St. Lawrence county is bordered by Canada and the New York counties of Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, Lewis, and Herkimer.
County Formed: 1802
Parent County: Clinton
Daughter Counties: None
Major Land Transactions: St. Lawrence Ten Towns, 1787; Macomb Purchase 1792
Table of Contents
- History
- Cities, Towns, and Villages
- Repositories, Resources, and Societies – County
- Repositories, Resources, and Societies – Regional
- Repositories, Resources, and Societies – Local
- Civil, Public, and Vital Records
- Federal Census Records
- State Census Records
- Online Resources
- Selected Bibliography
History
In its earliest years, St. Lawrence County received many immigrants from New England, supplemented by Scots, Irish, and Canadians by 1855. Formed on March 3, 1802 from Clinton County, St. Lawrence County is named after the St. Lawrence River that serves as the county’s northern boundary.
St. Lawrence County boasts one city and thirty two towns that include 13 villages. The Village of Canton is St. Lawrence County’s seat and it is New York State’s largest county by land area.
The 19th century economy of St. Lawrence consisted of farming, the extraction of minerals and forest products, and a small, but significant amount of manufacturing.
The construction of the Northern Railroad encouraged a shift to dairy farming, but the construction of these new railroads did not really help settlers travel through the undeveloped Adirondacks region of the county.
Repositories, Resources, and Societies – County
St. Lawrence County Clerk
Website: St. Lawrence County Clerk
Address: Building #2, 48 Court Street, Canton, NY 13617
Phone: (315) 379-2237
Business certificates, court records, land records 1802–present, naturalization records 1802–1906, marriages 1908–1936, survey maps, and St. Lawrence county original of the New York state census for 1905. Website has a list of local clerks’ offices.
St. Lawrence County - City, Town, and Village Clerks
Website: St. Lawrence County – City, Town, and Village Clerks
Birth, marriage, and death records are maintained by the clerk of the municipality in which the event occurred; see Introduction to County Guides for details of other records which may also be held by municipal clerks.
St. Lawrence County Surrogate's Court
Website: St. Lawrence County Surrogate’s Court
Address: St. Lawrence County Courthouse, 48 Court Street Canton, NY 13617
Phone: (315) 379-2217
St. Lawrence County Public Libraries
Website: St. Lawrence County Public Libraries
St. Lawrence County Historical Association, County Historian, and Silas Wright Museum
Website: St. Lawrence County Historical Association, County Historian, and Silas Wright Museum
Address: 3 East Main Street, PO Box 8, Canton, NY 13617
Phone: (315) 386-8133
Email: slcha@northnet.org
St. Lawrence County- All Municipal Historians
Website: St. Lawrence County – All Municipal Historians
St. Lawrence Valley Genealogical Society
Website: St. Lawrence Valley Genealogical Society
Address: PO Box 205, Canton, NY 13617-0205
Repositories, Resources, and Societies – Regional
Adirondack Genealogical-Historical Society
Website:Adirondack Genealogical-Historical Society
Address: 100 Main Street, Saranac Lake, NY 12983
Region includes Clinton, Essex, and St. Lawrence counties. Offers research services at the Saranac Lake Free Library: The William Chapman White Memorial Room: Adirondack Research Center.
Adirondack Experience Museum Library
Website: Adirondack Experience Museum Library
Address: 9097 NY-30, Blue Mountain Lake, NY 12812
Phone: (518) 352-7311
The William Chapman White Memorial Adirondack Research Room at the Saranac Lake Free Library:
Website: William Chapman White Memorial Adirondack Research Room at the Saranac Lake Free Library
Address: 109 Main Street, Saranac Lake, NY 12983
Phone: (518) 891-0807
Email: sllibrary@adelphia.net
Village of Saranac Lake shared with Franklin County. Books, manuscripts, periodicals, newspapers, and pamphlets; federal and state census microfilm for Essex, Franklin, Clinton, and St. Lawrence counties 1850–1925; church records; obituary index; maps, gazetteers, and atlases 1869, 1876; photographs and postcards; cemetery inscriptions published by the Adirondack Genealogical and Historical Society; county, town, and municipal histories; genealogies and biographies; high school yearbooks and school attendance records; and early tuberculosis patient history from the Trudeau Sanatorium.
