NYGenWeb for
Putnam County, New York

This page was last updated: Wednesday, 1-Jan-2024 11:32:26 EST

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Putnam County is in the heart of the Hudson River Valley - famous for it beautiful small towns and rich early history. During the Revolution, troops were stationed in the village of Garrison to guard West Point. During the Civil War, the first rifled cannon was produced at the foundry in Cold Spring. Your Putnam ancestors deserve a site to laud three centuries of their lives and accomplishments in building New York State.

Putnam County was founded in 1812. If you are looking for records and/or ancestors from Putnam prior to 1812, please also check out Dutchess County from which Putnam was formed.

QUERIES

You can search the RootsWeb Message Board for postings within Putnam county placed by other researchers.

Check out some older queries for which were posted prior to joining the Bulletin Boards:

• 1997 Queries
• 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 information 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 a Family History Center near where you reside. See the film number (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 Clerk's Office
• 40 Gleneida Avenue, Room 100
• Carmel, NY 10512
  
• Website: http://www.putnamcountyny.com/countyclerk/index.htm

ARCHIVES AND REPOSITORIES

• The Putnam County Historian's Office
  • The County Historian?s Office and the Archives
  • 68 Marvin Ave.
  • Brewster, NY 10509-1515
  • Phone: 845-808-1420
  • Holdings: Download a booklet in PDF format detailing the types of records available for the genealogical researcher.
• History Keepers' Companion: a Guide to Sites & Sources of the Greater Hudson Heritage Network
  • Putnam County
• Putnam County Historical Society & Foundry Museum
  • 63 Chestnut Street
  • Cold Spring, NY 10516-2613
  • Phone: 845-265-4010
  • Web site: http://www.pchs-fsm.org/
  • See their Family Genealogy web page for more information. For a list of the Society's Surname file, see the List compiled and donated to this site by Drew Dubler.

VILLAGES AND TOWNS

• Brewster (village within Southeast)
• Carmel (town)
• Cold Spring (village within (see Philipstown)
• Garrison (hamlet within Philipstown)
• Kent (town)
• Mahopac (hamlet within Carmel)
• Nelsonville (village within Philipstown)
• Patterson (town)
• Philipstown (town)
• Putnam Valley (town)
• Southeast (town)

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 [email protected]. 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.

You are our welcome visitor since April 21, 1997. Thank you for dropping 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.

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© 1996-2024  Cathy Horn. All rights reserved.