This section is based on information provided by the donor and expanded upon in her book Back to the Benedicts, also available at the Center for Brooklyn History.

This collection of material related to the Benedict family is centered on Benjamin Gilbert Benedict and his immediate family. Benjamin Gilbert Benedict (hereafter abbreviated as BGB) was born on December 6, 1838 in Patterson, New York to Benjamin Brush Benedict (1801-1872) and Julia Maria Benedict, née Painter (1805-1863). He was the fourth of their sixth children, and his paternal grandfather Captain Benjamin Benedict (1755-1832) was a soldier in the Revolutionary War.

BGB was a Presbyterian minister as well as a schoolteacher, a business school instructor, and the author of a book on English punctuation. He graduated from Lafayette College in 1859 and immediately took a job as a schoolteacher in Leaksville (now Eden), North Carolina. He was unhappy there and at the conclusion of the school year in 1860 he moved to Croton Falls, New York for another teaching job. In 1863 he entered Princeton Theological Seminary and graduated as a preacher in 1866.

After his ordination, BGB became Pastor of the Hopewell Presbyterian Church in Thompson Ridge, New York. He remained there until 1870, and it was during this period that he first met Adaline "Addie" Crawford. His next position was at the Second Presbyterian Church in Washingtonville, New York, where he married Mary Catherine Gilbert. She passed away just two years later at the age of 26.

In 1875, BGB left Washingtonville and moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he took a position as a teacher in the Academic and Classical Department of the Long Island Business College. He began writing to Addie Crawford from his home in Williamsburg. Their courtship letters, included in this collection, provide a glimpse into nineteenth century romance.

After less than a year of correspondence, the two were married on December 26, 1877. Their son Benjamin Crawford Benedict was born in Brooklyn on August 16, 1879. They also had a daughter, Mabel Gertrude Benedict, born August 14, 1884. She died less than a year later on April 26, 1885. At the time, the family was living at 168 Clifton Place. Addie Crawford Benedict died on February 22, 1899. She was buried in Brooklyn at the Cemetery of the Evergreens. That same year, BGB published his book English Punctuation, a signed first edition of which is included in this collection.

BGB taught at the Long Island Business College until retiring in 1901. His son, Benjamin Crawford Benedict (hereafter abbreviated as BCB), attended Pratt Institute and then the Long Island Business College and by 1900 was working as a stenographer. In 1902, BCB married Emma Mary Richards at the Classon Avenue Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn. At the time, they both lived in Bedford-Stuyvesant, BCB with his father at 305 Gates Avenue, and Emma with her family at 380 Quincy Street. Their daughter Mabel was born at home at 126 Kingston Avenue on January 8, 1905, and their son Benjamin Crawford Benedict Jr. was born on March 24, 1911.

Benjamin Gilbert Benedict died on December 9, 1912 in Brooklyn. By 1921, the younger generation of Benedicts had left Brooklyn and moved to Chatham, New Jersey.