William and Nathaniel Brittin (last name also spelled Britton and Brittaine) were born in England in 1635 and 1630 respectively. The brothers’ parentage is unclear, but their father may have been Richard Brittaine of Somersetshire, England. They immigrated to the United States around 1635, settling in Long Island. They later moved to Staten Island, Nathaniel in 1666 and William in 1667, where they both worked as farmers. Nathaniel also found work as an innkeeper and was involved in negotiating the sale of Staten Island from the Lenni-Lenape people to English colonists in 1670. These two brothers are the original ancestors of the Brittin line traced in this collection.
In 1663, William Brittin married Maria Stillwell (1645-1683) of Gravesend, Long Island. They had eight children: William (1663-1708), Nathaniel (1665-1708), Richard (1667-1732), Joseph (1669-?), Benjamin (1671-?), John (1673-1754), Captain Daniel (1676-1733), and Colonel Nicholas (1680-1740). William Brittin passed away in 1683.
Nathaniel Brittin married Ann Stillwell (1643-1709), and they had at least five children: Nathaniel (1662-1729), Sarah (1664-?), Rebecca (1668-?), Richard (1670-?), and Abigail (1674-1726). Nathaniel Brittin passed away in 1684.
L.H. (Lewis Hotchkiss) Brittin (1877-1952)Lewis Hotchkiss (L.H.) Brittin was born on February 8, 1877 to Edwin L. Brittin and Mary Hotchkiss Brittin in Derby, Connecticut. Orphaned at the age of 13 following his mother’s passing, Brittin lived with his grandmother and attended public school in Derby. In 1893, he transferred to Ridge School in Washington, Connecticut, and he would later describe his three years there as the happiest of his life. In 1896, he started at Harvard University, but Brittin left in 1898 to enlist in the Spanish-American War. Following his time at Fort Warren and a brief return to Harvard, he began visiting Native American reservations, collecting Native American art and artifacts and studying their culture.
On January 20, 1904, Brittin married Emma Simis. Their only child, Elizabeth “Betty” Brittin, was born on December 10, 1910. The couple was granted a divorce on December 19, 1914, and Emma retained custody of their daughter.
During World War I, Brittin served as a lieutenant colonel. On January 22, 1919, he married Anna Torkelson, with whom he would remain married until her death in 1935. He was released from active service on April 12, 1919 and went on to work as an industrial engineer for the George M. Newhall Engineering Company. He later moved to Mexico and constructed factories for the Sierra Madre Land and Lumber Company. After nearly five years in Mexico, he returned to the United States and worked as the manager of the National Lamp Division of General Electric. He also served as Vice President of the St. Paul Association, a role that led to his participation in the construction of an airport and the introduction of airmail service in St. Paul, Minnesota. On September 1, 1926, Brittin founded Northwest Airways (later Northwest Airlines and eventually merged with Delta Air Lines) and served as its Vice President and General Manager. The company, and Brittin, would eventually be implicated in the Air Mail scandal of 1934, where a congressional investigation revealed that major airlines had monopolized airmail contracts and divided them amongst themselves. Following his destruction of subpoenaed records, Brittin was charged with contempt of Congress and served ten days in jail. As a result of this scandal, Brittin left the company.
Following the United States’ entrance into World War II, Brittin attempted to return to the army, but, at the age of 64, he could not meet the physical requirements. In 1946, Brittin remarried again to Leona Brittin. He spent the last decades of his life engaged in genealogy work, compiling information and creating publications on his ancestors, the Brittin, Howell, Hotchkiss, Hull, Baker, Burnet, Bradley, and Chalfield families. Brittin passed away on September 4, 1952 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Edna B. McKinley (1877-1950)Edna B. McKinley was born on April 27, 1877 to Charles C. McKinley and Lutecia Brittin in Iowa. From 1935 to 1936, she attended the Kansas City School of Law. McKinley never married and lived the entirety of her adult life in Liberty, Missouri. She had an interest in genealogy and historical research and served as genealogical chairman and chapter historian in the Alexander Doniphan chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. As part of her work for that organization, she compiled information on the cemetery records of Clay County, Missouri. McKinley died on May 30, 1950 in Liberty and is buried in Fairview Cemetery.
The Brittin Family Genealogy Collection ranges from 1811 to 1942, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1941 to 1942. The collection documents L.H. Brittin’s research on the genealogy of the Brittin family, primarily the descendants of brothers William (1635-1683) and Nathaniel (1630-1684), whose last names are variously spelled Brittin, Britton, and Brittaine. L.H. Brittin primarily conducted this research through correspondence with individuals of Brittin lineage. The collection also contains information on families that married into the Brittin line, including Baker, Clayton, Howell, Hull, Burnet, and Stillwell. The materials provide valuable insight into the process of amateur genealogy work in the 1940s as well as American sentiment following the country’s entrance into World War II. Document types include letters, notebooks, genealogy charts, and manuscripts. Also of note are nineteenth century receipts for William and Abraham Brittin and L.H. Brittin’s incomplete autobiography draft.
This collection is arranged into three series: Series I: Brittin Descendants Correspondence, Series II: Edna McKinley Correspondence, and Series III: Notebooks.
The Brittin Descendants Correspondence series primarily contains letters between L.H. Brittin and individuals with Brittin ancestry.
The Edna McKinley Correspondence series primarily contains letters between L.H. Brittin and Edna McKinley, a Brittin descendant on her mother’s side who heavily collaborated with him on his genealogy research.
The Notebooks series contains notebooks with research compiled from genealogical books, general history books, and L.H. Brittin’s correspondence with Brittin descendants.
HVFG Britten/Brittin/Britton - Britten/Brittin/Britton family vertical files
H929 Brittin -
H929 Brittin Index -
H929 Brittin -
H929 Brittin -
H929 Brittin -
H929 Brittin -
H929 Brittin -
This collection is open for research under the conditions set forth in the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center archives access policy. All archival material should be handled with care and kept in its original order; notes may only be taken in pencil or with a computer, and food and drink are prohibited in the Reading Room. Records may be copied for scholarly or personal research using the edge scanner or a digital camera without flash; however, researchers must obtain copyright permission prior to publishing material from the collection.
The Brittin Family Genealogy Collection was acquired through deed, gift, or purchase.
The Brittin Family Genealogy Collection, 1811-1942, North Jersey History and Genealogy Center, Morristown and Morris Township Library.
This collection was processed and encoded by Assistant Archivist Katelyn Leffler in 2025.