Niagara County NYGenWeb Project:
Niagara County History Resources

PLEASE NOTE: As of mid-August 2008, this page is undergoing major revision.

Items with triple asterisks (***) have moved and your coordinator is still tracking down their new locations (or finding resources which cover the same material).

Items with double asterisks (**) need verification or correction.

Please check back in a week or so for updates!

Books

New York State Off-line Sources — a guide to "New York State genealogical and historical sources found at various libraries across the USA."
Literature About Buffalo and Historical Buffalo (Western New York) — includes a number of books on Niagara Falls and the surrounding area
Hope Farm Press has books on history (by region) — Western NY

Historians

Niagara County Historian
***Municipal and County Historians in Niagara County lists historians for the Cities of Lockport, Niagara Falls and North Tonawanda; Towns of Cambria, Hartland, Lewiston, Lockport, Newfane, Niagara, Pendleton, Porter, Royalton, Somerset, Wheatfield, and Wilson; Villages of Lewiston, Middleport, Wilson and Youngtown; and the county historian.

Historical Societies/Museums

**Niagara County Historical Society
**Lewiston Historical Society Museum
***Town of Newfane Historical Society
**Town of Porter Historical Society Research Museum
— Also see: **Town of Porter Newsletters Online!
**Town of Niagara Historical Society
Other ***Historical Societies in Western New York
***Museums in Niagara County (mostly historical)
***Museums in Western New York (Allegany, Chautauqua and Erie Counties; mostly historical)
Landmark Society of the Niagara Frontier (architectural and historic heritage)
Sites on the ***National Register of Historic Places in Niagara County

Historical Information

early

Formation of the Falls discusses the geological history of the region from five hundred million years before the present.
A brief overview of Early Niagara County History, from Hope Farm Press
Info Niagara presents: a human history of the Niagara Region. A fast overview of the area (with more emphasis on the Canadian side), from "The first humans arrived in Niagara Region almost 12,000 years ago..." to the present.
The Niagara Tourism & Convention Corporation has a three-page "Brief History" of the region, discussing Native American, French and British influences, engineering and commerce, the War of 1812 and American Civil War, the Underground Railroad, tourism, and other subjects.
Old Fort Niagara: History of the Fort covers three centuries (under the French, British, and Americans), from 1679 on.

19th century

ThinkQuest's "Re-living History: The War of 1812" discusses causes of the war — which affected the Niagara Frontier greatly — among other subjects.
History of the Erie Canal, from the University of Rochester Department of History. Their 1868 map of the "State of New York, Showing its Canals and Rail Roads" is quite large (>250K), but useful for showing migration paths to Niagara County.
Resources on the Erie Canal, from New York State History Net
The Niagara Reservation — a Historical Perspective discusses the 19th-century movement to transform the Niagara Falls area from a commercial strip into a state park.

20th century

Love Canal Collection by the Ecumenical Task Force of the Niagara Frontier. Includes background on the toxic-waste scandal in the City of Niagara Falls.
Poisoned Workers & Poisoned Places. This report from USA Today describes how the federal government exposed thousands of workers to hazardous nuclear material during the 1940s and '50s; it features, among other case studies, Simonds Saw & Steel Company in Lockport.

Ethnic groups

Native American

Haudenosaunee: People Building a Long House — the home page of the Six Nations. (Also known as the Iroquois Confederacy, the Six Nations are the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas, and Tuscaroras.) As of August 2008, this site is under repair and temporarily unavailable.
For a description of the Iroquois presence in what is now Niagara County, see How Much Land Did the Iroquois Possess?.
***Indian Reservations in Western New York — includes the Tonawanda (Seneca) and Tuscarora reservations of Niagara County
The Niagara Tourism & Convention Corporation present what they say is a slightly more authentic (to the Six Nations) version of the "Maid of the Mist" tale.

African-American

As of 2008, a heritage commission has been created to create a cultural corridor in Niagara County "honoring the underground railroad, an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th century Black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists who were sympathetic to their cause."
In the meantime, the Underground Railroad is described (via photographs, artifacts, stories, audio stations, and art, as well as brochures and maps) by an interpretive center at the Castellani Art Museum.

