Stamford, Bennington County, Vermont Genealogy

Brief History
Stamford is one of the oldest towns in Vermont, chartered in 1753 by Benning Wentworth, Governor of New Hampshire. The 1753 date, for the first grant of Stamford, makes this one of the oldest of the New Hampshire Grants. The outbreak of the last of the French and Indian wars kept the grantees from making a settlement within the required amount of time, so Wentworth renewed their grant in 1764. It was chartered by the name of New Stamford, but after the Revolution it dropped the New, and became simply Stamford.

Town Histories
Go to Archive.org to find published materials for this town.

Brief History of Stamford, excerpts from a 1993 Stamford Historical Society article written in 1993.

Libraries and Historical Societies
Stamford Community Library 986 Main St. Stamford, VT 05352 Phone: (802) 694-1379 Website: http://stamfordlibrary.org/stamford/

Stamford Historical Society Town Clerk's office, Stamford, VT Mailing Address: c/o Town Clerk, 986 Main Road, Stamford, VT 05352 Phone: (802) 694-1361

Cemeteries
The following is a list of cemeteries in present-day Stamford. For location of cemeteries, see Cemeteries of Vermont, Bennington County, website at this link.
 * Houghton Cemetery - inscriptions at Find A Grave site.
 * Lee Cemetery - inscriptions at Find A Grave site.
 * Millard Cemetery - inscriptions at Find A Grave site.
 * Sportsmans Road Cemetery (aka Old Bridges Cemetery)


 * Stamford Cemeteries List at FindAGrave
 * at FamilySearch Catalog
 * at FamilySearch Catalog
 * Bennington County Cemeteries at FamilySearch Places

Church Records
Historically, the largest religious groups in Vermont were the Congregational, Baptist, Roman Catholic, and Methodist churches. For general information about Vermont denominations, view the New Hampshire Church Records wiki page. Church records and the information they provide vary significantly depending on the denomination and the record keeper. They may contain information about members of the congregation, such as age, date of baptism, christening, or birth; marriage information and maiden names; and death date. The following are church records available online for the town of Stamford, VT:

Churches

 * 1)  Stamford Community Church 1059 Main Rd. Stamford, VT 05352 Phone:(802) 694-1533
 * 2) St. John Bosco 818 Main Rd. Stamford, VT 05352  St. John Bosco Parish Website

Maps
The following are online maps of the town of Stamford:


 * 1856 map of Stamford
 * Bennington County map, 1876

Town Records
In Vermont, most records are kept at the town level and generally began being kept at the founding of the town. These records may include the following:

Stamford, Vermont Town Records
Town Clerk Vital and Town Records, 1732-2005, can be found on FamilySerach (browse only images) at this link.

The Family History Library has microfilm of original records from the Stamford Town Clerks Office. These include Land records, 1777-1913; indexes to land records, 1780-1977, and Town and vital records, 1812-1867.

Town Clerk Contact Information
Town of Stamford 986 Main St Stamford, VT 05352 Phone: (802) 694-1361 Website: http://www.stamfordvt.org/officeofthetownclerk.html

Probate Records
Estate file probate records from the Bennington, VT district are available through FamilySearch via Search by Image, for years 1779-1935, but are not yet indexed.

The probate district for Stamford is Bennington. Bennington Probate Division 207 South St. Bennington, VT 05201 Phone: (802) 447-2705

Vital Records

 * FamilySearch Historical Records Collection has Vermont birth, death, and marriage records online.

Town Reports
The town of Stamford kept annual town reports. These reports often contained birth, marriage, and death information. Below is a list of years when Stamford kept town reports. (NOTE: Occasionally, these town reports missed vital statistic information from the end of the year. If you don't find your ancestor's vital information, check the following year's town report to see if your ancestor's information was recorded later.)

Historical Data
The Vermont Historical Gazetteer is a 5 volume set of historical information by Abby Maria Hemenway with Volume I published in 1867 and Volume V completed in 1891 after her death. Also available online in PDF format at this link.


 * Annual Report for the year of 1826: https://archive.org/details/annualreportofto00stam

Newspapers
Bennington Banner Newspaper

North Adams Transcript