Hamilton County, New York Guide

Hamilton County is located in north-central New York. The county was created in 1816 with land partitioned from Montgomery County. Hamilton County is bordered by Franklin and and St. Lawrence and Essex Counties to the north; Warren and Saratoga Counties to the east, Fulton County to the south, and Herkimer County to the west.​

County Formed: 1816

Parent County: Montgomery

Major Land Transactions: Sacandaga Patent 1741; Totten and Crossfield Purchase 1771 – 1787  

 

Hamilton County Map
Map of Hamilton County 

 

 

Table of Contents 

 

 

 

History

The area that is known as Hamilton County was once used as hunting territory for the Mohawk Nation, located to the south of the territory.  White settlement of the county did not occur until 1792. Population and settlement continued to grow steadily from this point on to 1810.  The first sawmill was built at Lake Pleasant in 1795, the lumbering industry later reached its heyday in the late 19th century. Since this lumbering boom, the trade has remained at the heart of the county’s economy. By the late 19th century tourism became another outlet for economic activity, with most of northern Hamilton being assembled into tracts of park space. Major land transactions to occur in this area were the Sacandaga Patent of 1741 and the Totten and Crossfield Purchase of 1771 – 1787. The county was named in honor of the first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton; the Town of Lake Pleasant is currently the county seat.

Sources:

  • The Encyclopedia of New York State p. 689

 

 

 

Repositories, Resources, and Societies – County

Hamilton County Clerk

Website: Hamilton County Clerk 

Address: 102 County View Drive, PO Box 204, Lake Pleasant, NY 12108

Phone: (518) 548-7111

 Email: countyclerk@hamiltoncountyny.gov

 

Hamilton County - Town and Village Clerks 

Website: Hamilton County – Town and Village Clerks

Birth, marriage, and death records are maintained by the clerk of the municipality in which the event occurred

 

Hamilton County Surrogate's Court

Website: Hamilton County Surrogate’s Court

Address: Chief Clerk’s Office, 79 White Birch Lane, PO Box 780, Indian Lake, NY 12842

Phone: (518) 648-5411 or 518-548-3211

 

Hamilton County Public Libraries 

Website: Hamilton County Public Libraries

Hamilton is part of the Southern Adirondack Library System; many local libraries hold genealogy and local history collections.

 

Hamilton County Historian 

Website: Hamilton County Historian

Address: 102 County View Drive, PO Box 205, Lake Pleasant, NY 12108

Phone: (518) 548-5526

Email: historian@HamiltonCountyNY.gov

 

Hamilton County - All Municipal Historians

Website: ​Hamilton County – All Municipal Historians

While not authorized to answer genealogical inquiries, city, town, and village historians can provide valuable historical information and research advice to family historians; some maintain collections with genealogical material.

 

 

 

Repositories, Resources, and Societies – Regional

Adirondack Experience Museum Library

Website: Adirondack Experience Museum Library

Address: 9097 NY-30, Blue Mountain Lake, NY 12812

Phone: (518) 352-7311

 

Fulton-Montgomery Community College: The Kenneth R. Dorn Regional History Study Center at Evans Library

Website:  The Kenneth R. Dorn Regional History Study Center

Address: 2805 State Highway 67, Johnstown, NY 12095

Phone: (518) 212 - 7685

Email: libinfo@fmcc.edu

 

 

 

Repositories, Resources, and Societies – Local

Alphabetized by location

Morehouse Historical Museum 

Website: Morehouse Historical Museum

Address: Route 8, Box 1 • Hoffmeister, NY 13353

Email: BearPath@ntcnet.com

 

Inlet Historical Society 

Website: Inlet Historical Society

Address: PO Box 473, Inlet, NY 13360

Email: info@InletHistoricalSociety.org

 

Long Lake Historical Society & Archives Building

Website: Long Lake Historical Society & Archives Building

Address: 1132 Deerland Road, PO Box 201, Long Lake, NY 1284

Phone: (518) 524-5374

Email: llarchives@frontiernet.net

 

Piseco Lake Historical Society, Museum, and Riley Tavern

Website: Piseco Lake Historical Society

Address: Old Piseco Road, Piseco, NY 12139

Phone: (518) 548-4920

 

Historical Society of Lake Pleasant 

Website: Historical Society of Lake Pleasant & Speculator

Address: PO Box 103, Speculator, NY 12164

Phone: (518) 548-4478

Email: lphistory@frontiernet.net

 

 

 

Civil, Public, and Vital Records

Civil Records are those created, recorded and/or maintained by a governmental body and include births, marriages, deaths, censuses, property, and probate. NB: The New York State government began collecting vital record data in 1880. Birth, marriage, and death records from New York State (excluding the five boroughs of New York City) after 1880 on can be obtained from the New York State Department of Health. For vital records previous to 1880, consult the municipality in which the event took place. Learn more about New York's vital records in our online guide.