European

***Historical Society of North German Settlements in Western New York. (This society operates the "Das Haus" German Heritage Museum in Wheatfield.)
BRAE's Upstate New York Welsh Heritage

Towns and villages

Libraries

In Erie County, next door:

Buffalo & Erie County Public Library

In Albany:

New York State Library: Genealogy Main Page

Maps

ThinkQuest's "Re-living History: The War of 1812" atlas has helpful maps of the Niagara Peninsula (Ontario) and a closeup of the Niagara Border.
The State University of New York at Stony Brook has put some terrific New York State Historical Maps online. Note, especially, the "Map of the Western Part of the State of New York Including the Holland Purchase," which dates from about 1825; it shows Niagara and the other seven counties of the Holland Purchase, complete with city/town divisions.
1860 wall map of Niagara County reprinted:

The Niagara County Genealogical Society is making available their printing of a very rare wall map of Niagara County. The original map has been out of print for over 100 years. In 1996 the NCGS began their reprinting effort with the reprinting of **12 individual maps that covered the villages and hamlets of Niagara County in 1860. The 1860 wall map was used for many years in the early schools throughout the county. The 12 smaller maps surrounded the larger map of the county. The 12 Niagara County village and hamlet maps are 17 1/2" x 23" and are printed on Scott offset 70# cream paper. The large wall map is reprinted in a full 28" x 36" size on heavier off-white paper. It contains hundreds of names of land owners and residents in the rural areas of Niagara County in 1860. (The names displayed on the large map are different names than those that appear on the 12 smaller maps of the individual hamlets.) Also on the large map are cemeteries, churches, train lines and stations, schools, small cross-road communities, post offices, creeks and streams, as well as a scale of miles. Lots and sections from the Holland Land Company records are also displayed.

Volunteer Gail Allore was kind enough to transcribe the names from these maps. Be sure to check for your village of interest!
Historical Ink's site, Old Maps of New England and New York, sells wonderful 1875 maps of Niagara County towns.
The Library of Congress has an 1882 map of Niagara Falls, NY, with several view options.
While not actually a map page, this listing of Old Road/Area Names in the Town of Lockport may help you in researching census and other location-based records.
New York Formation Maps displays a new map for each year involving a county border change, from 1683 to 1915. New York County Census Maps shows what the county borders looked like during each decennial census — a valuable tool when you can't quite figure out where that family vanished to!

Military

NYS Military History Sources — 1800 to present — the first page of a guide to printed historical works in local libraries. Also check pages 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

18th century

Schuyler's Company of New York Provincials, 1759 — a re-enactment unit. Discusses the role of Niagara during the Seven Years War (French & Indian War).
Captain Robert Mathew's Company of Light Infantry: 8th (King's) Regiment of Foot — a re-enactment unit. Discusses the "Anomalies at the Edge of an Empire" during the American Revolution.

19th century

War of 1812: Sixth (1st Warwickshire) Regiment of Foot — a re-enactment unit. Discusses the role of a British light infantry company along the Niagara Frontier, "during the closing of the Peninsular War and service in North America, 1814".
Re-living History: The War of 1812. The atlas section is especially helpful for visualizing the role of the Niagara Frontier.
Civil War Records is a useful guide to Civil War research from the National Archives.
New York in the Civil War, from the NYGenWeb Project
Western New York in the Civil War
Roster for 8th Regiment New York Artillery
49th NY Infantry Regiment during the Civil War, from the New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center, gives a detailed history of the Civil War regiment, one portion of which, Company H, was raised primarily in Niagara County.
A memorial in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, honors the soldiers of the 49th New York Infantry (3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, 6th Corps) who held that position on May 12, 1864.
49th New York Volunteer Infantry, D Company, is a group of Canadian re-enactors of the American Civil War; they list Canadians who served in the 49th New York.
***Grand Army of the Republic Papers, New York State Department, 1866-1948
Brief History of the Grand Army of the Republic, from the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War
G.A.R. Posts in Niagara County gives detailed information on at least one soldier (from privates to colonels) associated with each Grand Army of the Republic post.
Books and documents at the Library of Congress on the New York Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic.
More links to military units can be found at USGenNet's New York Civil War Page.

20th century

WW II Honor Roll for Niagara County, by Nancy Sampson
Genealogy/ Personal History: Casualties — online casualty records from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, from the National Archives
***W. NY in the Korean War, by Nancy Sampson

Newspapers

Lockport Union-Sun & Journal (covering Lockport, NY in eastern Niagara County)
The United States Newspaper Abstracts has over a thousand articles on Niagara County people and places, transcribed from pre-1923 newspapers. To volunteer to transcribe articles, see Articles — Submitting, Types of Articles, etc.
The New York State Newspaper Project lists Niagara County newspapers on microfilm at NYSL, both current and historical.
Niagara County News ("An archive of the major stories from all of Niagara County outside of Lockport." Has not been updated since 2005.)

Pictures

Some Old City Views of Niagara Falls, N.Y. (Nice views, mostly from old postcards.)
Penny Postcards from Niagara County, New York

[Niagara license plate]

Niagara County NYGenWeb Project: Niagara County History Resources

early

19th century

20th century

Ethnic groups

Native American

African-American

European

Towns and villages

18th century

19th century

20th century

Niagara County NYGenWeb Project:
Niagara County History Resources