The Newtown Historical Society is creating a historical record of local COVID-19 experiences, and residents are asked to take part in the effort.

“Your contributions,” an announcement for the project reads, “will be archived with those of other Newtowners and accessed in the future by scholars, townspeople, students, and others who study and look back on this historic time in our modern life.

“We have all been touched by COVID-19 in very different and personal ways,” the announcement continues. “Children and parents, seniors and students, merchants, highly educated professionals... all creatively finding new ways to work and play safely. Every kind of individual and family has been forced to adopt new habits almost overnight.”

How It Began

Newtown Historical Society member John Renjilian said when he thought of the idea to create a record he also thought about how useful it could be for future researchers who may want to know what the pandemic was like in rural areas.

“I just got to thinking, we’re a historical society and this is going to be one of the major historical events of this generation and maybe we should put together a record of how people were [faring and what they are doing],” Renjilian said in a recent phone interview.

When the Friends of the C.H. Booth Library included the idea of collecting submissions for a historical record in a newsletter, people responded with general stories about cooking, walking, or exercising more, according to Renjilian, who is also a member of Friends of the C.H. Booth Library. So Renjilian made a list of things that might interest a future researcher, like what kind of schooling is happening and whether it is effective. He then sent an e-mail to the Newtown Historical Society board and the project formed from there.

“They put it together very nicely,” said Renjilian.

Many Newtown Historical Society members, like Barbara Wilson, are helping to oversee the project.

The original idea turned into a questionnaire for people to fill out. It is available online on the society’s website newtownhistory.org, by looking under the “Be A Part of History” section and selecting “click here to participate.”

The form announcement explains, “Your contributions will be archived with those of other Newtowners and accessed in the future by scholars, townspeople, students, and others who study and look back on this historic time in our modern life.”

Later the form announcement reads, “Much of the story of COVID-19 will be about hardship and difficulty, but not all. A complete record should reflect new work requirements and adaptations, pastimes, family time, entertainment, steps to protect from the virus, changes in the household, and other personal observations describing how our lives have been affected by the pandemic.

“Please join us in creating an archive that will chronicle our shared experience with COVID-19,” the form continues.

Questions on the form include whether the person has had a direct experience with COVID-19, their biggest concerns or worries, how they are connecting with others, where people get their information, and whether they feel COVID-19 has positively or negatively impacted the community and how.

Renjilian noted that he knows other historical societies are undertaking similar efforts. One feature that is different about Newtown’s effort, he shared, is that people can fill the form out again, if the COVID-19 experience continues and the experience changes. He hopes responses from that same person can be archived together.

There is currently no submission deadline, as the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing.

“If we are going to have a meaningful database developed from this we need to have responses, and please help us build that kind of base,” Renjilian said when asked what he most wants Newtown residents to know about the effort.