On Nov 26, 2011, Phoebe wrote:
Hi Folks,
I just stumbled upon a website in the Ancestry stuff that has early Jamaica
records. I got there by looking for Daniel Coe, but assume there is a
more direct route. None the less, it has probably thousands of very early
deeds and census records. I have not discovered an index to the Jamaica
records but perhaps there is one. Just wanted to share.
Phoebe in CA
For Ancestry subscribers: Search [tab on homepage] > Card Catalog > [enter in Title
field] records county clerk jamaica. With these search terms in the Title field, clicking
the search button will produce a link to Eardeley's _Records in the Office of the
County Clerk at Jamaica, Long Island, New York, 1680–1781: Wills and Administrations,
Guardians, and Inventories_, 2 vols. (Brooklyn, N.Y., 1918). Eardeley sometimes
supplements these abstracts with genealogical data that is not always accurate. Following
his abstract of the will of Hope4 Carpenter, for example, he repeats Amos B.
Carpenter's erroneous assertion that the testator's mother (John3 Carpenter's
wife) was Hannah Hope; she was, in fact, Hannah Smith (see
http://carpentercousins.com/John3_Mass&LI.pdf).
The Eardeley volumes, moreover, should not be confused with the publication containing
abstracts of the respective wills of John3 Carpenter (William2 of Rehoboth) and his
namesake son, John4, both of whom died in Jamaica: _Abstracts of Early Wills of Queens
County, New York, Recorded in Libers A and C of Deeds, Now in the Register’s Office at
Jamaica, New York_ (Jamaica, N.Y., 1938) [FHL film #17,872, item 1].
Gene Z.