NYGenWeb of Putnam County, New York

Check out the older Queries for which were posted prior to joining the Bulletin Boards:
View 1997 Queries
View 1996 queries

MAILING LIST

Putnam County also has a Mailing List. For information on how to participate in this Mailing List devoted exclusively to genealogical researchers for Putnam County, please see the attached page which gives details on how to join the list as well as information on how to search the Archives of previously posted mailing list messages.

COUNTY PROFILE AND HISTORY

1841 Profile of Putnam County:
This is an excerpt from Historical Collections of the State of New York which was published in 1841. The authors were the well-known John W. Barber (author of the Connecticut and Massachusetts Historical Collections) and Henry Howe (author of The Memoirs of Eminent American Mechanics).

French's GAZETTEER of the STATE OF NEW YORK is an important resource for researchers in New York State. It was published in 1860 and, as its title identifies, it gave a "...Comprehensive View of the Geography, Geology, and General History of the State and A complete History and Description of Every County, City, Town, Village, and Locality."

In 1886, William S. Pelletreau published History of Putnam County, NY. While describing in detail the history of this county, the book is of interest to genealogists because it also includes many biographical sketches of prominent citizens as well as some lists of those buried in various cemeteries around the county. However, some people call such county histories "vanity books" because often the biographical sketches were donated by the individuals themselves and little nor no serious research was conducted to verify the information provided. This book has also been filmed by the Family History Library and can be borrowed at your local Family History Center [US/CAN film area #084490, item 1].

COUNTY INFORMATION

You say you've made some good contacts and leads from the bulletin boards and mailing list? Good, so you'll now need deeds, wills or naturalization records. Check out the County Clerk's Office listed below as well as the section on Vital Records:

• Putnam County Office Building
• 40 Gleneida Ave.
  
• Carmel, NY 10512
  
• Telephone: 845-225-3641

Towns, Villages, and Hamlets in Putnam County

• Brewster, village of (see Southeast)
• Carmel, town of
• Cold Spring, village of (see Philipstown)
• Garrison (see Philipstown)
• Kent, town of
• Mahopac, village of (See Carmel)
• Nelsonville, village of (see Philipstown)
• Patterson, town of
• Philipstown, town of
• Putnam Valley, town of
• Southeast, town of

Check out the following links for additional information relating to Putnam County and our thanks go out to Stephen Harrington for locating some of these sites and sending this County Coordinator the corrected URLs.

Archives and Repositories

• The Putnam County Historian's Office
• Office of the County Historian and County Archives
• Records Center
• 76 Marvin Avenue
• Brewster, NY 10509-1435
• Phone: 845-278-7209
• Putnam County, New York Historical Records Repositories: A Project of the Southeastern New York Documentary Heritage Program
• Putnam County Historical Society & Foundry Museum
  • 63 Chestnut Street
  • Cold Spring, NY 10516-2613
  • Phone: 845-265-4010
  • e-mail: pchs@highlands.com
  • For a list of the Society's Surname file, see the List compiled and donated to this site by Drew Dubler.

John LaBarre has volunteered to provide for fellow researchers a lookup in the Putnam County Directory for 1938-39 , which was published by The Putnam County News. You can contact John LaBarre at thewadd@bestweb.net. And to ensure that John as well as others continue to volunteer their time, energy and resources to us all, please always remember to thank them, regardless of the results of the lookup.

• Putnam County Newspapers on Microfilm Around the State
• Putnam County Newspapers at the New York State Library in Albany
• North County News On-line: http://www.northcountynews.com/
• Poughkeepsie Journal on line: http://www.pojonews.com/.
• Putnam County News and Recorder: http://www.pcnr.com/

A number of articles concerning Putnam County have been published over the years by the Dutchess County Genealogical Society newsletter. Attached is a listing of them in PERSI along with a brief explanation of PERSI. These transcriptions include:

• Vital Records
• Census
• Naturalizations
• Court Records
• Deeds
• Church Records
• Cemetery transcriptions
• as well as other miscellaneous records.

Vital Records were not mandated by New York State until 1880. If you are looking for a birth, marriage, or death record prior to this time period, you must contact the clerk's office of the town, city, or village in which the event was registered. Also check the church or synagogue where the event may also have been registered.

New York State has a 50 year restriction on death records, 75 year restriction on birth records and 100 year restriction on divorce records.

An index of births covering the years 1880 to 1917 and an index of deaths covering the years 1880 to 1942 are available at the New York State Archives in Albany and are open to the public. Please also check the Locality Index at your local Family History Center as copies of these indexes may also be available through them.

The NY State Archives has an on-line information guide to obtaining vital records at http://unix6.nysed.gov/holding/fact/vital.htm .

Here's an Internet link to the NY State Dept. of Health to learn how you can obtain birth, death and marriage records: www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/consumer/vr.htm.

