Midwesterners in the new NYGBR

Indiana has an author in the new July 2011 issue of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. Dawne Slater-Putt, CG, of the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center, chronicles John and Elizabeth (Halbert) Blair of Ontario and Yates Counties, New York. John was a Massachusetts minuteman and quite possibly was also involved in Shays' rebellion prior to his move to western New York.

This article is only the first installment, but already Blair descendants with various surnames are traced into Ohio (Crawford, Defiance, Geauga, Richland, and Williams counties), Indiana (Allen and La Porte counties), Michigan (Hillsdale and Monroe counties), Iowa (Allamakee, Clayton, and Decatur counties); and Kansas (Osage County).

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.)