Research

The Archives holds many records of New York's higher trial and appeals courts prior to 1847, and of appeals courts from 1847 to the present. Of special interest to genealogists are records of the Court of Chancery (1704-1847) and the Court of Probates (1778-1823) and its colonial predecessor, the Prerogative Court (1686-1783). These records are described in Records Relating to Criminal Trials, Appeals, and Pardons.

The State Archives holds about 80,000 maps in various formats, dating from the 17th century to the present. Among the maps are surveys of lands granted by the Colony and State of New York, but these maps do not show occupants of lands. The principal index to early manuscript maps created or filed by State agencies is David E. E. Mix, Catalogue of Maps and Surveys, in the Offices of the Secretary of State, State Engineer and Surveyor, and Comptroller (Albany: 1859; repr. 1981).

The Basic Educational Data System (BEDS), created by the New York State Education Department (SED) Information Center on Education, contains statistical data on the pupils, staff, and facilities of every local school district, school building, and intermediate district (Boards of Cooperative Educational Services--BOCES) in New York.

BEDS consists of two files

The Governor's Office of Employee Relations (GOER) created the Grievance Tracking System to collect information on employee grievances and grieved disciplinary proceedings from all New York State Executive Branch agencies from 1984 to 1990. The system contains two master files, the Grievance Data File and the Discipline Data File. Personal identifiers have been suppressed in each file type.

Administrative Summary of the Tobacco Institute

History:

• Incorporated in 1958 as principal trade association intended to foster public understanding of smoking and health controversy, to "increase awareness of historic role of tobacco and its place in the U.S. economy"; consisted of 11 companies that manufacture/market cigarettes, other tobacco products. Intended to speak as one voice for the industry.

Council for Tobacco Research Administrative History

Organizational history:

Researchers are welcome to search probate records held by the State Archives onsite free-of-charge. Numerous indexes are available onsite to assist in this process. There is no charge for self-service copies made from microfilm. Copies of records available in paper format only may be ordered (no self-service copying of paper records is allowed) at a fee of $.25 per page. Use of personal digital cameras in the reading room, using available light (no tripods), is strongly encouraged.

Naturalization Pathfinder
Tool that helps determine where to locate New Yorkers' naturalization records.

Probate Pathfinder
Tool that helps determine where to locate New Yorkers' probate records including wills, property inventories, and other court records created after an individual's death.

Whenever possible, the State Archives and the State Library capture the sites documenting the work of prominent elected officials just prior to their departure from office. These sites either disappear from the Web or undergo radical change after the departing official’s successor takes office.

Unfortunately, technical problems prevented capture of the Web site of the Office of the State Comptroller before or immediately after the December 22, 2006 resignation of Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi.

The site maintained by the Office of the Governor highlights both the speed with which sites can change and the importance of preserving older materials that are no longer part of the live site: