1933 A. Fremont Rider accepts a job as librarian at Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT) and eventually becomes the chief librarian of Olin Library at the University. He retires twenty years later in 1953.

1942 The first volume of the American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI) is published. Over time, the Index grows to 226 volumes, containing references to more than four million people living in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.

1947 The Godfrey Memorial Library (GML) is incorporated in Connecticut as a nonprofit organization. At the first meeting of the Board of Trustees, Rider is elected Chairman of the Board.

1951 Constructed on property owned by Rider and adjacent to his home in Middletown, the GML opens its doors to the public.

1954 Rider gives his entire personal collection of bound book publications to the GML as a gift.

1959 The work of indexing the genealogy column (1896-1941) of the Boston Evening Transcript is completed by GML staff.

1962 Rider dies in Middletown (CT) at the age of 77.

1988 Ancestry acquires the exclusive electronic publishing rights to the AGBI.

1999 Rider is named by American Libraries, the flagship magazine of the American Library Association, as one of the 100 most important people in 20th-century librarianship.

2002 GML designs and launches the Godfrey Scholar, our online research tool containing searchable databases and our own digitized content. The library also receives authorization to create a Family History Center, a licensed branch of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, UT.

2007 The Ed Laput Connecticut Cemetery Project begins.

2015 GML amends its certificate of incorporation and becomes a “member” organization.