more for the search engines. You are better off with
the PDF version.
A Word doc file of the book with pictures. Not sure what good it
is yet, but it was an easy conversion.
I have two good sources at this time. The first is the Yale Genealogy published around 1850, of which I have a tattered copy, missing cover and title page. This book purports to list every descendant of Thomas (although it says David) and Ann and has notes as to some family history. In my direct line of decent there are some pencil corrections made a long time ago, by persons unknown. I have not yet verified them. The Connecticut State Library in Hartford also has a copy of this book, with lots of handwritten information. I have to copy this book when I get a chance and take a look at the entries. I noticed that the state archive copy has the name Elihu Yale in it as the owner, and the author wasw named Elihu. I am wondering if it is the author's own copy.
I have also found a second book and purchased a copy, The Yales and Wales, originally written in 1908 by Horace Yale and updated in 1980 by his grandsons.
Click to view the Title Page, preface, and introduction from this book. It gives some Yale history and explains where much of the information in my GENDEX file comes from."
In addition to incorporating the people in the 1850 book, It is a wealth of additional information.
The New England Genealogical and Historical Society, which has a lending library through the mail for members, also has both theses books.
You'd think after this wonderful start that my branch of the family would have realized that the industrial revolution wasn't just a passing fad. Instead they became New England dairy farmers (another way to say poor) until the 1960's when the farm was sold. The house built by Noah Yale in 1761 was retained however, but was finally taken down before if fell down.