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I forgot that wills in New York State before 1787 were not filed in the
county where the person lived, but at a central court. New York City and
Albany were two places where these wills might be filed.
The law was changed & starting in 1787, wills were filed in the county.
For pre-1787 wills from Queens or Suffolk, the most logical place for the
filing was at New York City.
Many of the early wills filed in New York City were published ca. 1900 by
the New-York Historical Society [I believe] in a long series of green books.
Try the LDS for film.
Also, some early wills were mis-filed by the LDS as Albany County probate
records, when they were actually colonial or state-wide records, filed in a
state court in Albany and having nothing to do w/ Albany County. The NYG&B
ran a piece on this a couple of years ago. You have to look under Albany
County in the LDS catalog to find these state-wide wills.
David
: Re: Question about Hempstead Records of early
1700s
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I also was recently hunting for a will for someone who lived in Queens in
the 18th century, only this person died in 1782.
When I checked at the Queens Surrogates Court Record Room, the index card
file there turned out to only go back to 1787.
I also checked several reference works on Queens wills, including two by
William Applebie Eardeley which he did circa 1913-1918. However, there
was an
obvious gap between the two Eardeley works, one covering 1680-1781
and
the
other 1787 per 1835. So possibly those 1781-1787 probate files for
people
living
in Queens weren't available when he did his work, or else the
American
Revolutionary War had an effect on the recording and archiving of Queens
wills
between 1782 and 1786.
However, when I later did a search at the Long Island Division of the
Queens
Borough Public Library for material relating to the surname I was
researching, I discovered that two of the wills of earlier members of
that
particular
family had been probated in New York, not in Queens. I then started
searching
through the volumes of the published series which transcribes
abstracts
of
wills in the New York County Surrogate's Court that included
1782 wills,
and
there I found a listing and an abstract for the very 1782
"Queens" will I
was
seeking.
UpRoots!
Judi Langer-Surnamer Caplan
http://hometown.aol.com/judith27/index.html
Subject: Re: Question about Hempstead Records of early 1700s
I have looked inot this same problem. Not all Queens County Wills are
published in the New York City Wills which are also available thru
Ancestry.com. Some Wills were filed in NYC not Queens County.
Some pieces (inventories and Wills) are available on-microfilm at
Hofstra Long Island Studies Institute
http://www.hofstra.edu/Libraries/Axinn/axinn_long_island_studies.cfm
I don't think they go back as far as 1721. Contact them to see if they
have what you are looking for.
http://www.sampubco.com/wills/ny/newyork.htm Also does not list all
Wills