Accessible Archives - New York County Histories Digitized - Part 1

The following exciting news is in regard to the New York County Histories that are available now at Accessible Archives. More news to follow very soon!

These books have been digitized and are able to be searched by words or phrases.

If you should enquire about this service please tell them you saw it on Upstate New York Genealogy (UNYG) at http://www.ny-genes.com .

*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*

MALVERN, PENNSYLVANIA (March 1, 2006):- ACCESSIBLE ARCHIVES, Inc., a publisher of electronic full-text searchable historical databases, announces plans to publish: “NEW YORK COUNTY HISTORIES” as a part of the “AMERICAN COUNTY HISTORIES TO 1900” series. Part I is now available and contains over 10,000 pages of text and plates, from the New York counties listed below.

Most of these large volumes were published between 1870 and 1900 and have long formed the cornerstone of local historical and genealogical research. They are encyclopedic in scope and virtually limitless in their research possibilities.

These books included chapters which covered in great detail: local history, geology, geography, weather, transportation, lists of all local participants in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, government, medical and legal professions, churches and ministers, industry and manufacturing, banking and insurance, Schools and teachers, noted celebrations, fire departments and associations, cemeteries, family history, Health and vital statistics, roads and bridges, public officials and legislators, and many others.

The full text searchabilty, will permit the student/researcher to instantly explore all the publications of a particular county by using a single query. In addition, those wishing to read the text on a page by page basis, may do so in the original format by merely scrolling down the screen and then continuing to the next chapter. The Table of Contents is hyperlinked to each chapter as well as to each individual illustration. The user can select a particular graphic from the List of Illustrations, and proceed immediately to it by the merely clicking on the highlighted text.

This technology will eliminate the cumbersome task of reading each volume page by page to find a specific subject. The serious scholar as well as the casual researcher will find a wealth of useful and interesting materials contained in these unique databases.

NEW YORK COUNTY HISTORY (Part 1) (Southeast)

Cooper, J., History of Suffolk County. New York, W.W. Munsell, 1882. 488 pp.

Scharf, J. Thomas, History of Westchester County, 2 vols., Philadelphia, L.E. Preston, 1886. 772 pp.

History of Queens County, 1683-1882, New York, W.W. Munsell, 1882. 472 pp.

History of the Valley of the Hudson, 1609-1930, Ed. by Nelson Greene, 5 vols. Chicago, S.J. Clarke Pub. CO., 1931. 2935 pp.

Stiles, Henry R., The Civil, Political, Professional and Ecclesiastical History of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn from 1683 to 1884, 2 vols., Philadelphia, W.W. Munsell, 1884. 1408 pp.

Bayles, Richard M., History of Richmond County, Staten Island, New York, from its Discovery to the Present Time, 2 vols., New York, L.E. Preston & Co., 1887. 741 pp.

Green, Frank B., The History of Rockland County, New York, A.S. Barnes, 1886. 444 pp.

Pelletreau, W.S., History of Putnam County, Philadelphia, Preston & Co., 1886. 771 pp.

Ruttenber, E.M. & L.H. Clark, History of Orange County, 2 vols.,Philadelphia, Everts & Peck, 1881. 820 pp.

Quinlan, James E., History of Sullivan County, Liberty: Beebe & Morgans, 1873. 700 pp.

For more information, contact:

Rob Nagy

Accessible Archives

697 Sugartown Road

Malvern, PA 19355

(610) 296-7441

Toll Free: 866-296-1488

rnagy@accessible.com

www.accessible.com

Historical Documents Available Online

Historical Documents Available Online
from the New York State Library

The New York State Library in Albany has started scanning and posting on their website several very good research items. There will be a great assortment of them as time goes by but you can start right now with what I consider to be the very best book for New York State research, which is French’s 1860 Gazetteer of New York.

When ever I have teach classes in genealogy I usually start out by saying “Read French’s Gazetteer from cover to cover twice, and then start your research." Tongue in cheek of course, but it is truly one of the most important books there is to get a feel for the communities your ancestors lived in. What ever you do make sure you read all of the footnotes associated with your page of interest, because you will get many specific details on the earliest settlers, churches, businesses, etc.

Some of the other excellent items of interest are a great assortment of maps, Red Books, Atlases, Census info, 41 county and town histories, and one of the most beneficial collections will be the Reports of the Adjutant General for all of the New York Civil War units. If you have used that great collection of books in the past at your local library you will remember that most of them are rough and broken through years of use. This collection is not complete yet but is a work in progress.

There will be many goodies posted as the project moves forward, so bookmark the site, or add it to your favorites and return often.

http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/scandocs/historical.htm

Now, for what ever reason, it seems to work best with Microsoft Internet Explorer. I have been using Mozilla Firefox almost exclusively for a few years now but the library’s digital images did not want to open too well, so I tried IE 6.0 and the images do come up, though slowly. You will absolutely need a high speed Internet connection, (or the patience of Job.) You must allow pop-ups for the website because it opens each document in an Adobe Acrobat pdf format. One other thing I noticed was that the search feature within the documents did not work (at all.) Maybe it is just a bug that needs to be worked out, but you can read all of the documents in their entirety!

Thanks, New York State Library, and all the nice people working on this project.