Warren County is bordered by Essex, Washington, Hamilton, and Saratoga counties.
County Formed: 1813
Parent County: Washington
Daughter Counties: None
Major Land Transactions: Totten and Crossfield Purchase 1771 - 1787
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
Warren County never saw a permanent settlement by Native peoples, but was a seasonal hunting ground for Mohawk Indians. The first recorded European to see Lake George was Father Isaac Jogues, in 1642- 43, he tried with little success to convert the Native Americans to Christianity. Warren County has seen a great deal of early colonial warfare, as various forts were built in the area. The county witnessed the one of the bloodiest episodes of the French and Indian War, the Battle of Lake George in 1755. Many fled from the county after an advance made by British General John Burgoyne, during the American Revolution in 1777. The Totten and Crossfield Purchase of 1771 – 1787 was a major land transaction that occurred at this time, and by 1813 Warren County officially formed from Washington County. Agriculture and mining for material have characterized much of Warren’s County economic background. At the turn of the century the county became known as an area of leisure, as Lake George’s scenic beauty grew into a beloved tourist destination. The county seat is located at the Town of Queensbury and the county itself was named after Revolutionary hero, Joseph Warren.
Reference: The Encyclopedia of New York State p.1657 – 1658
Repositories, Resources, and Societies – County
Warren County Clerk, Records Center & Archives
Website: Warren County Clerk, Records Center & Archives
Address: Warren County Municipal Center, 1340 State Route 9, Lake George, NY 12845
Phone: (518) 761-6455
Select collections are online; see Infodex for online indexes. No subscription is necessary for Warren County.
Warren County - Town and Village Clerks
Website: Warren County –Town and Village Clerks
Address: Warren County Municipal Center, 1340 State Route 9, Lake George, NY 12845
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.
Warren County Surrogate's Court
Website: Warren County Surrogate’s Court
Address: Warren County Municipal Center, 1340 State Route 9, Lake George, NY 12845
Phone: (518) 761-6514
Email: WarrenSurrogate@nycourts.gov
Warren County Public Libraries
Website: Warren County Public Libraries
Warren County is part of the Southern Adirondack Library System. Addresses and contact information vary by location. Many hold genealogy and local history collections.
Crandall Public Library: Folklife Center
Website: Crandall Public Library: Folklife Center
Address: 251 Glen Street • Glens Falls, NY 12801
Phone: (518) 792-6508
Email: info@crandalllibrary.org
Holds a copy of the New York State Vital Records Indexes. The Center maintains the library’s Special Collections and Archives, consisting of books and periodicals, cemetery transcriptions (Warren, Washington, and Saratoga counties), church record transcriptions, city directories, family papers, maps (including Sanborn Maps), manuscripts, 61,000 photographs, scrapbooks, vertical files, and yearbooks.
Warren County Historian
Website: Warren County Historian
Address: Warren County Municipal Center, Room 7-122, Warren County Clerk’s Wing, 1340 State Route 9 • Lake George, NY 12845
Phone: (518) 761-6544
Warren County - All Municipal Historians
Website: Warren County – All Municipal Historians
While not authorized to answer genealogical inquiries, town and village historians can provide valuable historical information and research advice; some maintain collections and webpages which may include transcribed records, local histories, and other genealogical material.
Warren County Historical Society
Website: Warren County Historical Society
Address: 50 Gurney Lane, Queensbury, NY 12804
Phone: (518) 743-0734
Email: mail@warrencountyhistoricalsociety.org
Repositories, Resources, and Societies – Regional
Adirondack Museum Library
Website: Adirondack Museum Library
Address: 9097 NY-30, Blue Mountain Lake, NY 12812
Phone: 516) 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
Northeastern New York Genealogical Society
Website: Northeastern New York Genealogical Society
Address: 195 Sunnyside Road, Queensbury, NY 12804
Phone: (518) 743-0734
Email: mail@warrencountyhistoricalsociety.org
In mid-2014, the Northeastern Historical Society began working closely with the Warren County Historical Society and the organizations may merge in the future. Patents: The Northeastern New York Genealogical Society Bulletin, published bi-monthly since 1962, covers Warren, Washington, Saratoga and Essex counties.
