New Horizons Genealogy

"Specializing in New England and New York Colonial American Ancestry"


Putnam County New York Genealogy and History

Founded: 1812

Named for: Israel Putnam

County Seat: Carmel


Try our genealogy search engine


Search Free Putnam County New York Genealogy and Family History Records Online including census, cemetery, vital, military and other genealogical and historical records that can be used for your family history research.

Putnam County, New York genealogy and family history page is a place where you can come in and research your genealogy and family history. We also do our best to provide a history of the area, to provide you with an overview of the time in which your ancestors lived.

We regret that are unable to do personal research for you. All genealogical and family history records we come across are being added to this website. Please keep checking back.


History

In 1609, the Wappinger Native American people inhabited the east bank of the Hudson River. They farmed, hunted, and fished throughout their range, often encountering Dutch fur traders. They obtained metal tools and goods such as alcohol and firearms in exchange for furs.

The colonial Province of New York and the Connecticut Colony negotiated an agreement on November 28, 1683, establishing their border as 20 miles (32 km) east of the Hudson River, and north to Massachusetts. Dutchess county was organized as one of New York's twelve counties. It included all of today's Putnam County and two towns in the present Columbia county. Until 1713, Dutchess was administered by Ulster county.

In 1691, a group of Dutch traders purchased a tract of land from the Wappingers that spanned from the Hudson River to the Connecticut border. Six years later they sold it to wealthy Dutch-American merchant Adolphus Philipse, who obtained a Royal sanction for a "Highland Patent" (later to be known as the Philipse Patent) that encompassed most of today's Putnam County. Unknown at that time was a northwest veer in the river's path at the Hudson Highlands. This generated a dispute over a roughly 2-mile-wide section of border between northern Westchester County, then-Dutchess County, and the Connecticut Colony, which came to be known as "The Oblong".

In 1737, the New York Colonial Assembly designated the Philipse Patent as the South Precinct of Dutchess County. The Philipses began leasing farms to migrants from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Long Island, and lower Westchester. After Adolph Philipse's death, the Patent was divided in 1754 into nine lots granted to three heirs: Mary Philipse, Philip Philipse, and Susannah Philipse Robinson. During the French and Indian War, many of the Wappinger went to Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Compared to other parts of the Hudson Valley, Putnam County had slow settlement. It was privately owned and settlement was limited to tenant farmers willing to pay the Philipse family for leases. Secondly, it was mostly hilly and rocky, making it unappealing to men looking for tillable cropland. Its use was generally limited to dairy farming and wood cutting. The first non-tenant settlers in the county were along its eastern edge. The ambiguous border with Connecticut attracted farmers from New England. They assumed that Philipse did not own the disputed area.

Among early settlers were the Hayt family, which built a farm called The Elm in 1720. Jacob Haviland settled in the Oblong in 1731 in what became known as Haviland Hollow. The first village in the county was Fredericksburg, now the hamlet of Patterson.

During the American Revolution, the Philipses stayed loyal to the Crown. As a consequence, their lands were confiscated by the New York government. It sold the Philipse Patent along with the rest of their holdings. The dispute over The Oblong was resolved in the aftermath of the war, with the heavily settled tract being incorporated as the first of two versions of the Town of Southeast. Also resolved were two "Gores", the Beekman Gore and the Rombout Gore, which being geographically similar to the Livingston and Beekman patents they abutted, were ceded by the Philipses to Dutchess County in 1758 and 1771 respectively.

Due to the increasing population of the Southern Precinct of Dutchess County and the great distance of these communities from the county seat in Poughkeepsie, Putnam was split from Dutchess in 1812 and organized as an independent county. It encompassed all of the Philipse Patent and the Oblong abutting it, less a triangular area in the farthest northwest reach of the Patent. There, a lowland near Fishkill Creek isolated from the rest of Putnam County and its adjacent upland drainage leading into the Hudson Highlands to the south, were ceded to Dutchess.


Free Putnam County New York Genealogy Records Online

Biographies Cemetey Records Census Records
Church Records Cities & Towns County Records
Family Bibles History Topics Military Records
Miscellaneous Data Newspaper DataObituaries
School Records Vital Records Wills/Probate Records

Genealogy Research in Putnam County, New York

Putnam County Clerk
Putnam County Office Building
40 Gleneida Avenue, Room 100
Carmel, New York 10512
Phone: (845) 808-1142
Website: http://www.putnamcountyny.com/county-clerk/about-us/


Adjacent counties