Essex County, New York

Northern New York Tombstone Transcription Project

These are some links that may help with your Essex County research:

Birth, Death, Marriage & Divorce Records:

New York State Department of Health - This web site contains information on how to obtain Birth, Death, Marriage, and Divorce Records for events occuring in New York State. It includes request forms in both PDF and TEXT files. New York State Birth certificates for genealogy use are available if the certificate has been on file for at least 75 years and the person whose name is on the birth certificate is known to be dead. Death Certificates for genealogy use are available if the certificate has been on file for at least 50 years. Marriage certificates for genealogy use are available if the certificate has been on file for at least 50 years and the bride and groom are both known to be deceased. The time periods are waived if the applicant is a descendant or has been designated to act on behalf of a descendant of the person whose record is being requested. A descendent is a person in the direct line of descent (child or grandchild, not niece, nephew or cousin).
The New York State Department of Health provides copies of certificates for genealogy use for births, deaths, or marriages that took place in New York State outside of the five boroughs of New York City (except for births occurring in Queens and Richmond counties for the years 1881 through 1897). Records on file date back to 1881 for births and marriages and 1880 for deaths, EXCEPT for records filed in Albany, Buffalo and Yonkers prior to 1914. Applications for records prior to 1914 for these cities must be made directly to the local office.
National Center for Health Statistics - This site gives information on where to write for Vital Records for every state and U.S. territory.

Essex County Libraries & Historical Societies:

Adirondack History Center Museum
The Adirondack History Center Museum is open Memorial Day weekend through Columbus Day, Monday - Saturday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., and Sunday, 1 - 5 p.m. It is located in the old school building at the corner of Route 9N and Hand Avenue in Elizabethtown. The Brewster Library is open all year by appointment only. For more information, contact the Essex County Historical Society/Adirondack History Center Museum at P.O. Box 428, Court Street, Elizabethtown, NY 12932, (518)873-6466, e-mail echs@northnet.org.
Lake Placid North Elba Historical Society Museum
Averyville Rd
Lake Placid,
Phone: (518)-523-1608
Northern New York American-Canadian Genealogical Society, PO Box 1256, Plattsburgh, New York 12901 (518) 561-5728
>

Essex County Resources:

Essex County Histories on CD-rom:

GenealogyCDs.com - This company sells a CD containing the following items in Adobe Acrobat® (pdf) Format. For $24.50, this is a steal!
History of Essex County : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Syracuse, N.Y.: D. Mason, 1885, 786 pgs.

Essex and Warren County cemetery records, Albany, N.Y.: Haviland, Frank, 116 pgs.

Essex County cemetery inscriptions, Sharon, Pennsylvania: Jennings, Laura Olmsted. 59 pgs.

Some account of two visits to the mountains in Essex County, New York, in the years 1836 and 1837 : with a sketch of the northern sources of the Hudson New Haven, 1838, Redfield, W. C. 23 pgs.

Minerva, Essex County, N.Y. Minerva, N.Y.: 1957, Jones, Mabel 120 pgs.

Links to other onsite information:

Essex County History - a transcription of pp. 205-306 of Gazetteer of the State of New York: Embracing 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, by J. H. French, Published by Pearsall Smith, Syracuse, N.Y.: 1860.
Births, Marriages, and Obituaries extracted from Essex County, New York Newspapers (1831 -1864) - This is a transcription of information copied from various Essex County newspapers.
Funeral Directors in Essex County - taken directly from the Yellow Pages of the telephone directory
Dear Ancestor - a neat poem

Links to other Essex County, New York sites:

Essex County, NY GenWeb
Essex County, NY Queries
Essex County, NY Genealogy Forum
Essex County, NY Local History and Genealogy
Northern New York Historical Newspapers - This online collection currently consists of more than 145,000 pages from twelve newspapers.
New York Town Histories

Links to other sources for cemetery information:

Cemetery Records Online
Cemetery Search - "There are many cemetery inscription pages to be found on the web. CemSEARCH has done much footwork to find these pages and has created these search engines to help you find your surnames. Obviously, not every cemetery will be accessed by these searches."
- This article by Pamela Reid explains various symbols found on tombstones.
Commemorative Flagholders &Plaques of Organizations and Military - This site has photographs and descriptions of numerous flagholders found at gravesites. It is very informative.
How to record a cemetery - Steve Paul Johnson gives advice on transcribing tombstone information.
Interment Net - The Largest Online Library of Cemetery Records along with many interesting articles on preserving the historical information found on tombstones.
The Cemetery Nut - Gloria Pare expresses her thoughts about visiting and recording cemeteries.