Database of Notable New York Families
New York has been continuously inhabited for the past 12,000 years, with evidence of human presence there dating back to the Pleistocene Epoch. Prior to European colonization, the state was home to a variety of indigenous groups, including the Mohawk, Oneida, Wappinger, Montauk, and Delaware peoples. In 1624, the Dutch arrived and established the colony of New Amsterdam on land that was bought from the Wecquaesgeek people, who were known to the settlers as the Manhattoe tribe, from whom the famed island of Manhattan got its name. Since then, New York has grown into a world center of trade, finance, education, media, and culture, with a diverse population coming from every part of the globe.
For the past 20 years, we’ve carried out extensive research on hundreds of families at places like the New York Public Library, New York City Municipal Archives, New York State Library, and Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. New York has historically been the most important port of arrival in North America for millions of immigrants, starting with the colony of New Amsterdam in 1624, through the period of Ellis Island from 1892 and 1954, on up to the present-day. New York has also been the destination of a large number of people from other parts of the United States, including African-Americans seeking freedom in the North in the time of slavery and Underground Railroad, and the Great Migration, circa 1910 to 1970, when millions of people left the South to seek better opportunities in the industrialized North. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, there was also a huge influx of people from places like Ireland, Italy, and Eastern Europe, with people fleeing economic hardship, famine, religious persecution, and political upheaval there. Our ongoing work includes research on all these groups, who come from a variety of diverse backgrounds and origins. The fascinating and diverse cultural heritage of New York has enabled us to gain expertise in a wide variety of research areas.
If you’d like to learn more about your own family history and are interested in building a high-quality, well-documented tree, we'd love to help. We're passionate about genealogy and would welcome the opportunity to assist you with creating an exciting record of your ancestors that can be enjoyed by your family for many generations to come. Our professional research team can gather records for you in all parts of New York state, including the state capital as well as New York City.
Please click on the links below for additional resources relating to your New York history and genealogy. To get the best results with your research, we'd recommend subscriptions to the following sites, as well as DNA testing to help with any longstanding brick walls in your tree.
Records for the entire state of New York can be found at the New York State Archives and New York State Library in Albany. These records include property deeds, court records, newspapers, local histories, military records, family wills, tax lists, vital records, biographies, and other types of records. However, many records specifically related to New York City are generally kept separate from the state's official holdings in Albany. If your ancestors lived in New York City in the past, it would be worthwhile to visit the New York City Municipal Archives and New York Public Library during the course of your research. Both of these repositories house billions of records relating to New York history and genealogy. Their holdings include vital records, immigration records, newspapers, city directories, biographies, and many other types of records. Vital records can be ordered from the New York State Department of Health in Albany, and those for the five boroughs of New York City (Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and Staten Island) can be ordered from the New York City Department of Health and New York City Municipal Archives.
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