The Newtown Bee introduced a special series in 2018 dedicated exclusively to tracing longtime Newtown residents’ family trees and asking its current generation what makes the town such a special place to call home.

The Shortt Family, which operates Shortt’s Farm on Riverside Road, was the first family of nearly half a dozen to be highlighted.

Despite Newtown being 38,644 acres, Sandy Hook residents Sue and Jim Shortt both grew up in houses just a few miles away from each other.

Mr Shortt’s parents, Laura and James Shortt, were married and moved to Newtown from Southbury in the early 1960s; while Ms Shortt marks the ninth generation of Newtown residents stemming from her mother’s Beers family line.

The Beers family, Ms Shortt says, is said to trace back all the way to the Mayflower, with ancestors emigrating from England.

“Even though we lived away a few years in Southbury, [Newtown] always just felt like home anyways, because we had our business and spent every single day here,” Ms Shortt said. “We’re happy to have our kids grow up here. They love it here, and the schools are great. I don’t think they’d ever want to leave.”

Another longtime Newtown family featured in the series was the Watts family, whose matriarch Evelyn Watts’s parents — Edwin and Anni Weber — were the first generation to establish roots in town.

After arriving in America, her parents befriended other German immigrants in New York City, and around 1939, ten of those families decided to buy 20 acres of land in Sandy Hook together. They created a summer community where the women and children could vacation all season long, and eventually, the family turned their property into their full-time residence.

The house, on Osborne Hill Road Extension, remains in the family to this day and is currently owned by Bill Watts, Jr, and his wife, Judy. Mr Watts’ three children — Kyle, Megan, and Melissa — remain in town, as well as his sister, Heidi Ansari, and her son, Jacob.

Now into adulthood, the current generation stemming from the Weber ancestors are enjoying staying local while they are pursuing their education and early careers.

In a double family-feature, the Longtime Residents of Newtown series included the Paproski and Kearns families.

More than a century ago, Stephan Paproski and Justyna Stec emigrated to the United States from the Ukraine looking to get married and start their family.

Justyna worked as a housekeeper for the Clark family, who lived on West Street in Newtown, where she did a variety of household tasks, like ironing and cooking, as well as tending to the home’s gardens, while her husband worked milking cows. After saving for more than a decade, the growing family bought farmland in Newtown in 1927, which became known as Castle Hill Farm.

For 90-plus years, the farm has remained on its original property and has been passed down the family line. Castle Hill Farm is now run by Justyna and Stephan’s grandson Steve Paproski; his wife, Diana; and their daughters, Shannon and Stephanie.

It just so happens that Stephanie’s husband, Dan Kearns, 30, also came from a long background of local farmers, as his great-grandparents, Florence and John E. Kearns, moved with their family to Sandy Hook from Danbury in 1936.

The Kearns purchased property on Bennetts Bridge Road and Osborne Hill Road from Charles Beardsley and used it to create Kearns Farm.

Having been around his family’s farm, and now being involved at Castle Hill Farm, Dan explained that the lifestyle was a deciding factor in choosing to stay and raise his family in the town he grew up in.

“I think agriculture brought us here and kept us here,” he explained.

The final family to be featured in the series was the Hanna family, whose matriarch, June Hanna, traced her first Newtown ancestors back to Charles and Fannie Hurlbutt, from the 1800s. The family lived in a modest home built for Fabric Fire Hose Company employees, which was in walking distance of the business.

Mrs Hanna’s father, Earl Meyers, who lived from 1913 to 1989, was the youngest of four children and went on to own the Newtown General Store for more than 30 years.

The family has remained in town, and in April of this year, Mrs Hanna’s 29-year-old grandson, Jason, became a father to his firstborn, Liam, who is now the Hanna family’s seventh generation to live in Newtown.

If your family has lived in Newtown for four or more generations and would like to be featured in this series in 2019, contact Alissa Silber at alissa@thebee.com or 203-426-3141.