SUNY Adirondack: Hill Collection of Local History
Website: Hill Collection of Local History
Address: Scoville Learning Center, 640 Bay Road, Queensbury, NY 12804
Phone: (518) 743-2260
Email: librarian@sunyacc.edu
Repositories, Resources, and Societies – Local
Alphabetized by location
Historical Society of the Town of Bolton and Bolton Historical Museum
Website: Bolton Historical Society and Historical Museum
Address: 4924 Main Street, Bolton Landing, NY 12814
Phone: (518) 644-9960
Email: info@boltonhistorical.org
Chapman Historical Museum
Website: Chapman Historical Museum
Address: 348 Glen Street, Glens Falls, NY 12801
Phone: (518) 793-2826
Email: ContactUs@ChapmanMuseum.org
Hague Historical Society and Hague Historical Museum
Website: Hague Historical Society and Historical Museum
Museum Address: 9793 Graphite Mountain Road, Hague, NY 12836
Museum Phone: (518) 543-6161
Society Address: PO Box 794, Hague, NY 12836-0794
Email: haguehistoricalsociety@yahoo.com
Warrensburg Historical Society
Website: Warrensburg Historical Society
Address: 3754 Main Street, PO Box 441, Warrensburg, NY 12885
Phone: 518-232-7349 or 518-623-2928
Email: whs7396@yahoo.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:
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State Census Records
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County originals at Warren County Records Center & Archives: 1855, 1865, 1875, 1892, 1905, 1915, 1925 (1825, 1835, and 1845 are lost)
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State originals at NYSA: 1915, 1925
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Microfilm at the FHL, NYPL, NYSHA, and NYSL
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Many years are online at FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com.
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
NYGenWeb Project: Warren County
Part of the national, USGenWeb volunteer initiative, the website provides information and resources for county research.
Maps
- New York, Land Records, 1630–1975 - Includes land and property records.
Other Records
- New York, Probate Records, 1629–1971 - Includes wills, letters of administration, and guardianship papers.
Selected Bibliography
Abstracts, Indexes & Transcriptions
- Barber, Gertrude Audrey. “Abstracts of Wills of Warren County, N.Y., from 1813–1850: Copied from the Original Records at the Surrogate’s Office, Glens Falls, N.Y.” Typescript, 1937. NYPL, New York.
- County of Warren Abstracts. Syracuse: Central New York Genealogical Society, 2000. Abstracts for a range of genealogical records originally published in the quarterly Tree Talks.
- 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.
- Harris, Edward D. “Inscriptions in the Luzerne Cemetery, Warren County, New York, as Found in 1912.” Manuscript, 1912. NYPL, New York.
- Haviland, Mrs. Frank. “Essex and Warren County Cemetery Records.” Typescript, 1925. NYPL, New York.
- Kelly, Arthur C. M. Index to Tree Talks County Packet: Warren County. Rhinebeck, NY: Kinship, 2002.
- Warren County, NYG&B Church Surveys Collection. NYG&B, New York. [NYG&B eLibrary]
- 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.
Other Resources
- Beers, F. W. County Atlas of Warren, New York. New York, 1876.
- Brown, William H. History of Warren County, New York. Queensbury, NY: Board of Supervisors of Warren County, 1963.
- Child, Hamilton. Gazetteer and Business Directory of Saratoga County, N.Y., and Queensbury, Warren County, for 1871. Syracuse, 1871.
- Fay, Loren V. Warren County, New York, Genealogical Research Secrets. Albany: L. V. Fay 1983.
- Guide to Local Historical Materials: A Union List of the Holdings of Public Libraries in Saratoga, Warren, Washington and Hamilton Counties. Saratoga Springs, NY: Southern Adirondack Library System, 1977.
- Holden, A. W. A History of the Town of Queensbury, in the State of New York: With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Distinguished Men and Pioneers, and Some Account of the Aborigines of Northern New York. Albany, 1874.
- Hyde, Louis F. History of Glens Falls, New York, and its Settlement. Glens Falls, NY: n.p., 1936.
- Metcalfe, Ann B. The Schroon River: A History of an Adirondack Valley and Its People. Lake George, NY: Warren County Historical Society, 2000.
- New York Historical Resources Center. Guide to the Historical Resources in Warren County, New York Repositories. Cornell University, 1982. [books.FamilySearch.org]
- The Patents: The Northeastern New York Genealogical Society Newsletter. Queensbury, NY: Northeastern New York Genealogical Society, 1982–present. www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nywarren/community/nnygs.htm
- Smith, H. P. History of Warren County With Illustrations and Bibliographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers. Syracuse, 1885. Reprint, Interlaken, NY: Heart of the Lakes Publishing, 1981.
- Warren County Historical Society (NY). Warren County: (New York): Its People & Their History Over Time. Virginia Beach, VA: Donning Co., 2009.
- Writers’ Program of the Works Project Administration in the State of New York. Warren County: A History and Guide. New York: The Warren County Board of Supervisors, 1942.
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.