- New York Division of Vital Records

http://www.vitalchek.com/us/ny.html

- Cindy's List, New York Records

http://www.cyndislist.com/ny.htm#Records

- New York Indorsed Land Papers, 1643-1676

http://www.tlc-gen.com/newyork.htm

• Temple Beth Elohim: http://shamash.org/reform/uahc/congs/ny/ny017/
• Episcopal churches of Rockland & Putnam (with map): http://www.dioceseny.org/maps/rockland.htm
• Gilead Presbyterian Church, Carmel, NY: http://www.gileadchurch.org/
• First Baptist Church http://www.brewsterbaptist.org/news.stm
• Philipstown Area Houses of Worship, courtesy of the Putnam County News and Recorder: http://www.pcnr.com/church.htm
• Putnam County Members of the New York Baptist Union for Ministerial Education, 1854-1855
• A number of articles concerning Putnam churches have been published over the years by the Dutchess County Genealogical Society newsletter. Attached is a listing of them in PERSI along with a brief explanation of PERSI.

There are a number of cemeteries which have had their inscriptions compiled and are available either from published works or unpublished manuscripts. Many of these are available from the LDS Family History Library. The attached listing will give you some idea as to what may be available. Also be sure to look at the town pages for additional information concerning cemeteries.

• For a pre-Revolutionary War map of the county, see Philipse Patent which was donated by one of the mailing list members.
• Contemporary Map of Putnam County
• The New York State Dept. of Transportation makes available for sale maps on a county level. To learn more about these maps, visit Map Information Unit's web site.
• Map of The Oblong

At present, this County Coordinator is unaware of any genealogical society devoted exclusively to Putnam County. However, you may wish to contact either of the following surrounding counties' societies. Since Putnam was part of Dutchess until it became a county in its own right in 1812, perhaps Dutchess County may provide more information for the researcher.

• The Dutchess County Genealogical Society
• P. O. Box 708
• Poughkeepsie, NY 12602
• Phone: (914) 462-2361
• Past articles on Putnam County published in their newsletter cover such issues as census, cemeteries, maps, vital records, court records, church records, deeds, history, and naturalization records.

• Westchester County Genealogical Society
• PO Box 518
• White Plains NY 10603-0518

• Putnam County Visitors Bureau: http://www.visitputnam.org/
• Historical Markers of Putnam County
• Photos of Cold Spring, NY
• Boscobel Restoration, Inc.
• Existing Old Railroad Stations of Putnam County

• 1810 Census with Index, Dutchess County, NY, prepared by the Dutchess County Genealogical Society, with index. [Source: Kinship website]
• General History of Dutchess County from 1609 to 1876. This book has been scanned by Cornell University Library and is available on-line at their site: http://library5.library.cornell.edu/moa/moa_search.html
  Note: Cornell University's Making of America series of scanned books relating to New York State's history is no longer available in list format. They've changed their pages to a searchable database.

• (anonymous), Historical and Genealogical Record, Dutchess and Putnam Counties, New York (Poughkeepsie: Oxford Publishing Co., 1912)
• Buck, Clifford M. Dutchess County, NY Tax Lists, 1718-1787 with Rombout Precinct, includes alphabetical names of those assessed by political division, present Putnam County towns and precincts. [Source: Kinship website]
• Cole Greene, Marilyn. Town Minutes, Town of Carmel, Putnam Co., New York, 1795-1839 [Source: Kinship website]
• Cole, Joseph O. Descendants of Elisah Cole, who came from Cape Cod to what is now Putnam County, NY, about 1745
• Howe, Abba Laura, Historian, et alia. Brewster Through the Years 1848-1948 (privately published)
• Kelly, Arthur C.M., Dutchess County, NY Probate Records, 1773-1865, a register of wills, letters of administration and letters testamentary. (1997) [Source: Kinship website]
• Pelletreau, William S. History of Putnam County, NY(Philadelphia: W.W. Preston & Co., 1886)
• Smith Buys, Barbara. Old Gravestones of Putnam County
• Truran, Suzanne, editor. The Town of Southeast 1788-1988 (Town of Southeast Bicentennial Commission)
• Wheeler, Glendon E. Carmel Newspapers, Putnam Co, NY Marriages and Deaths 1849-1873, 207 pp, with index, hardbound, 1998 [Source: Kinship website]
• Wheeler, Glendon E., compiler. Index of Gravestones for the People of Putnam County, NY. [1997] [Source: Kinship website]

About the US GenWeb project.

A message was sent out over the GEN-NYS-L list in June 1996 asking if anyone would be interested starting a NYGenWeb page similar to a highly successful project underway in Kentucky. Many people expressed an interest in this idea. About the same time, Jeff Murphy, coordinator of the KYGenWeb, decided to go national with the idea, and out of that grew the US GenWeb project, and the NYGenWeb Project.

At the same time, volunteers came forward who were willing to coordinate the collection of databases and generally oversee the contents of the web page. Contact the volunteer shown on the county page if you have a desire to add your data to the database.

You are our 125809 visitor since April 12, 1997-- thanks for stopping by!

Please let the County Coordinator, Cathy Horn, know of any resources which could be added to make these pages of more assistance to you and your fellow researchers. You can contact Cathy at chorn@bestweb.net.

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These pages are maintained by the Putnam County Coordinator, Cathy Horn.

© 1998-2002  Cathy Horn. All Rights Reserved.