Abstracts of Wills, Administrations and Guardianships in NY State, 1787 – 1835. 48,429 additional records added.

his week, an additional 48,429 records have been added to this database from the counties of Ontario, Orange, Tioga, and Washington.

This compilation of Abstracts of New York Wills, Administrations and Guardianships was created by William Applebie Daniel Eardeley. The original materials are part of the Brooklyn Historical Society’s manuscript collection. Eardeley abstracted original estate proceedings in the counties of this state. In addition he indexed on 3 x 5 cards all the names in his abstracts, i.e. those of the decedents, executors, administrators, petitioners, guardians, witnesses, named beneficiaries and minor children. The original abstracts were written in pencil on yellow legal pad paper. Although the original title of the collection refers to the years 1691 to 1860, the bulk of the material concerns the period 1787 to 1835. Also, while the abstracts generally end at 1835, it appears that in a few cases the dates were extended to fill a county’s file folder. For estate proceedings of counties formed after 1835, the researcher should look under the names of the parent county.

Currently, this database contains abstracts for the following counties:

Albany          Allegheny       Broome          Cattaraugus     Cayuga

Chautauqua      Chenango        Clinton         Columbia        Cortland        

Delaware        Dutchess        Erie-Niagara    Essex           Franklin               

Genesee Greene          Herkimer        King’s          Lewis          

Livingston      Madison Monroe          New York        Niagara        

Oneida          Onondaga        Ontario         Orange          Orleans

Otsego          Oswego  Putnam          Queens          Richmond

Rockland        St. Lawrence    Schenectady     Seneca          Sullivan       

Steuben Tioga           Tompkins        Warren          Washington

Wayne           Yates

The remaining counties in the collection are in the process of being indexed by our volunteer team and will be released in the future as they become available.

The New England Historic Genealogical Society wishes to thank both the Brooklyn Historical Society and Mr. Frank J. Doherty, whose support made this information available.