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Crash Course in Staten Island Genealogy

If you spell it geneOlogy or can't yet convert to Soundex in your head or don't know what FHC stands for...

Starting off:

• FHL "How to Start Your Family History"
• Heritage Quest's "Welcome to Genealogy 101"
• Everton's "5 Steps to Research"
• Family Tree Maker's "Genealogy 'How-To' Guide" and "Genealogy Classes"
• RootsWeb's "Guide to Tracing Family Trees"
• Gen-Newbie
• Genealogy.com's GenForum
• National Genealogical Society's "The Learning Center"
• Cyndi's List "Beginners" links

If you have done probate in Ohio and baptismal records in Holland...

Staten Island Quirks

Staten Island was inhabited by the Lenai Lenape Native Americans. In the 1600s, the Dutch and then English opened the "Gateway to New York." Many, many immigrant groups were to follow.

Staten Island was comprised of four, then five, incorporated villages, until 1898, when it joined NYC ("The Consolidation"). It is now one of the five boroughs (roughly equal to a county) of the city. Since then it is known as "The Forgotten Borough" so keep this in mind when researching. Also remember that the locals spell it "boro," similar to "donut" rather than "doughnut".

In general, records before 1898 were kept by Staten Island, and some of them ended up in Albany (the state capital); and since then by New York City. The NYC Municipal Archives and NYC Department of Health have the vitals, but records such as probate and deeds are still at the county seat (St. George).

You should start off with Vitals and Censuses before going any further. Then, connect with other researchers at Surnames, browse the Site and do a Search on your surname. We have some great military, school, church, immigrant, and much much more info at our site.

The volunteers who post information, or administer websites, probably do not have your family tree on their computers. So please do the above rather than asking. Still have questions? The mailing list would probably know more than admin.

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