Oswego County is bordered by Jefferson, Lewis, Oneida, Cayuga, Onondaga, and Madison counties as well as Lake Ontario.
County Formed: 1816
Parent County: Oneida, Onondaga
Daughter Counties: none
Major Land Transactions: New Military Tract 1782-1791, Macomb Purchase 1792, Scriba Patent 1794
Table of Contents
- History
- Cities, Towns, and Villages
- Repositories, Resources, and Societies – County
- Repositories, Resources, and Societies – Regional
- Repositories, Resources, and Societies – Local
- Civil, Public, and Vital Records
- Federal Census Records
- State Census Records
- Online Resources
- Selected Bibliography
History
Native American tribes are estimated to have lived in Oswego County since 7,000 BC. The first European to arrive in the area was the French explorer Samuel de Champlain in 1615. The area was subsequently settled by the British throughout the 17th century and used as a trading center. Important land transactions in present-day Oswego County include the New Military Tract of 1782–1791, the Macomb Purchase of 1792, and the Scriba Patent of 1794. On March 1, 1816 Oswego County was founded after breaking away from Onondaga and Oneida counties and named the city of Oswego as its county seat. Oswego County’s location on the Oswego River system facilitated trade with the area. As a result, Oswego County’s economy was largely centered around the production and transportation of commercial goods.
Repositories, Resources, and Societies – County
Oswego County Clerk
Website: Oswego County Clerk
Address: 46 East Bridge Street, Oswego, NY 13126
Phone: (315) 349-8621
Oswego County - City, Town, and Village Clerks
Website: Oswego County - City, Town, and Village Clerks
Birth, marriage, and death records are maintained by the clerk of the municipality in which the event occurred.
Oswego County Surrogate's Court
Website: Oswego County Surrogate’s Court
Address: Oswego County Courthouse, 25 East Oneida Street, Oswego, NY 13126
Phone: (315) 349-3295
Oswego County Public Libraries
Website: Oswego County Public Libraries
Oswego is part of the North County Library System. Many hold genealogy and local history collections such as local newspapers.
Oswego County Records Center and County Historian
Website: Oswego County Records Center and County Historian
Address: 384 East River Road, Oswego, NY 13126
Phone: (315) 249-8460
Oswego County - All Municipal Historians
Website: Municipal Historians
While not authorized to answer genealogical inquiries, city, town, and village historians can provide valuable historical information and research advice to family historians; some maintain collections with genealogixal material. Some historians also have web-pages with local histories transcribed records, links to useful resources and other genealogical information.
Oswego County Historical Society and Richardson-Bates House Museum
Website: Oswego County Historical Society and Richardson-Bates House Museum
Address: 135 East Third Street, Oswego, NY 13126
Phone: (315) 343-1342
Email: ochs@rbhousemuseum.org
Heritage Foundation of Oswego County
Website: Heritage Foundation of Oswego County
Address: 143 West Third Street, PO Box 405, Oswego, NY 13126
Phone: (315) 342-3354
Email: president@oswegocountyheritage.com
Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum and Education Center
Website: Safe Haven Museum and Education Center
Street Address: 2 East 7th Street, Oswego, NY 13126
Mailing Address: PO Box 846, Oswego, NY 13126
Phone: (315) 342-3003
Email: safehaven@cnymail.com
Repositories, Resources, and Societies – Regional
Central New York Genealogical Society
Website: Central New York Genealogical Society
Address: PO Box 404, Colvin Station, Syracuse, NY 13205
Email: cnygs@yahoo.com
SUNY at Oswego: Local History Collection
Website: SUNY at Oswego: Local History Collection
Address: Penfield Library, Special Collections, Oswego, NY 13126
Phone: (315) 312-3537
Email: archives@oswego.edu
Repositories, Resources, and Societies – Local
Alphabetized by location
Hastings Heritage and History Club
Address: 196 County Route 33, Central Square, NY 13036
Phone: (315) 668-2178
Fulton Public Library
Website: Fulton Public Library
Address:160 South First Street, Fulton, NY 13069
Phone: (315) 592-5159
Email: fullib@nnyln.net
Hannibal Historical Society and Museum
Website: Hannibal Historical Society and Museum
Address: Hannibal Community Center, 162 Oswego Street, PO Box 150, Hannibal, NY 13074
Phone: (315) 564-5650
Mexico Historical Society and Museum
Website: Mexico Historical Society and Museum
Address: 65 South Jefferson Street, Mexico, NY 13114
