RESEARCHERS OF EASTERN NEW YORK GENEALOGY

Cliff Lamere

Most recent revision:  12 Mar 2013

Original version:  27 Apr 2002

Below, there is a list of genealogists who do research for a fee.  Following that is a list of the major research sites within 50 miles of Albany, NY and a description of some of the resources available at that site.  For each researcher, there is a list of the research they will do in each county.  Look at the list of research sites to get an idea of where your research could be conducted in this area.  Then, you can look for someone who researches at that facility.  Contact the researchers for their fees.

LIST OF RESEARCHERS (click on a name for more information, or just browse below)

Nancy J. Curran**

David Fiske**

Coreen Hallenbeck**

Sylvia Hasenkopf**

Diane Koenig 

Cliff Lamere**

Sally Light

Jenn Olmstead

Nancy Paulsen

Rebecca Rector**
Donna M. Radz (withdrawn for reasons best told by the people who paid her but did not get the research done.  To

     read about some of their experiences, click here.)

LIST OF RESEARCH SITES AND THEIR HOLDINGS   

      (from my Guide to Albany Area Genealogical Resources listing 44 research facilities and showing more

       holdings than listed below, plus things like address, phone number, hours of operation, website and email

       addresses, and photocopy fees.  Some of the facilities will do searches for a fee, some for a donation.)

       Examinining this list will give you an idea of what is available to the researcher at various sites, but realize

       that the resources at some locations are too numerous to list them all.

Albany Co.

New York State Archives  (Albany)  -  Microfiche index of births (1881-1929), marriages (1881-1954) and deaths (1880-1954).  The index covers all parts of the state except New York City, but for Albany, Buffalo and Yonkers, it does not include marriage records before 1908, or birth and death records before 1914  (obtain those from the respective city).  The marriage index will not tell the name of the spouse.  The Archives also has military records for Revolutionary War (most were lost in a fire), Civil War (on microfilm), and World War I (service record cards with extensive information).

 

New York State Library  (Albany)  -  Research can be done for all counties in the state (New York City records and materials are limited).  Holdings:  church record transcriptions or microfilms; state censuses for NY on microfilm (1825-1925); federal censuses for NY on microfilm (1790-1920, except 1890); federal census indexes (about 1800-1870) and soundex indexes (1880, 1900, 1920; the one for 1880 lists only households with children under the age of 10); newspaper microfilms; city directory microfilms; published genealogies; county histories; DAR publications for NY (hundreds of volumes); The New York Times Obituaries Index (1858-1978); The New York Times Personal Name Index (1853-1999, includes obituaries).

 

New York State Department of Health Vital Records  (Albany)  -  Personally make application for vital records, supplying the certificate number found at the NYS Archives.  Waiting time is 1-2 weeks compared with about 8 weeks (in Sept 2006) if applications are submitted by mail.

 

County Clerk's Office  (Albany)  -  Deeds and mortgages back to 1600's; powers of attorney; Certificates of Partnership; DBAs; and liens.  They also have NYS Supreme Court and Albany County Court case files.

 

Surrogate's Court  (Albany)  -  Probated wills; letters testamentary; letters of administration (when there is no will); guardianship papers.  They have some of the original wills dating back to 1730.

 

Albany (city) Bureau of Vital Statistics  -  Birth and death records (no marriages) for 1870-present.  Sep 1870-1913 are only available here.  They are not available from the NYS Dept. of Health until after 1913.   

 

Albany County Hall of Records  (Albany)  -  Albany City Directories (1830-1994); census records (1855-1925), Declarations of Intention and Naturalization (1827-1991, indexes being put on their website); Indexes to Deeds (1630-1940); marriage records for the City of Albany (1870-1952); vital records for a few churches in Albany Co. (and a few outside the county); many kinds of Historical Records (a list is on their website).

 

Albany Institute of History & Art  -  Albany City Directories (starting in 1813), 14,000 books, over 90 bibles of prominent Albany families (1600s to 1800s), some marriage certificates, a large number of deeds (1652-1900), family folders on many families in Albany and the Hudson Valley, 85,000 photographs, family papers of the Van Rensselaers and others.  Admission free to members only; library open 1:30-4:30 Thursdays (according to their website June 2009).

 

Cemetery & Headstone Photography  - Locate and photograph headstones and any pertinent parts of the cemetery

Columbia Co.  

Columbia County Surrogate's Court (Hudson)  -  Probated wills; letters testamentary; letters of administration (when there is no will); guardianship papers.

 

Columbia County Clerk's Office (Hudson)  -  Censuses (1790-1925); old atlases containing names of property owners; deeds; mortgages; some immigration records; veteran's discharges; five books of extensive mg. records 1908-1934; DBAs; incorporations; judgements; liens; county court proceedings.

 

Columbia County Historical Society  (Kinderhook)  -  50 books of cemetery records including many available nowhere else in the area; 70 books of church record transcriptions; marriage records (on cards) transcribed from newspapers; several hundred surname folders; history of the county; a library of other books. 

 

Cemetery & Headstone Photography  - Locate and photograph headstones and any pertinent parts of the cemetery.

