Seneca County, New York Genealogical Records Information

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Seneca County History and Information

Seneca County Facts

Seneca County was created in 1804 and formed from Cayuga County. Seneca County was named for the Seneca tribe of Native Americans and the County Seat is Waterloo. See also Extended History for more historical details.

The Seneca County Courthouse is located at 1 DiPronio Dr., Waterloo , NY 13165; 315-539-1700 and the Official County Website is located at http://www.co.seneca.ny.us/.

Seneca County Borders Cayuga County (East), Tompkins County (Southeast), Schuyler County (South), Yates County (West), Ontario County (West), Wayne County (Northwest) .

Seneca County Municipalities: Covert (town), Fayette (town), Interlaken (village), Junius (town), Lodi (town), Lodi (village), Ovid (town), Ovid (village), Romulus (town), Seneca Falls (town), Seneca Falls (village), Tyre (town), Varick (town), Waterloo (town), Waterloo (village) . Town Clerks are responsible for vast amounts of local information from deeds, property transfers, and genealogical materials. Research on place and road names, the history of property transfers and much more are available through your Town Clerk. They are a tremendous resources.

Seneca County, New York History Books at Amazon.com
Family History Library - The largest collection of free family history, family tree and genealogy records in the world.

There are free downloadable and printable forms to help with your research. These include U.S. Census Extraction Forms, U.K. Census Extraction Forms, Research Calendar, Ancestral Chart, Research Extract, Correspondence Record , Family Group Sheet , Source Summary Form.

Seneca County Court Records

See Also New York Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.

Seneca County Clerk has Land & Court Records from 1804 and is located at 1 DiPronio Drive, Waterloo, NY 13165; Phone: (315) 539-1771, Fax: (315) 539-3789, [EMAIL] .
The county clerk is the keeper of most civil and criminal trial court records for Supreme Court and County Court, naturalizations, marriages (1908–35), censuses (Some county clerks' offices hold duplicate copies of some of the State censuses taken periodically between 1825 and 1925 and copies of the federal census), as well as deeds and mortgages.

Land conveyances (deeds and mortgages) are recorded in the county clerks' offices or in the New York City Register's Office. Recording of deeds became mandatory statewide in 1840. Before that many deeds were not recorded.
Marriages Prior to 1784 couples intending to marry were required to obtain licenses from and file bonds with the provincial secretary, if the impending marriage was not announced in a church. These Marriage Bonds were mostly destroyed in the 1911 Capitol fire. Published abstracts are available in Names of persons for whom marriage licenses were issued by the secretary of the province of New York, previous to 1784. (Albany: 1860; repr. with supplements 1984); and in New York Marriage Bonds, 1753-1783, comp. Kenneth Scott (New York: 1972).
Naturalization records are created by the Federal and State courts. State court naturalization records generally remain in custody of the county clerks. Older Federal court naturalization records have been transferred to the National Archives. Photocopies of naturalization documents and indexes for New York City for the period 1792-1906 (both Federal and State courts) are held by the National Archives--Northeast Region, 201 Varick Street, New York, NY 10014.

Seneca County Surrogate Court Clerk has Probate Records from 1804 and is located at 48 W. Williams St., Waterloo, NY 13165; phone:(315) 539-7531; fax: (315) 539-3267; e-mail: rcapozzi@courts.state.ny.us .
The Surrogate's Court in each county generally has records dating back to the establishment of the county or 1787, whichever was later. Record keeping was systematized by an 1830 statute. Surrogate's Courts maintain records of wills, letters testamentary, letters of administration, orders and decrees, and appointments of guardians; and filed papers, including original wills, petitions for probate (gives date of death and lists next of kin), performance bonds, property inventories (seldom found after ca. 1900), administrator's or executor's accountings, etc. Surrogate's Courts create comprehensive indexes to records and files.

In recent decades many courts have ceased recording documents in books and substituted microfilm recording. Some courts have disposed of old property inventories, which have no continuing legal value. Most Surrogate's Court records are retained permanently because they may document title to real property or the legal status of individuals. Surrogate's Court records statewide occupy over 200,000 cubic feet, with over half a million record retrievals yearly. The court is authorized to charge substantial fees for records searches conducted by court staff. Prior to that time most estates were handled in New York City, the capital until 1797. Before 1787, some wills were recorded in the counties and occasionally in town records.

Click Here to Search New York Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records! - Researchers often overlook the importance of court records, probate records, and land records as a source of family history information.

Seneca County Historian is located at Seneca County Office Building, 1 DiPronio Drive, Waterloo, NY 13165 .In New York State, every municipality (town, city, village, county) must have an appointed historian. Most of the towns have their own historians as well and each can be contacted. A county historian may be appointed for each county, check for availability.

