New York County Listings - Some New York counties have set up record centers or archives such as are found in Broome, Cayuga, Montgomery, Ontario, Washington, Westchester, and other counties. While most initial inquiries about records should be made with the county clerk and county surrogate's clerk, the information sought might actually now be housed in a county records center/archives. This practice will doubtless continue in New York, especially for older records.
All the counties in New York are listed below. The name of the county and the mailing address of the county clerk, who is in charge of deeds, mortgages, marriages (1908–35), divorces, court records, state censuses, and other records is listed. Next, the year the county was created follows and, where applicable, the parent county or counties from which it was formed. The date the earliest deed was recorded is also listed. County deeds and mortgages not found with the county clerk are also indicated here. The date of the earliest county surrogate court record, followed by the mailing address of the county surrogate's clerk, if not the same as that of the county clerk. Some counties have copies or abstracts of earlier deeds and wills from parent counties.
It should be kept in mind that the names of the parent county or counties are those from which the new county was first formed in the year indicated. Many changes took place later, at which times whole towns or parts of them were annexed to or from the newer county. For example, Yates County was created in 1823 from part of Ontario County; the following year two towns were added to Yates from Steuben County. For the specifics of other changes, consult gazetteers, county directories, and county histories. Choose from the counties below to view the county information.
If you Cannot use, activate or see the map below then use the County Selection Table to select a County
New York State History -New York, a state in the Middle Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Québec on the north and by Lake Ontario and Lake Erie on the northwest and west. Pennsylvania lies west and south of New York, and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean lie to the south. On the east the state is bordered by Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont. Albany is the capital of New York. New York, commonly known as New York City, is the largest city.
New York has long been a leader in the political, cultural, and economic life of the United States. It has been called the Empire State since before 1800, a reference to its wealth and variety of resources and probably derived from a comment, attributed to George Washington, that predicted that New York would become the seat of the new empire. Although California surpassed it in population in 1963 and in manufacturing in 1972, choices made in New York influence much of the country’s commerce, finance, and the creative arts. Although New York City is the largest city in the country, much of New York is still rural.
New York is also rich in history, extending to when Native Americans first occupied its shores and river valleys. The state was named in the 1660s for the duke of York, later James II of England, though many place names are from the time when the region was a Dutch colony known as New Netherland. New York entered the Union on July 26, 1788, as the 11th of the original 13 states. The Erie Canal, now incorporated into the New York State Canal System, set the pattern of commerce early in U.S. history. The Statue of Liberty, in New York Harbor, was the first vision of America seen by millions of immigrants arriving at New York City. The United Nations, whose headquarters are located on Manhattan Island, works toward a future more peaceful than the past. The Official State Website is http://www.ny.gov/
In 1609 Henry Hudson explored the river that bears his name, and in the 1620s the Dutch West India Company established settlements at Fort Orange (Albany) and Manhattan, influencing immigration by other northern Europeans. English, mostly from New England, came to Long Island where the boundary between New Netherland and New England had to be settled by treaty in 1650. The Dutch claimed New Netherland from the New York to the Delaware rivers but were overthrown in 1664 by the English, who renamed the colony for the Duke of York. A brief comeback was staged by the Dutch in 1673, but after a year New York reverted to English control. In 1688-90 New York was part of the Dominion of New England, and some documents were generated in Boston.
By the time of the Revolutionary War, New Englanders had crossed westward into the eastern counties of New York, and settlers from Long Island and New Jersey had migrated to the lower Hudson valley. Huguenots had settled in New York City, New Rochelle, and elsewhere in the late 1600s, and Ulster Scots came to the Hudson area and settled in Orange and Ulster counties. The first major immigration of Germans to New York was in 1710, when 847 Palatine families settled in the Hudson Valley.
The Revolution was a major part of New York's history. The British occupied New York City and controlled all of Long Island and part of Westchester County. This provided a refuge for many Loyalists, including some from New Jersey, while patriots fled from Long Island to New York and from elsewhere up the Hudson. Major battles were fought upstate and every effort was made to prevent the British from taking control of the Hudson Valley and dividing the colonies.