Phone: (315) 963-3144
Williamstown Historical Society
Website: Williamstown Historical Society
Address: 1877 Route 17, Williamstown, NY 13493
Phone: 315-964-2393
Oswego Public Library
Website: Oswego Public Library
Address: 120 East Second Street, Oswego, NY 13126
Email: oswegopl@northnet.org
Oswego Town Historical Society
Website: Oswego Town Historical Society
Address: 2320 County Route 7, Oswego, NY 13126
Phone: (315) 343-2586 or 315-420-0000
Scriba Town Historical Association
Website: Scriba Town Historical Association
Address: Scriba Municipal Building, 42 Creamery Road, Oswego, NY 13126
Phone: (315) 342-6420
Email: records@twc.rr.com
Parish Public Library
Website: Parish Public Library
Address: 3 Church Street, Parish, NY 13126
Phone: (315) 625-7130
Pulaski Historical Society
Address: 3428 Maple Avenue, Pulaski, NY 13142
Phone: (315) 298-4650
Email: phspulaski@aol.com
Pulaski Public Library
Website: Pulaski Public Library
Address: 4917 North Jefferson Street, Pulaski, NY 13142
Phone: (315) 298-2717
Email: pullib@ncls.org
Half-Shire Historical Society
Website: Half-Shire Historical Society
Address: 1100 County Route 48, Richland, NY 13144-0073
Phone: (315) 298-3620
Email: info@halfshire.org
Annie P. Ainsworth Memorial Library: Genealogy
Website: Annie P. Ainsworth Memorial Library: Genealogy
Address: 6064 South Main Street, PO Box 69, Sandy Creek, NY 13145
Phone: (315) 387-3732
Email: ainsworth6064@yahoo.com
Sandy Creek History Center
Website: Sandy Creek History Center
Address: 1992 Harwood Drive, PO Box 69, Sandy Creek, NY 13145
Phone: (315) 387-5456 ext. 7
Email: schistorian@frontier.net
West Monroe Historical Society
Website: West Monroe Historical Society
Address: 2355 State Route 49, PO Box 53, West Monroe, NY 13167
Phone: (315) 676-7414
Civil, Public, and Vital Records
Civil Records are those created, recorded and/or maintained by a governmental body and include births, marriages, deaths, censuses, property, and probate. NB: The New York State government began collecting vital record data in 1880. Birth, marriage, and death records from New York State (excluding the five boroughs of New York City) after 1880 on can be obtained from the New York State Department of Health. For vital records previous to 1880, consult the municipality in which the event took place. Learn more about New York's vital records in our online guide.
Federal Census Records
Population schedules: 1790-1940 (except 1890).
Online at Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, and Findmypast.com (free to NYG&B members).
Access on Findmypast:
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State Census Records
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County originals at Oswego County Records Center: 1855, 1865, 1875, 1892, 1905, 1915, 1925 (1825, 1835, and 1845 are lost)
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State originals at the NYSA: 1915, 1925
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Microfilm at the FHL, NYPL, and NYSL
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Many years are online at FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com
Online Resources
General Resources
There are vast numbers of records on Ancestry.com that pertain to people who have lived in New York State. A search of the online card catalog by county may reveal lesser known resources that pertain to a locality, such as town records, abstracts, transcriptions, city directories, and local histories.
FamilySearch has extensive collections of New York records, including religious records, which are searchable by name and location, but not by county. The following collections include record images (browsable, but not searchable) that are organized by county.
NYGenWeb Project: Oswego County
Part of the national, USGenWeb volunteer initiative, the website provides information and resources for county research.
Maps
- New York, Land Records, 1630-1975 - Includes land and property records.
Newspapers
New York Heritage Digital Collections: Oswego Public Library
The website provides access to two digital collections: Oswego City Directories 1852–1929, and the Safe Haven Collection, which documents the experience of Jewish refugees at the Safe Haven compound during 1944–1945.
Other Records
- New York, Probate Records, 1629-1971. Includes wills, letters of administration, and guardianship papers.
Selected Bibliography
Abstracts, Indexes & Transcriptions
- County of Oswego Abstracts. Syracuse: Central New York Genealogical Society, 2000. Abstracts for a range of genealogical records originally published in the quarterly Tree Talks.