Below is a list of online resources for Seneca County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Seneca County Court Records by clicking the link below:

New York Wills, 1626-1836: This database is a collection of New York citizens' wills from 1626 to 1836 that were recorded in the office of the clerk of the court of appeals, of the county clerk of Albany and of the secretary of state.
Soundex Index to Petitions for Naturalizations Filed in Federal, State, and Local Courts in New York City, 1792-1906: NARA M1674. The Soundex index to naturalization petitions filed in federal, state, and local courts in New York City, including New York, Kings, Queens and Richmond counties, 1792-1906.
Index to the Naturalization Petitions of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Jul 1865-Sep 1906: NARA M1164. A card index to naturalization petitions filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York from July 1865 through September 1906
Index to the Naturalization Petitions of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, 1906-Nov 1925: NARA M1164. A card index to naturalization petitions filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York from October 1907 through November 1925.
Index to the Naturalization Petitions of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, 1865-1957: NARA M1164. A card index to naturalization petitions filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York from November 1925 through December 1957.
Alphabetical Index to Declarations of Intention of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1917-1950: NARA M1675. Alphabetical Index to Declarations of Intention of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1917-1950
Alphabetical Index to Petitions for Naturalization of the US District Court [and Circuit Court] for the Southern District of New York, 1824-1941: NARA M1676. Alphabetical Index to Petitions for Naturalization of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1824-1941.
Alphabetical Index to Petitions for Naturalizations of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, 1907-1966: NARA M1677. Alphabetical Index to Petitions for Naturalizations of the US District Court for the Western District of New York, 1907-1966
Seneca County, New York Court Books at Amazon.com
New York Immigration & Emigration Records - Immigration records help the family historian to understand the movements of their ancestry as they relocated to different parts of the world.

Seneca County Vital Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

Scattered town and precinct tax records for a few years in the 1770s and 1780s and nearly complete lists for the whole state, 1799-1804, are at the New York State Archives, although for the latter period the surviving 1804 rolls cover only delinquent taxes of nonresidents. New York City tax records are at the Municipal Archives. Some early assessment rolls have been published in The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, such as those for New York City, 1730, in volume 95; New Rochelle, 1767, in volume 107; and Ulster County, 1709-21, in volume 62. See also volumes 43-44 of the New-York Historical Society's Collections for New York City assessments 1695-99. A few counties such as Ontario have retained their early tax records, but most do not have them until about 1850 or even later. Many old tax lists are to be found in manuscript collections. Dutchess County is fortunate to have a long series of eighteenth century tax records. Some of the 1798 U.S. Direct Tax records survive for New York.

Below is a list of online resources for Seneca County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Seneca County Tax Records by clicking the link below:

Seneca County, New York Tax Books at Amazon.com

Seneca County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other New York Genealogical Addresses

The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be more generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over.

Below is a list of online resources for Seneca County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Seneca County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:

County Historian, Walt Gable, Phone: 315-539-1785, E-mail: wgable@co.seneca.ny.us
Seneca Falls Historical Society, Cayusa Street, Seneca Falls 13148
Seneca Indian Historical Society, 12199 Brant-Reservation Rd., Irving 14081
Local New York Researchers, Find a local researcher or become a local researcher.
New York State Archives and Records Administration, The State Education Department, Cultural Education Center, 11th Floor; Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY 12230; (518) 474-8955, [EMAIL]
Referred to here as the New York State Archives for brevity, it was the last such archives to be established in the United States. It houses land and court records, military and tax records, New York state vital records indexes, pre-settlement survey maps, and legislative records.
New York State Library, Cultural Education Center, 7th Floor, Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY 12230; The state library has a large collection of published and manuscript material on New York, including genealogies and local histories, federal and state censuses, city directories, and periodicals. It is also one of the two depositories for the State of New York DAR collection.
The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, 122 East 58^th Street, New York, New York 10022-1939; 212-755-8532, Fax: 212-754-4218; A private society, the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society publishes the NYG&B Newsletter and a quarterly, The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. Its library holds much New York State and related material, both for New England and the Mid-Atlantic states. For New York there are censuses, federal and state; a large manuscript collection of church, cemetery, Bible, and other records; and an extensive amount of published family and local histories. Nonmembers can use the library for a small fee, but only members have access to the stacks, manuscripts, and microforms. The library provides a list of area researchers.
New York State Historical Association, West Lake Road, P.O. Box 800, Cooperstown, New York, 13326-0800
National Archives--Northeast Region, 201 Varick Street, New York, NY 10014.
New York Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
New York Genealogical Society Books at Amazon.com

Seneca County Church & Cemeteries

Click Here to Search New York Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.

There are many churches and cemeteries in Seneca County. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the Seneca County Tombstone Transcription Project.

Many church records, mostly early and particularly for Long Island, New York City, and the Hudson River Valley, have been published in The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record with a large collection of unpublished records maintained by the New York. Particularly useful as vital records substitutes among the surviving New York church records are those of the Dutch Reformed, Lutheran, Anglican, and Quaker groups.

The largest number of New York cemetery records (the bulk of which are actually transcriptions of cemetery marker inscriptions) is found in the multivolume collection of the Daughters of the American Revolution in the State of New York, Church, and Town Records, located at the New York State Library, the New York Public Library, and the DAR Library in Washington, D.C. Scattered volumes are found in other libraries including many local libraries in the area in which a particular cemetery is located.

