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- source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
- source: Family History Library Catalog
- the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia
Rensselaer County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 163,129. Its name is in honor of the family of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the original Dutch owner of the land in the area. Its county seat is Troy. It is part of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
- the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia
- For the history of Rensselaer County prior to 1791, see Albany County, New York
The area that is now Rensselaer County was inhabited by the Algonquian-speaking Mohican Indian tribe at the time of European encounter. Kiliaen van Rensselaer, a Dutch jeweler and merchant, purchased the area in 1630 and incorporated it in his patroonship Rensselaerswyck. (It was part of the Dutch colony New Netherland).
The land passed into English rule in 1664; the Dutch regained control in 1673, but the English took it back in 1674. Until 1776, the year of American independence, the county was under English or British control. The county was not organized as a legal entity until 1791, when it was created from land that was originally part of Albany County.
In 1807, in a county re-organization, the rural sections of Troy were set off as towns, and the city was incorporated. The two towns created were Brunswick and Grafton, both named after British dukes, (the Duke of Brunswick and Duke of Grafton). A third town, Philipstown, was set off in 1806, but renamed in 1808 to Nassau after the Duke of Nassau.
Timeline
Population History
- source: Source:Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990
| Census Year | Population
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| 1800 | 30,351
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| 1810 | 36,309
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| 1820 | 40,153
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| 1830 | 49,424
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| 1840 | 60,259
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| 1850 | 73,363
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| 1860 | 86,328
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| 1870 | 99,549
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| 1880 | 115,328
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| 1890 | 124,511
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| 1900 | 121,697
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| 1910 | 122,276
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| 1920 | 113,129
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| 1930 | 119,781
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| 1940 | 121,834
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| 1950 | 132,607
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| 1960 | 142,585
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| 1970 | 152,510
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| 1980 | 151,966
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| 1990 | 154,429
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Research Tips
External links
- Outstanding guide to Rensselaer County family history and genealogy resources (FamilySearch Research Wiki). Birth, marriage, and death records, censuses, wills, deeds, county and town histories, cemeteries, churches, newspapers, libraries, and genealogical societies.
- www.rootsweb.com/~nyrensse/
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