 

 

 

Federal Census Records

Population schedules: 1790-1940 (except 1890).

Online at Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, and Findmypast.com (free to NYG&B members).

Access on Findmypast:

1790

1800

1810

1820

1830

1840

1850

1860

1870

1880

1900

1910

1920

1930

1940

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

State Census Records

  • County originals at Hamilton County Clerk’s office: 1825, 1892, 1905, 1915, 1925 (1835, 1845, 1855, 1865, and 1875 are lost)
  • State originals at the NYSA: 1815, 1925
  • Microfilm at the FHL, NYPL, NYSHA, and NYSL
  • Many years are online at FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com.
  • Although created in 1816, Hamilton County is included in the 1825 New York state census for Montgomery County. The towns (Hope, Lake Pleasant, and Wells) are enumerated separately and Hope and Lake Pleasant have been indexed by the Montgomery County Department of History and Archives.

 

 

 

Online Resources

General Resources

 

​​Ancestry.com

There are vast numbers of records on Ancestry.com that pertain to people who have lived in New York State. A search of the online card catalog by county may reveal lesser known resources that pertain to a locality, such as town records, abstracts, transcriptions, city directories, and local histories.

FamilySearch.org

FamilySearch has extensive collections of New York records, including religious records, which are searchable by name and location, but not by county. The following collections include record images (browsable, but not searchable) that are organized by county

NYGenWeb Project: Hamilton County

Part of the national, USGenWeb volunteer initiative, the website provides information and resources for county research.

 

Deaths and Burials

 

Military Records

 

Maps

 

Other Records

 

Transportation

 

 

 

Selected Bibliography

Abstracts, Indexes & Transcriptions

  •  Becker, Edith V., Melvin W. Lethbridge, and Leslie A. Frye. Cemetery Records of Saratoga, Herkimer, and Hamilton Counties. New York: Montgomery County (NY) Department of History and Archives, 1939. Includes index.
  • County of Hamilton Abstracts. Syracuse: Central New York Genealogical Society, 2000. Abstracts for a range of genealogical records originally published in the quarterly Tree Talks.  A name index is on the CNYGS website.
  • Daughters of the American Revolution, comps. New York DAR Genealogical Records Committee Report. Since 1913 DAR volunteers have transcribed many thousands of unpublished cemetery, church, and town records throughout New York. The reports are at the DAR Library; copies are at the NYSL and the NYPL. The DAR has a searchable name index to all the GRC reports at http://services.dar.org/Public/DAR_Research/search/?Tab_ID=6. See Jean Worden’s index below for a listing by county of the New York record sets that were transcribed by the DAR before 1998.
  • Fyvie, Helen B. Cemeteries of Fulton and Hamilton Counties. Salt Lake City, Utah: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1980.
  • Hamilton County Clerk. Deed Books, 1797–1901; Indexes to Deeds and Mortgages, 1797–1959. Salt Lake City: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1968.
  • Hamilton County Clerk. Marriage Records, 1908–1936. Salt Lake City: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1979.
  • Hamilton County Court. Naturalization Records, 1854–1906. Salt Lake City: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1979. Includes index.
  • Hamilton County Supreme Court. Lis Pendens, No. 1, 1880–1902, with Index. Salt Lake City: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1968.
  • Hamilton County Surrogate’s Court. Estate Papers, Nos. 1–1468; 1861–1900s. Salt Lake City: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1968.
  • Hamilton County Surrogate’s Court. Probate Records, 1861–1934. Salt Lake City: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1968. Includes index.
  • Kelly, Arthur C. M. Index to Tree Talks County Packet: Hamilton County. Rhinebeck, NY: Kinship, 2002.
  • Kennedy, Jesse, and Lorraine Kennedy. “Cemetery Inscriptions from Fulton and Hamilton Counties, New York.” Typescript, 1969–1970.
  • Worden, Jean D. “Book 1, Subject Index.” In Revised Master Index to the New York State Daughters of the American Revolution Genealogical Records Volumes. Zephyrhills, FL: J. D. Worden, 1998. The Subject Index includes a listing by county of the cemeteries, churches, towns, and other sources of records transcribed by the DAR.

 

 

The materials above are a compilation of resources available, with an emphasis on online resources, which might be useful to someone doing research within this county.  The inclusion of a link does not constitute an endorsement of its content or accuracy.  Please send any additions or corrections to webmaster@nygbs.org.