Copyright © 1997- 2008 - by Betty Thomas
GENESEE COUNTY HISTORY
GENESEE COUNTY HISTORY
Before the arrival of the first settlers, "Genesee Count
ry" was the home of the Seneca Indians.
Robert Morris of Massachusetts, purchased "Genesee Countr
y" in 1791 and sold it to the Holland Company, a group of Dutch
bankers, on July 20, 1793. the Holland Company opened for business in
1800, the first sale was 1801, and they moved the office to Batavia when Genesee
county was founded in 1802.
The county was named for the indian word meaning "beautiful valley".
Originally Genesee County comprised virtually all of Western New York and was
divided into only four "Shires" or towns; Batavia, Northampton, Southampton,
and Leicester. Gradually, parcels of land were taken from Genesee County
to form other counties; Allegany
(1806), Cattaraugus (1808),
Chautauqua (1808),
Niagara (1808), part of
Livingston (1821), part of
Monroe (1821),
Erie (1821),
Orleans (1824) and
Wyoming (1841). What was
left is the present Genesee County.
When searching for ancestors in Genesee County, you MUST pay close attention to
correlating your dates with formation of each county. Anything before 1841
MAY actually be found in another county. Your next step should be to check
the map below for the current towns in the county. ( Batavia is the county seat.)
| Alabama | Oakfield | Elba | Byron | Bergen |
| Pembroke | Batavia | Stafford | LeRoy | |
| Darien | Alexander | Bethany | Pavilion |
and nothing else in the body of the email(nothing in the subject area either). Please turn off all signatures and/or tag lines. If you prefer digest mode, you should send the command instead to NYGENESE-D-request@rootsweb.com.
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Membership benefits include seven meetings each year with speakers,
workshops and field trips; a subscription to the quarterly Journal, issued
June, September, December and March; and free queries (50 words per issue)
in the Journal.
Richmond Memorial Library, 19 Ross Street,
Batavia, NY 14020
Phone: (585) 343- 9550
Go HERE for a list of what the library has in their genealogy
section.
NEW!!! ONline card catalog for the NIOGA system
(Richmond is a member library)
The Daniel E. Reed Library,
State University Fredonia, at
Fredonia, NY 14063, has microfilm of the archives of the Holland
Land Company.
The Department of Manuscripts and University
Archives, Cornell
University, Ithaca, NY 14853-5310, has a collection of church
records and cemetery records for western New York.
The Holland Land Office Museum -
Click on Museum
131 West Main St., Batavia, New York 14020
Phone: (585) 343-4727
EMail -
Museum
Unfortunately, the
Holland Land Office Museum is not a research facility. However, they do work in
conjunction with the Genesee County History Department in genealogy research.
The artifacts in the museum tells the story of the settlement of Genesee
County and its people. Some of the documents about those people are stored at
the County History Department. The original Holland Land Company records are in
Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The Reed Library at SUNY-Fredonia,Fredonia, New York,
has copies of the Holland Land Company papers on microfilm.(see above)
TONAWANDA INDIAN RESERVATION HISTORICAL CLUB
C/o Terry Abrams, c/o
Terry Abrams, President
P.O. Box 516
Basom, NY 14013
phone:585/542-4360 - email :
TerryAbrams@earthlink.net
PAINTED HILLS GENEALOGY SOCIETY
Covers Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania.
Central New York Genealogical Society
NY State Archives On-Line Catalog
and more
New York State Library
County Government -- Archives ---Lookups
GENESEE COUNTY LOOK-UPS
Genesee County Genealogies and Stories
Genesee County GenWeb Archives - Please contribute!!
Genesee County Clerk
15 Main St.,
Batavia, NY 14021-0379
(585) 344-2580 ext 22422 - Email: coclerk@co.genesee.ny.us
Genesee County Government
New York State GenWeb
Archives
GENESEE COUNTY Map 1895
Early Genesee County History
Tips on searching Deeds,
Mortgages, Lost Children, Land Records and more!!
New York State Census Records
at the New York State Library
Genesee County Chamber of Commerce -
PHONE: 1-800-622-2686
City of Batavia Website
Other Resources
Flash/QuickTime tour of
the Erie Canal
For comprehensive inventories of early New York State newspapers, their repositories ,
and how to purchase or borrow microfilms, the only place to check is the
New York State newspaper project
.
The Buffalonian -Your Link to WNY History
Genesee County Will Testators A useful site!
Off-Beat History of Genesee & Wyoming Counties
Books on the History of
Genesee County
Census Online: Links to Online
Census Records
Downward Bound- Great Lakes
Shipping Genealogy
GENDIS (Michigan
Death Index 1867-1897)
-As so many of our WNY ancestors migrated to Michigan
I thought this might be helpful! This index contains more information than other
death indexes including the names of parents (if known) and cause of death.
Bureau of Land Management Eastern Region - Has searchable records for several states. You can also view and print copies of the actual documents.
inGeneas has dedicated
itself to discovering the best documents available and putting them on the website
in searchable format. There are almost 40,000
records available on this site for genealogists and family historians
seeking their Canadian roots,including an electronic version of the National
Archives of Canada Miscellaneous Immigration List with a wide array of Canadian
passenger and immigration records available for search and retrieval completely
free of charge.(There is a small fee for transcriptions from the inGeneas databases.)
David Minor's New York State History Page
The Association of Public Historians of New York
State
Betty Thomas Professional Genealogy and Family History Research
Mourning Dove Preservation Services
Upstate New York Welsh
Military
The Rochester SAR cemetery page
The roster of
Co. K of the 12th N.Y. Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Co. K was principally
recruited in Batavia in 1861, and most of the men were from Genesee County.
Western New York in the
Civil War - research website
National Park Service Civil War website
- search database for soldiers!
Daily Chronicles of the American Civil War
Storys, Articles, Poetry, and
Images @ Chronicles of the American Civil War
Official Records of the Union and
Confederate Navies in the War of
the Rebellion, Journal Contents (1861-1865)
Professional Genealogists
Ann McRoden Mensch, Professional Historical Genealogist
Joan Falcone Arnold -
GENESEE COUNTY and vicinity RESEARCH ASSISTANCE
SUBMIT and/or
VIEW
a Genesee County related genealogical query.
This page is part of theUSGenWeb Project.
Modeled after the Kentucky GenWeb Project which was organized by a group of
genealogists in March and April 1996, the idea was to provide a single entry
point for all counties in Kentucky, where collected databases would be stored.
In June 1996, it was decided to expand the project to include all states.
It has now expanded to include many countries throughout the world.