Up to the time of the Revolutionary War, New York had been slower to expand beyond its original settlements than most of the other colonies. Much of the land had been held by only a few people, and Native Americans threatened settlement west of the Hudson and Mohawk valleys. After the war, however, New York grew dramatically. Migrations and immigrations increased at a rapid pace, with only a slight interruption during the War of 1812. Immigration was fueled particularly by Europeans sailing to the port of New York. The state became the principal gateway for those heading west, mostly from New England to the Great Lakes and beyond, although a great number remained as families made "chain migrations" across New York (see David Paul Davenport, "The Yankee Settlement of New York, 1783-1820," Genealogical Journal, 17 [1988/89]: 63-, especially 70). Important to settlement were the Old Military Tract and St. Lawrence Ten Towns in the north; the Military Tract, Chenango Ten Towns, and Boston Ten Towns in the central region; and the Phelps-Gorham and Holland purchases further west. Travel was greatly enhanced by the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, by which one could get from New York City to Buffalo in less than three weeks. The Hudson River was linked with Lake Champlain by a canal in the northeast and with the Delaware River by another in the southeast. By the mid-1800s, a busy system of stage lines and a network of railroads carried migrants, business people, and goods over the entire state, which promoted growth of cities and villages along their paths.
In the nineteenth century, immigrants swarmed through the port of New York, particularly the Irish and Germans in the mid-1800s, followed by Italians, Poles, Jews, and others by the turn of the century. Large numbers of blacks came north after the Civil War and more so after the world wars, followed by a sizeable Puerto Rican immigration after World War II. Today, many in New York City, if not born abroad themselves, have at least one parent who was.
New York had disputed areas with Massachusetts in Columbia County and over six million upstate acres, with New York in Dutchess County, and with Vermont over the counties of Gloucester, Cumberland, and part of Charlotte. Earlier, New York lost two of its original twelve counties to Massachusetts: Cornwall to Maine in 1686 and Dukes in 1692. There was also disagreement over borders with New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Staten Island, long claimed by New Jersey, was not fully relinquished until 1855.
Under the Reorganization Act of 7 March 1788, New York was divided into 120 towns (not townships), many of which were already in existence. (In parts of New York, particularly in the west, land was often surveyed into townships, and many people today still use the term colloquially.) Towns are the primary point at which many records are kept and their number has increased greatly since 1788. Cities and incorporated villages are part of towns, and a town may have several hamlets and other communities included in its own governments.
Since the turn of the century, the modern city of New York has been comprised of five boroughs with coterminous counties. While often identified synonymously with the state of New York, the city is an entity of its own, and some state laws concerning record keeping do not apply.
New York Discontinued Counties - This section provides an list of New York counties that no longer exist. They were established by the state, provincial, or territorial government. Most of these counties were created and disbanded in the 19th century; county boundaries have changed little since 1900 in the vast majority of states.
Charlotte County: Formed in 1772 from Albany County, Renamed in 1784 to Washington County
Cornwall County: Formed in 1683, Located in Maine, this county became part of Massachusetts in 1686, but no longer exist in name.
Cumberland County: Formed in 1766 from Albany County, disallowed the year after it was formed, Cumberland was re-established in 1768 and ceased to exist 1777-78 when Vermont declared itself a republic.
Dukes County: Formed in 1683, became part of Massachusetts in 1692
Gloucester County: Formed in 1770 from Cumberland County, ceased to exist 1777-78 when Vermont declared itself a republic.
New York Burned Courthouses - The destruction of courthouses greatly affects genealogists in every way. No only are these historic structures torn from our lives, so are the records they housed: marriage, wills, probate, land records, and others. Once destroyed they are lost forever. Even if they have been placed on mircofilm, computers and film burn too. The most heartbreaking side of this is the fact that many of our courthouses are destroyed at the hands of arsonist. However, not all records were lost.
Below is a list of New York Counties and the years the Courthouses were subjected to a disaster. This does NOT mean that ALL RECORDS were lost. Often, folks took their documents again in for recording after a disaster and later deeds will contain long chains of title, etc.
New York County Selection Table - Select a county from the table below to to view more information on genealogical information & records pertaining to each county.