St. Lawrence University: Special Collections and Vance University Archives
Website: Special Collections and Vance University Archives
Address: Owen D. Young Library, Park Street, Canton, NY 13617
Phone: (315)-229-5476 or (315)-229-5956
State University of New York at Oswego: Local History Collection
Website: Local History Collection
Address: Penfield Library, Special Collections, Oswego, NY 13126
Phone: (315) 312-3537
Email: archives@oswego.edu
Repositories, Resources, and Societies – Local
Alphabetized by location
Colton Hepburn Library
Website: Colton Hepburn Library
Website: 84 Main Street, Colton NY 13625-0007
Phone: 315-262-2310
Colton Historical Society and Museum
Website: Colton Historical Society and Museum
Address: 89 Main Street, PO Box 223, Colton, NY 13625
Phone: (315) 262-2524
Email: collib@nnyln.net
Town of De Kalb Historical Association, Museum, and Historian's Office
Website: Town of De Kalb Historical Association, Museum, and Historian’s Office
Address: Old Methodist Meetinghouse Museum, 2nd Floor, 696 East De Kalb Road, PO Box 111, De Kalb Junction, NY 13630
Phone: (315) 347-1900
Email: deputyhist@tds.net
Edwards Historical Assocation and History & Genealogy Center
Website: Edwards Historical Association and History & Genealogy Center
Address: Edwards Town Hall, 161 Main Street, Edwards, NY 13635
Phone: (315) 562-3500
Email: historian@edwardshistory.org
Gouverneur Historical Association and Museum
Website: Gouverneur Historical Association and Museum
Website: 30 Church Street, Gouverneur, NY 13642
Phone: (315) 287-0570
Email: gouverneurmuseum@centralny.twcbc.com
R.T. Elethorp Historical Society and Hammond Historical Museum
Website: R.T. Elethorp Historical Society and Hammond Historical Museum
Address:Route 37, PO Box 107, Hammond, NY 13646
Phone: (315) 324-5517
Hepburn Library of Lisbon
Website: Hepburn Library of Lisbon
Address: 6899 Country Route 10, Lisbon, NY 13658
Phone: (315) 393-0111
Email: lislib@ncls.org
Massena Town Museum and Historical Association
Website: Massena Town Museum and Historical Association
Address: 200 East Orvis Street, Massena, NY 13662
Phone: (315) 769-8571
Email: historian@massenaworks.com
Norfolk Town Historical Museum
Website: Norfolk Town Historical Museum
Address: 42 ½ West Main Street, PO Box 643, Norfolk, NY 13667
Phone: (315) 384-3136 or 384-4575
Email: norfolk@centralny.twcbc.com
Norwood Historical Association & Susan C. Lyman Historical Museum
Website: Norwood Historical Association & Susan C. Lyman Historical Museum
Address: 39 North Main Street, PO Box 163, Norwood, NY 13668
Museum Phone: (315) 353-2751
Historical Association Phone: 315) 384-3273
Ogdensburg Public Library: Local History Room and Archives
Website: Ogdensburg Public Library
Address: 312 Washington Street, Ogdensburg, NY 13669
Phone: (315) 393-3540
Parishville Historical Association and Museum
Website: Parishville Historical Association and Museum
Address: 1785 East Main Street, PO Box 534, Parishville, NY 13672
Phone: (315) 265-4232
Pierrepont Museum
Website: Pierrepont Museum
Address: 872 State Highway 68, Pierrepont, NY 13617
Phone: (315) 379-0804
Potsdam Public Museum
Website: Potsdam Public Museum
Address: Civic Center, 2 Park Street, PO Box 5168, Potsdam, NY 13676-5168
Phone: (315) 265-6910
Email: museum@vi.potsdam.ny.us
Richville Historical Association
Website: Richville Historical Association
Address: 24 Depot Street, PO Box 207, Richville, NY 13681
Phone: (315) 287-0667
Russell Public Library and Museum
Website: Russell Public Library and Museum
Address: 24 Pestle Street, PO Box 510, Russell, NY 13684
Phone: (315) 347-2115
Email: ruslib@ncls.org
Moore Museum and Waddington Historian
Address: 79 West St. Lawrence Avenue, PO Box 277, Waddington, NY 13694
Phone: (315) 388-5967
Email: wadhist@northnet.org
Stockholm Historical Organization
Website: Stockholm Historical Organization
Address: 607 State Highway 11C, PO Box 206, Winthrop, NY 13697
Phone: (315) 389-5062 or (315) 384-4764
Email: stckhmhistorg@slic.com
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:
|
|
State Census Records
- County originals at St. Lawrence County Clerk's Office: 1845, 1865, 1905, 1915, 1925 (1825, 1855, 1875, and 1892 are lost).
- County original at NYSL: 1835 (Town of Gouverneur only)
- State originals at the NYSA: 1915, 1925.
- Microfilm at the FHL, NYPL, and NYSL
- Some years are online at www.FamilySearch.org and www.ancestry.com.
