Start with our primary sources:
“Clues from the past”

Kellogg Memorial Research Center is a great place to learn about local history and genealogy. You can explore life past and present in Cortland County by searching our extensive archives of primary sources.  Primary sources are the only way to reconstruct the past, aside from memory and communication that haven’t been recorded.

Research Guide

Finding aids for our archives and manuscripts collections are being added to the Empire ADC (The Empire Archival Discovery Cooperative ) website:

Empire ADC

 

Some available resources in our archives: 

• • • Books
    • Cemetery Records
    • Census Records
    • City Directories
    • Genealogies/family files (Click here to access our family file index)
      
    • Maps and Atlases
    • Obituaries
    • Photographs
    • Scrapbooks
    • Town Histories
    • Business and Organization files (Click here to access our general file index)
    • Manuscripts
    • Military Records
    • Letters and Diaries
    • Collection of Town Clerk registers of deaths, births, and marriages by town – 1847, 1848, 1849 (actual documents and index)
    • “Vital Records from the Newspapers of Cortland County, NY 1815-1840”, compiled by Halsey Stevens 1937
    • “The Cortland Counry, New York, Homefront During the Civil War” by Edmund J. Raus Jr. (Click here to access the index of names of soldiers whose stories are found in this book.)

 

Family File Index

General File Index

Cortland County Civil War Roster Index

 

 

These records are not available in our archives:

New York didn’t begin statewide registration of births, marriages, and deaths until 1880-81, under the supervision of the State and local boards of health. 

• • • Official birth records
    • Official death records
    • Property deeds
    • Official marriage records

 

Where to Start:

Have you ever wondered how to begin a local history research project? Sophie Clough, our Collections and Research Assistant, has put together a list of resources to help you. You can find these sources at Kellogg Research Center as well as online. Check out our archives for more information when you are ready!

Click the image to go to the Favorites Sources page.

 

 

If you are interested in researching family members who received a NY State Revolutionary War Land Grant, this YouTube video will be helpful.

Researching History and Genealogy in NYS’s Revolutionary War Land Grants
( Michael Brewster)