On 21 Sep 2019, I drove down to the Buffalo Public Library where the WNYGS was giving a program about the New York State Archives (NYSA). Their guest speaker was an employee from NYSA named Monica Gray.
Though I haven’t visited the New York State Archives, I am beginning to better understand how they work. Here are my notes from the program:
- Recommended Reading: Genealogical Resources in NY by Estelle Guzik
- NYSA does NOT have copies of vital records, but they do have indexes
- The Reference Services really do encourage contact for genealogy questions
- Digital Collections:
- Search by Place Name (upper right hand box)
- Filter by topic, date, agency
- You can further narrow down results by decade
- You can download images
- NYPL (nysl.nysed.gov)
- These are different digital collections than NYSA
- Quick Links to frequently used pages: genealogy, newspaper, manuscripts and special collections
- Ancestry NYS
- New record sets are coming in January
- Partner Institutions are listed
- (I’m curious if Ancestry has agreements like this with other states)
- Try the search box to search all collections
- (I’m curious which collections are leaf hints)
- (I wish Ancestry would indicate which collections are leaf hints and which ones are not – maybe I should call them)
- New York, Census of Inmates in Almshouses and Poorhouses, 1830-1920 (Clarence Webb is listed in this collection)
- 1875 Poorhouse Records Law required records to be kept
- Visiting the NYSA – Tuesdays are bad, Saturdays are good
- They do two pulls a day: 10:30 and 2:00 (sometimes an additional pull at noon on Saturdays)
- You can call ahead to pull records in advance
- You can register in advance online or complete in person
- Laptops and cameras are allowed – Scanners? It depends, usually not but as technology improves…
- Call ahead to ask the archivist for advice (518)474-8955 or [email protected]