 

Hendrick Hudson Chapter of the D.A.R. (library)  -  Surname index to marriages and obituaries from Hudson newspapers (1842-1872).  All cemeteries in Columbia Co. have been recently transcribed.

Greene Co.

Surrogate's Court (Catskill)  -  Probated wills; letters testamentary; letters of administration (when there is no will); guardianship papers.

 

County Clerk's Office (Catskill)  -  Deeds; mortgages; naturalization records; county court proceedings; powers of attorney; certificates of partnership, DBAs; liens; marriage records 1892-present; censuses (1830, 1840, 1860, 1865, 1870, 1880, 1892, the location of the others being unknown by the Clerk's Office or the Greene Co. Records Management Office - April 2002).

 

Greene Co. Historical Society (Coxsackie)  -  Surname folders; censuses on microfilm; church records; cemetery and undertaker records; court records; a large library of books.

 

Cemetery & Headstone Photography  - Locate and photograph headstones and any pertinent parts of the cemetery

Rensselaer Co.

Surrogate's Court (Troy)  -  Probated wills; letters testamentary; letters of administration (when there is no will); guardianship papers.

 

County Clerk's Office (Troy)  -  Deeds; mortgages; naturalization records; court papers such as law suits and trial records; criminal records; and powers of attorney.

 

Rensselaer Co. Historical Society (Troy)  -  Rensselaer Co. Almshouse records for 1875-1892 (see Index); about 300 published surname genealogies; surname folders; Troy city directories; some 19^th century Rensselaer Co. directories; a large collection of photos; archives of some businesses and organizations; databased index to the wills and letters testamentary 1791-1910 of the Rensselaer Co. Surrogate's Court.

 

Troy Public Library, Main Branch  -  Troy City Directories (1829-present, which at various times included Lansingburgh, Cohoes, Watervliet (West Troy), and Green Island); Rensselaer Co. censuses (1790-1925) on microfilm; newspapers (bound and on microfilm); bound indexes of vital records for Troy and Lansingburgh newspapers 1787-1881 and 1901; card indexes for Troy newspapers from 1882-1900 (deaths and marriages) and 1975-1990 (births, marriages, deaths); books of church and tombstone records for Troy and Rensselaer Co.  

 

Nassau Free Library  -  The Ralph Phillips Genealogy Collection (four filing cabinets of about 1000 surname folders); 1876 F. W. Beers Atlas of Rennselaer Co. (showing houses and giving the surnames and initials of the owners); 5-6 notebooks of typed cemetery records (which may be included in the 93,000 online cemetery records posted on the Rensselaer Co. NYGenWeb site).

 

Cemetery & Headstone Photography  - Locate and photograph headstones and any pertinent parts of the cemetery

Schenectady Co.

Schenectady Co. Historical Society  -  Large number of surname folders; some periodicals such as the Valley Quarterlies (index is on CD) and NYG&BR; a very nice library of books, including many books of church and cemetery records for this and other counties.  On microfilm they have: all Schenectady Co. censuses that are available; censuses for most of New York State for 1850 and 1900; Schenectady Co. wills; Schenectady city directories.  Non-members are charged a daily use fee.

 

Surrogate's Court (Schenectady)  -  Probated wills; letters testamentary; letters of administration (when there is no will); guardianship papers.

 

County Clerk's Office (Schenectady)  -  Deeds; mortgages; naturalization records; court papers such as law suits and trial records; criminal records; and powers of attorney.

 

Schenectady City Clerk's Office  -  Certificates of birth (1882-1927) and deaths (1882-1952).

 

Schenectady Co. Public Library  -  City directories 1841-1968 & 1984 to present.  Newspapers on microfilm beginning in the early 1800s; microfilms of Schenectady Co. in the US censuses; AIS census indexes; subscriptions to Ancestry and Heritage Quest. 

 

Cemetery & Headstone Photography  - Locate and photograph headstones and any pertinent parts of the cemetery

Pittsfield, Massachusetts

National Archives and Records Administration  -  CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC on Ocober 1, 2011.  Thousands of microfilms have been turned over to the Berkshire Athenaeum.

 

Berkshire Athenaeum (Pittsfield Public Library)  -  "Berkshire County and Western Massachusetts research materials, this collection offers histories for nearly every town in the Commonwealth and neighboring areas.  A strong point is its fairly comprehensive collection of state and local genealogical resources covering most of New England." - quote from their website.  Neighboring areas would include Columbia and Rensselaer Counties in New York.  They also have received genealogical materials from the National Archives that closed October 1, 2011.  

   Those materials include microfilmed records or indices such as:

1790-1920 US censuses for all states (except 1890, most of which burned up); Indexes to military records;

Military service and pension records for Revolutionary War; New England and some other Naturalizations; Passenger Arrival Records.

 

 

Nancy J. Curran        Website

David Fiske         Website

Coreen Hallenbeck

Sylvia Hasenkopf        Website

Diane Koenig

Cliff Lamere

Sally Light

Jenn Olmstead        Website

Nancy Paulsen 

Rebecca Rector        Website

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Visitors since  28 Apr 2002