New York's Records and Places

Albany as the Revolutionary War Hub of New York State: Sources in the Capital Region

Eric G. Grundset, MLS

As a major patriot center during the Revolution, Albany became the powerhouse of activity for the patriot side in the Revolution and a major target for British and allied forces. Important records exist to help researchers identify the role of their ancestors in the struggle. Many are located at the New York State Library and the State Archives, but others are found elsewhere.

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The Ancestry NY Portal: Accessing Digitized NYS Archives Records for Free

Jamie Brinkman

The NYS Archives has formed a partnership with Ancestry.com to digitize family history records and make them freely available via the Ancestry NY Portal. Learn about the collections already available, future uploads and the information you can expect to find in the records. Includes demonstrations of account setup and Portal use.

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Decoding the Ancient Documents: Research in the Dutchess County Court Records

William P. Tatum, III, PhD

As a major patriot center during the Revolution, Albany became the powerhouse of activity for the patriot side in the Revolution and a major target for British and allied forces. Important records exist to help researchers identify the role of their ancestors in the struggle. Many are located at the New York State Library and the State Archives, but others are found elsewhere.

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Making the Most of Ancestry.com's Search Engine

Alec Ferretti, MA, MLIS

Attendees will learn tips & tricks to more efficiently search Ancestry’s indexes, by understanding how to leverage their strengths and mitigate their weaknesses. The nuances using records that have been indexed with OCR will be discussed, along with the idiosyncrasies of how they have indexed certain fields of certain records.

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New York City and State Governmental Vital Records

Jane E. Wilcox

New York is notoriously challenging to find births, deaths, and marriages. Learn to navigate New York City and State governmental vital records.

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Oddball records in NYS

Matthew Urtz

Discover oddball records providing family information, addresses, education levels, and more. Some were mandated by laws for brief periods and may exist in other local governments, plus agricultural (stallion pedigrees, farm records), incorporation (religious, not-for-profits), professional licenses (medical, engineering, legal), military (appointments, military board records, remembrance books) records and more.

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Researching New York State Institutional Hospitals

Rhoda Miller

Considerable interest has been expressed in researching New York State institutional hospitals. Strategies for learning more about patients, and their experiences, will be presented despite privacy issues in obtaining records.

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Uncharted Waters: Diving into the Holdings of the New York State Archives

Jane E. Wilcox

This livestream recording will be available through September 30. The New York State Archives (NYSA) holds a diverse collection of state governmental records. Learn familiar and obscure resources to help advance your NY research. Includes a finding aid demonstration.

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Understanding New York State Local Government

David Lowry

This session will introduce the multilayered, complex, and confusing world of New York State local government, an important source of genealogical records. It will provide tips on records access including the best contacts in each local government and introduce genealogists to some unusual records series.

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