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Archiver > NYALBANY > 2001-05 > 0989012846


From: "Adam Quandt" <>
Subject: Re: [NYALBANY] What is a Town in NY? - or, Why Your Records May Be Wrong
Date: Fri, 4 May 2001 14:47:37 -0700
References: <3AD5B9BA.5FB68288@olsusa.com> <00d601c0c355$9420fc00$6601010a@abcatlas.com> <3AD5F519.CAD47E98@brainerd.net> <3AD67F4A.1BB14C5A@global2000.net>


Cliff, please see if you can find any reference to Adam or Andrew Quandt
Thank you, grandson of Adam
----- Original Message -----
From: "Cliff Lamere" <>
To: <>
Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2001 9:23 PM
Subject: [NYALBANY] What is a Town in NY? - or, Why Your Records May Be
Wrong


> Hi,
>
> In order to get you to read the following long message, I will have to
tell you from the very beginning that possibly 30-60% of the NY places of
residence that you extracted from censuses (online or published books) are
wrong. Part of this may be the fault of the source, and part may be your
fault. Now that I have your attention, I'll continue.
>
> On my website there are many gazetteers including the RootsWeb page
mentioned on the list on Thursday. I don't like that one, however, because
of its erroneous title of "TownCo". You have to type a locality's name in
the box called "Town Name". This perpetuates the idea that a city is a Town
and a village is a Town and a hamlet is a Town. Not so in New York State.
>
> People living outside NY may not be familiar with our sytem. Or, at least
that is what I have been told by several people who have written to me.
But, many genealogists living in NYS don't seem to understand it either.
This can be seen in the fact that the majority of the Town censuses for
which my website provides links are misnamed. Rennselaer Co. censuses are
almost always misnamed, misrepresenting Towns as if they were villages or
hamlets. By contrast, Schoharie Co. censuses are quite accurately labelled,
erring only by using the word Township instead of Town (a minor error).
>
> In NY, a Town (or town) is a large subdivision of a county. Albany Co.
has 11 Towns as far as I can tell. I have heard that some states may call
them Townships. My impression is that some states do not have such a
subdivision at all. In NY, the word township is not used, although it would
solve a lot of problems if it was.
>
> Berne (a hamlet) is in the Town of Berne and Coeymans (a hamlet) is in the
Town of Coeymans. Westerlo (a hamlet) is in the Town of Westerlo, and
Rensselaerville (a hamlet) is in the Town of Rensselaerville. Colonie is
both a village and a Town. You can see from this that frequently a village
(which is incorporated) or a hamlet (an unincorporated concentration of
homes and possibly businesses, too) can be located in a Town of the same
name. This leads to confusion for transcribers and the rest of us who
extract records from their transcriptions.
>
> NY censuses were conducted for Towns and cities. That's all that I am
aware of. A city is seldom (never?) part of a Town. They have different
governing bodies, courts, highway crews, police units, etc. A village has a
mayor and a governing body. It will provide some services such as a
library, but will depend on the Town for many services. A hamlet has no
governing body, so it would not normally have any of the services mentioned.
However, if the hamlet is quite a distance from a city or village, it may
have its own library (provided by the Town?)
>
> There are very few cities in a county. Albany Co. has three cities. They
are Albany, Watervliet and Cohoes, all of which are along the Hudson River.
Rensselaer Co. has two cities: Troy and Rensselaer (formerly Greenbush).
Both of these are also along the Hudson River. Some counties have only one
city.
>
> So, what has all of this to do with our faulty records? Well, the hamlet
of Berne is only a small part of its Town. Let's say that you see a census
transcription for Berne and copy some records (I'm making up this part).
You have a very good chance of recording the wrong location. The reason is
that the census may have said Berne, but it should have said *Town of*
Berne. Because it didn't, your records show that a person lived in the
hamlet of Berne. In fact everyone in the Town of Berne, which is 15 miles
wide, has been assigned to that small hamlet due to the transcriber not
paying attention to accuracy. If some of your relatives were farmers, you
may have recorded them as living in a hamlet or village. If you think about
it, it can't be true.
>
> The problem exists in reverse, as well. How many of you realize that
there is no such place as Bethlehem in Albany County? There are occasional
inquiries about it as if it were some community. There is no hamlet or
village by that name. But, there is a Town of Bethlehem. A similar problem
exists in nearby Town of Schodack in Rensselaer Co. There is a Schodack
Landing, a South Schodack, and an East Schodack. But, guess what? There is
no Schodack. Because the records that we get lack the "Town of" attached to
the name of the hamlet or village, we begin to think that every Town name is
actually some small community. How would we know otherwise? Most of the
census transcriptions that now exist seem to indicate that everyone lived in
a developed area and nobody lived on farms or in rural areas.
>
> So let me ask you. How many of your NY locations say "Town of"? Almost
none, you say? Well, you have a pretty serious problem, I'd say. And we
all share your problem. I recently extracted some names from the NYS
Archives birth, death and marriage microfiche. Westerlo or Rensselaerville
or Coeymans was used to represent either the hamlet or the Town. No care is
being taken to distinguish between the two. And these are state records.
So, even though the name appears to mean the hamlet, I record it as the
Town. I can't be wrong that way. When I am entering data into my genealogy
database, I am online checking the transcription of the NYS Dept. of
Transportation gazetteer. If there is a Town, and also a hamlet
(unincorporated place) or village by the same name, I use the "Town of"
designation.
>
> http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyjeffer/nytwp.htm
>
> Well so far, I blamed it on the transcriber and the state and the town
clerks offices that collect records that are sent to the state. Now it is
your turn to take some blame.
>
> Even when the transcription title is correct, you may have ommitted the
"Town of" anyways (just like many transcribers do). You might have done the
same thing even if you saw the original census. Or, if the title of a book
or webpage lacked "Town of", the first sentence might have made it clear
that it was a Town. In your hurry, you may not have read that sentence.
>
> If a child was baptized at the Albany Reformed Church in 1690, did you
write down that he/she was born in Albany? Why? You have no idea where the
birth took place. It was the main church in the region for quite awhile.
People travelled to the church from other communities for baptisms. Also,
the dominie (pastor) would travel for many days at a time to do baptisms in
other communities. To be accurate, all you can say is that a person was
baptized by the Albany Reformed Church. You can't even say that the baptism
took place in the church in those early times.
>
> Accuracy in your records is largely beyond your control. But, not
entirely. Concentrate on the part where your accuracy will make a
difference in your records. Remember, you will probably share parts of
these records for many years to come. Get it right, and other people will
receive accurate facts. Get it wrong, and many people will share and spread
your errors. It's up to you.
>
> Cliff
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> "W.DeBusk" wrote:
>
> > This link will take you where you want to go.
> >
> > http://resources.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/townco.cgi
> >
> > Wendy
>

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