Below is a list of online resources for Seneca County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Seneca County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Click Here to Search New York Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.

When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Seneca County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Seneca County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

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Genealogical Document Search and Retrieval Service
Seneca County, New York Family Books at Amazon.com

County History

Writing, in 1671, of the region which is now Seneca County, Father Raffeix, a Jesuit priest, said: "Goiogouen is the fairest country I have seen in America. It is a tract between two lakes and not exceeding four leagues in width, consisting of almost uninterrupted plains, the woods bordering it are extremely beautiful. Around Goiogouen there are killed more than a thousand deer annually. Fish, salmon, as well as eels and other fish are plentiful. Four leagues from here I saw by the side of a river (Seneca) ten extremely fine salt springs."

Little more than a hundred years later, the army of General Sullivan penetrated to this same district, and were likewise impressed by the beauties of this region. They found it a favorite home place of the Indians, and the plains covered with quantities of corn, beans, melons; also an abundance of apples, plums and peaches. One of this army was the first to settle in Seneca County.

A traveler passing through here in 1791 remarked that: "The map of the world does not exhibit two lakes equal in magnitude to the Seneca and Cayuga, which are so happily situated. The country between these two lakes rises gradually in symmetry from the opposite shores towards the center, producing a pleasing effect. Whenever it reaches a state of cultivation it will become the 'Paradise of America."'

The narrow strip thirty-five miles from north to south, and ten miles wide, now known as Seneca County, has retained much of its pristine beauty and has certainly reached a "cultivated state." The plateau has become the seat of hundreds of farmsteads; the shores of the lakes are the favored building sites of lovers of nature; and the great bodies of water contribute an ameliorating influence on the climate that makes not only the region the more habitable, but has made its soil more surely productive.

The Jesuits were the first white men to reach this district with their missions to the aborigines. The lakes and their shores had been divided by two tribes; the Cayugas ranged on both sides of the lake which has been given their name, and the Senecas holding both shores of Lake Seneca. In the period from 1656 to 1684 the Fathers carried on their missionary labors in the Indian towns of the Seneca country. The Moravian missionaries, Bishop Cammerhoff and Rev. David Zeisberger, passed through the territory in 1750, and Rev. Samuel Kirkland tells of going up the Seneca River in 1756. Sullivan, in 1779, came with his troops, and it was but a few years before the great tide of immigration had set in, and the country began to have the cleared lands and homes of the pioneers. Job Smith, the first of the permanent settlers, came from Ulster County, in 1787, and built a log house on the present site of the village of Seneca Falls. Lawrence Van Cleef, another of Sullivan's army, located in the same region in 1789 with his family, buying Smith's hundred acre claim. Romulus, Ovid, Lodi and Waterloo were all settled in 1781, while the other towns of the County were pioneered but a few years later. By 1800 there were nearly 5,ooo people in the Seneca District. These early pioneers were of many nationalities, and from many different sections of the colonies. German and Scotch Irish, from Pennsylvania; Holland and Dutch and English, from eastern New York; Yankees, and a few who were directly from foreign lands. It is probably this admixture of so many peoples, minds and interests that resulted in the solid, shrewd, hard-working population which built here their homes and County.

Seneca was, when these first settlements were made, a part of Montgomery County, passing from this to Herkimer, 1791; to Onondaga, in 1794; then in Cayuga, 1799; from which it separated, March 24, 1804, when the laws of its incorporation were signed by Governor Clinton. The name was derived from the lake, river and Indians, who are said to have been the most warlike of the Six Nations of the Iroquois. Perhaps some of this warlike nature was absorbed by the inhabitants of the County, for there had been many difficulties and political fights before any County had been erected; and there were others started when the question arose of where the County seat should be established. In an effort to prevent this not unusual condition, an act had been passed that the courthouse and jail were "to be erected in the town of Ovid, within certain specified boundaries." But vigorous protest came from the village of Lancaster (Willard) besides one or two others, and the matter was brought before the Legislature, which only confirmed its order, and a courthouse and jail was started in Ovid, in 1806.

In 1817 the new County of Tompkins was set up with a part of lower Seneca, leaving the County seat within four miles of the southern line, and, although Covert returned to the fold in 1819, Ovid was still too far from the center of the County to be desirable as the County seat, hence Waterloo was named the sole County seat in 1819. The erection of a new County, in 1823, put Waterloo in much the same relation to the rest of Seneca as had been Ovid. A division of County affairs was made and the double shire, or half-half shire system, still in force, came into being.

The original County extended some sixty-three miles north and south and included Ithaca, with an average width of eleven miles, and a total area of 744 square miles. As reduced by the changes and as it now is, the length of Seneca is thirty-two miles, the width ten, area nearly 200,000 acres, with two County seats fifteen miles apart, at Ovid and Waterloo.

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