To apply to a Revolutionary War era lineage society, the applicant needs to document not only the ancestor’s service but also the ancestor’s residence during the War.
For Connecticut ancestors, there are four sources typically used to “prove” residence:
- a marriage record for a spouse; a birth or baptismal record for a child.
- payment of taxes
- office holding
- land transactions
One could add a fifth: census enumerations. Even though few survive, there are scattered records of the 1776 or 1779 census enumerations. The State Library has a finding aid describing what records were available in print. The census of Newington has been transcribed online. The Connecticut Archives collection is now available on FamilySearch but must be accessed through an affiliate library.