- Daughters of the American Revolution, comps. New York DAR Genealogical Records Committee Report. Since 1913 DAR volunteers have transcribed many thousands of unpublished cemetery, church, and town records throughout New York. The reports are at the DAR Library; copies are at the NYSL and the NYPL. The DAR has a searchable name index to all the GRC reports at http://services.dar.org/Public/DAR_Research/search/?Tab_ID=6. See Jean Worden’s index below for a listing by county of the New York record sets that were transcribed by the DAR before 1998.
- Kelly, Arthur C. M. Index to Tree Talks County Packet: Oswego County. Rhinebeck, NY: Kinship, 2002.
- Oswego County, NYG&B Church Surveys Collection. NYG&B New York. [NY
- Oswego County, NYG&B Church Surveys Collection. NYG&B, New York. [NYG&B eLibrary]
- Vosburgh, Royden Woodward, ed. “Records Pertaining to the First Presbyterian Church in the City of Oswego, N.Y.” Typescript, 1917. NYPL, New York. [NYG&B eLibrary]
- Worden, Jean D. “Book 1, Subject Index.” In Revised Master Index to the New York State Daughters of the American Revolution Genealogical Records Volumes. Zephyrhills, FL: J. D. Worden, 1998. The Subject Index includes a listing by county of the cemeteries, churches, towns, and other sources of records transcribed by the DAR.
Other Resources
- Child, Hamilton. Gazetteer and Business Directory of Oswego County, NY, for 1866–7. Oswego, 1866.
- Churchill, John C., H. P. Smith, and W. Stanley Child. Landmarks of Oswego County, New York. Syracuse, 1894. Includes biographies and family sketches.
- Cutter, William R. Genealogical and Family History of Central New York: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Building of a Nation. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1912.
- Faust, Ralph M. The Story of Oswego: With Notes about the Several Towns in the County. Oswego, NY: The Author, 1934.
- Johnson, Crisfield. History of Oswego County, New York, 1789–1877. With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers. Philadelphia, 1877.
- Landon, Harry F. The North Country: A History, Embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin Counties. 3 vols. Indianapolis: Historical Publishing Co., 1932.
- New York Historical Resources Center. Guide to Historical Resources in Oswego County, New York, Repositories. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 1982. [books.FamilySearch.org]
- Northern New York Library Network. Directory of Archival and Historical Document Collections. 2011–2013 edition; published digitally at http://nny.nnyln.org/archives/ArchivalDirectory.pdf. Online indexes at http://nny.nnyln.org/archives/page01.html. Describes collections held by organizations in Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis, Oswego, and St. Lawrence counties.
- Parsons, David K. Bugles Echo Across the Valley: Oswego County, New York, and the Civil War. Sandy Creek, NY: Write to Print, 1994.
- Pierrepont, William C. The Taming of the Wilderness in Northern New York: Records of the Land Purchases of Early Settlers for 1826 for Lands in Jefferson, Lewis, and Oswego Counties. Sandy Creek, NY: Write to Print, 1993.
- Records of the Ithaca College Study Center for Early Religious Life in Western New York, 1978–1981. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library. A description of the holdings for each county is at http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/eguides/lists/churchlist1.htm.
- Slosek, Anthony M., and Helen M. Breitbeck. Oswego and the War of 1812. Oswego, NY: Heritage Foundation of Oswego, 1989.
- Slosek, Anthony M., and Helen M. Breitbeck. Oswego: Its People and Events. Interlaken, NY: Heart of the Lakes Publishing, 1985.
- Snyder, Charles M. Oswego County, New York, in the Civil War. Oswego, NY: Oswego County Historical Society, 1986. The Oswego County Civil War Centennial Committee Yearbook.
- Stone, C. K. New Topographical Atlas of Oswego County, New York: From Actual Surveys Especially for this Atlas. Philadelphia, 1867. [NYPL Digital Gallery]
- Wellman, Judith, ed. Landmarks of Oswego County. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1988.
The materials above are a compilation of resources available, with an emphasis on online resources, which might be useful to someone doing research within this county. The inclusion of a link does not constitute an endorsement of its content or accuracy. Please send any additions or corrections to webmaster@nygbs.org.