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Finding Aids
Finding aids provide detailed information about individual record series held by the State Archives.
Digital Collections
Select items from our collections are available in our Digital Collections, which provides access to photographs, textual records, government documents, film, audio and other materials.
Search for Records
Name Indexes
The index includes individual names appearing in the records of various state agencies whose records are held by the New York State Archives.
Motion Picture Division Index
The Motion Picture Division index summarizes the information that exists in the case file for each film, and provides different ways of locating this information.
Constitutions and Constitutional Conventions
New York's first state constitution preceded and influenced the development of the United States Constitution. In drafting state constitutions prior to the ratification of the national constitution, New York and its fellow original states established a tradition of dual constitutionalism that endures to this day. In establishing the basic framework of state government and protecting the rights of individuals, state constitutions serve functions parallel to the national constitution. However, as is the case with New York, sta
Military Service Records Pathfinder
The New York State Archives holds many records that document the service of individuals during military conflicts from the colonial era through World War I (and limited records relating to service in World War II). These records contain summary service information, usually taking the form of claims for financial compensation, land grant documentation, or short abstracts recorded on cards or in registers. The State Archives does not hold service, pension, or bounty land warrant case files for individual soldiers along the lines of those held by the United States government.
How to Use Ancestry.com New York
Several New York repositories have formed a partnership with Ancestry.com to digitize family history records and make them available on line for free. The list of records available is located in the bottom left corner of the Ancestry.com New York web page. Descriptions of the records as well as the holding organizations are provided through the links and logos on the Ancestry.com New York web page.
B0126
This single volume was used by the keepers of the State Reformatory at Elmira to specifically enumerate and track inmates of Italian birth. Institutional authorities considered Italian immigrants to be among the new "dangerous classes" threatening American society. State authorities also feared that immigrant criminals were overburdening the prison system and that the federal government should bear a greater share of the expense of incarceration.
A4016
This series contains the miscellaneous filed papers of the New York State Surveyor General and the State Engineer and Surveyor. The series documents the role of the Surveyor General and State Engineer and Surveyor in establishing the boundaries of public and private lands, and in planning the development of the State's transportation system. A number of volumes contain documents relating to the sale of Loyalist lands by the Commissioners of Forfeitures during and after the Revolutionary War.