- 1845: Transcriptions for the towns of Brasher, Hopkinton, and Warwick at St. Lawrence County Historical Association; for the towns of Brasher and Lawrence, see Nyando Roots Genealogical Club in Abstracts, Indexes & Transcriptions
- 1865: Transcriptions for the towns of Madrid, Massina, Morristown, Norfolk, Oswegatchie, and Parishville at St. Lawrence County Historical Association
- 1892: For the Town of Parishville, see Young in Abstracts, Indexes & Transcriptions
Online Resources
General Resources
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 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
Deaths and Burial Records
Maps
- New York, Land Records, 1630–1975 - Includes land and property records
Newspapers
New York Heritage Digital Collections: New York State Newspaper Project
The website provides links to digital newspapers collections in 26 counties (currently) made accessible through New York Heritage, New York State Historic Newspapers, HRVH Historical Newspapers, and other providers.
Other Records
- New York, Probate Records, 1629–1971 - Includes wills, letters of administration, and guardianship papers.
Selected Bibliography
Abstracts, Indexes & Transcriptions
- County of St. Lawrence 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.
- Fuller, Joyce Rockwood. “St. Lawrence County, New York, Death Records.” Manuscript, 2001. New York State Library, Albany.
- Jackson, Ronald Vern, W. David Samuelson, and Scott Rosenkilde. New York 1815 Census Index. Bountiful, UT: Accelerated Indexing Systems, 1984. Names compiled from tax assessment rolls. Also see FHL microfilm titled: Transcript of Information from Tax Assessment Roll and Other Sources for Potsdam, New York. Salt Lake City: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1968.
- Kelly, Arthur C. M. Index to Tree Talks County Packet: St. Lawrence County. Rhinebeck, NY: Kinship, 2002.
- Lacy, Cindy Clowe. Some Cemeteries of St. Lawrence Co., NY. Painted Post, NY: C. C. Lacy, 1994.
- Nyando Roots Genealogical Club. “1845 New York State Census for Towns of Brasher and Lawrence, St. Lawrence County.” Nyando Roots, vol. 16, no. 4 (1999): 2–16 [towns of Brasher and Lawrence]; vol. 17, no. 1 (2000): 8–16 [Lawrence continued]; vol. 17, no. 2 (2000): 12–18 [Lawrence continued].
- 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.
- Young, Norman, comp. “Parishville Census, Enumerator’s Blotter 3rd Election District, 1892 New York State Census.” SLVGS News, vol. 12, no. 1 (1995): 11–12; vol. 12, no. 2 (1995): 10–11.
Other Resources
- Beers, S. N. New Topographical Atlas of St. Lawrence Co., New York: From Actual Surveys. Philadelphia, 1865. [NYPL Digital Gallery]
- Carson, Patricia Harrington. St. Lawrence County Portraits. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2005.
- Child, Hamilton. Gazetteer and Business Directory of St. Lawrence County, N.Y., for 1873–4. Syracuse: Printed at the Journal Office, 1873.
- Curtis, Gates. Our County and Its People: A Memorial Record of St. Lawrence County, New York. Syracuse, 1894.
- Durant, Samuel W. History of St. Lawrence Co., New York, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers. Interlaken, NY: Heart of the Lakes Publishing, 1982.
- Fay, Loren V. St. Lawrence County, New York, Genealogical Research Secrets. Albany: L. V. Fay, 1981.
- Harder, Kelsie B., and Mary H. Smallman. Claims to Name: Toponyms of St. Lawrence County. Utica, NY: North Country Books, 1992.
- Hough, Franklin Benjamin. A History of St. Lawrence and Franklin Counties, New York, From the Earliest Period to the Present Time. Baltimore, MD: Regional Publishing Co., 1970. First published 1853.
- James, Patricia R. Upstate New York Researcher: Principally for Research in Jefferson, Oneida, and St. Lawrence Counties. Boise, ID: Family Tree, 1991.
- New York Historical Resources Center. Guide to Historical Resources in St. Lawrence County, New York Repositories. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 1987. [books.FamilySearch.org]
- Northern New York Library Network. Director y of Archival and Historical Document Collections. 2011–2013 edition; published digitally at http://nny.nnyln.org/archives/ArchivalDirectory.pdf. Online indexes at http://nny.nnyln.org/archives/page01.html. Describes collections held by organizations in Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis, Oswego, and St. Lawrence counties.
- Saint Lawrence County Historical Association. The Quarterly. Canton, NY: St. Lawrence County Historical Association, 1956—present. An index is online at www.slcha.org/quarterly/quarterlyindex.php.
- St. Lawrence County History A View from the People: A Photographic Portrait by Those Who Live Here Canton, NY: St. Lawrence County Historical Association, 1975.
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.