The Town Clerk’s vault contains the original copy of the Town Charter from 1761 as well as land records, town reports, grand lists, birth, death and marriage certificates, minutes from various boards and committees, and much more. If you’re looking for historical records for the Town of Norwich, odds are they’re housed in the vault – and we’d be happy to help you locate what you need if you make a research appointment.
In the early 2000s we were lucky to have Virginia Close come in and transcribe many of the old documents in the vault. The benefits from her transcriptions are twofold: fewer people will need to handle the delicate old documents, and researchers don’t have to struggle to make out 200 year old cursive handwriting. A sample of Virginia’s transcriptions are linked below; we have additional transcribed volumes in the Assistant Clerk’s office.