Place:New York, United States


NameNew York
Alt namesNew Netherlandsource: Canby, Historic Places (1984) II, 658
New York Statesource: Wikipedia
NYsource: Webster's Geographical Dictionary (1988) p 1257
N York
New York Colony
Province of New York
TypeState
Coordinates43°N 75°W
Located inUnited States     (1788 - )
Contained Places
County
Albany ( 1683 - )
Allegany ( 1806 - )
Bronx ( 1914 - )
Broome ( 1806 - )
Cattaraugus ( 1808 - )
Cayuga ( 1799 - )
Chautauqua ( 1808 - )
Chemung ( 1836 - )
Chenango ( 1798 - )
Clinton ( 1788 - )
Columbia ( 1786 - )
Cortland ( 1808 - )
Delaware ( 1797 - )
Dutchess ( 1683 - )
Erie ( 1821 - )
Essex ( 1799 - )
Franklin ( 1808 - )
Fulton ( 1838 - )
Genesee ( 1802 - )
Greene ( 1800 - )
Hamilton ( 1816 - )
Herkimer ( 1791 - )
Jefferson ( 1805 - )
Kings ( 1683 - )
Lewis ( 1805 - )
Livingston ( 1821 - )
Madison ( 1806 - )
Monroe ( 1821 - )
Montgomery ( 1772 - )
Nassau ( 1899 - )
New York ( 1683 - )
Niagara ( 1821 - )
Oneida ( 1798 - )
Onondaga ( 1794 - )
Ontario ( 1789 - )
Orange ( 1683 - )
Orleans ( 1824 - )
Oswego ( 1816 - )
Otsego ( 1791 - )
Putnam ( 1812 - )
Queens ( 1683 - )
Rensselaer ( 7 Feb 1791 - )
Richmond ( 1683 - )
Rockland ( 1798 - )
Saratoga ( 1791 - )
Schenectady ( 1809 - )
Schoharie ( 1795 - )
Schuyler ( 1854 - )
Seneca ( 1804 - )
St. Lawrence ( 1802 - )
Steuben ( 1796 - )
Suffolk ( 1683 - )
Sullivan ( 1809 - )
Tioga ( 1791 - )
Tompkins ( 1817 - )
Ulster ( 1683 - )
Warren ( 1813 - )
Washington ( 1772 - )
Wayne ( 1823 - )
Westchester ( 1683 - )
Wyoming ( 1841 - )
Yates ( 1823 - )
Former county
Charlotte ( 1772 - 1784 )
Inhabited place
New York City ( 1500 - )
Island
Long Island
Unknown
Ellis Island
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

New York most commonly refers to:

  • New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
  • New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States

New York may also refer to:

Contents

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia


Timeline

YearEventSource
1745John Jay, first Chief Judge of the United States is bornSource:Wikipedia
1788New York becomes a stateSource:Wikipedia
1790New York's first censusSource:Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990
1817Governor Dewitt Clinton advocates building a canal connecting the Hudson River with Lake Erie, The Great LakesSource:Wikipedia

Population History

source: Source:Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990
Census Year Population
1790 340,120
1800 589,051
1810 959,049
1820 1,372,812
1830 1,918,608
1840 2,428,921
1850 3,097,394
1860 3,880,735
1870 4,382,759
1880 5,082,871
1890 6,003,174
1900 7,268,894
1910 9,113,614
1920 10,385,227
1930 12,588,066
1940 13,479,142
1950 14,830,192
1960 16,782,304
1970 18,236,967
1980 17,558,072
1990 17,990,455

Note: New York was one of the 13 original States. Since relinquishing its claims to Vermont in 1791, it has had substantially its present boundaries. Census coverage excluded Vermont in 1790, and did not include the far western part of the State until 1800.. Total for 1890 includes population (5,321) of certain Indian reservations, not reported by county.

Information on Current and Defunct Counties

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_counties_in_New_York

Research Tips

One confusion experienced by researchers in New York state is town versus township. In New York, the concepts are equivalent. In my research, I found records giving the living place of an individual alternately as Hempstead and Wantagh. Both are true because Wantagh was a place (village) within the Town of Hempstead in Queens (later Nassau) County. A map showing the various villages within three Towns of current Nassau County helped me see the distinction: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mfox7/gnmap.gif

Current convention at WeRelate is to match to villages and hamlets when that information is known and then to the county, leaving out the designation of Town. When the name of the village is the same as the name of the town, distinguish between the two by adding (village) or (town) to the title of the place page. This essentially is considering Towns the same as mid-western Townships. Link to the Towns only when the village or hamlet is unknown. During GEDCOM upload, the system will assume the city, village or hamlet unless Town is specified.

The following is copied from an article by Walter Greenspan and used with his permission. Full article is at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nyqueen2/History.htm.

NYS Geographic Glossary with the NYS definitions of county, city, town, village, hamlet and postal zone.

In many areas of New York State, the problem of non-conforming postal zones leads to a situation where the majority of places have a different community name in their mailing address than the community where that place is actually located. Thus, postal zone location does not always determine city, village or hamlet location.

County: A county is a municipal corporation, a subdivision of the state, created to perform state functions; a "regional" government. All counties are divided into cities, towns and Indian reservations.

City: A city is a unique governmental entity with its own special charter. Cities are not sub-divided, except into neighborhoods, which are informal geographic areas.

Town: A town is a municipal corporation and encompasses all territory within the state except that within cities or Indian reservations. Towns can be sub-divided into villages and hamlets.

Village: A village is a general purpose municipal corporation formed voluntarily by the residents of an area in one or more towns to provide themselves with municipal services. The pattern of village organization is similar to those of a city. A village is divided into neighborhoods, which are informal geographic areas.

Hamlet: A hamlet is an unincorporated area in one or more towns that is governed at-large by the town(s) it is in. A hamlet is divided into neighborhoods, which are informal geographic areas.

Births, Marriages, and Deaths

FamilySearch.org has a variety of collections available for free online:

In the time period 1780-1850 there were no New England style town vital records. A state law to keep them was passed in 1881, but consistent records were not kept until 1908. Further, there were no county marriage records.

We are used to having records in certain places and in New York that is not always the case. There is no real consistency among counties. Counties differ in what information is recorded, what the record is called, how and where the record is preserved, and how the record is accessed.

Substitutes for vital records are worth looking for. Some are newspapers, justice of the peace records, minister’s records, and church records.

Research Guides

Outstanding guide to New York family history and genealogy (FamilySearch Research Wiki). Birth, marriage, and death records, wills, deeds, county and town records, archives, Bible records, cemeteries, churches, censuses, directories, immigration lists, naturalizations, maps, history, newspapers, and societies.

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at New York. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.