From a feeder state: Western New York Deeds

If your Midwestern research targets came from New York state, you may already know that New York has county (and town[ship]) historians. The excellent property-records blog In Deeds points to a partial indexing of Ontario County deeds at the historian's web site. Check out your favorite county for other unexpected goodies.

And if you're thinking, "That's just one county out of dozens in western New York," well, not exactly. Ontario County was formed in 1789. Between 1796 and 1854, fourteen children and grandchildren counties were formed from its original area. See it happen at the previously blogged FamilyHistory101 site.

Hmmmm...if you need precise details, visit a good library and check out the multivolume Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, since it looks to me like the Ontario County chronology and FamilyHistory101 may disagree on some points.

(FYI this is MMH post #400.)

Fun with county maps

Thanks to SLIG classmate Jerry Edwards for reminding me of the animated historic county maps feature at FamilyHistory101. The Atlas of Historic County Boundaries it ain't, but it's fun to watch and fool around with.