This collection consists of digitized probate records from throughout varying periods and locations within Suffolk County, New York.
Researchers can both search and browse titles in this collection. Read below for a complete list of all documents included.
Early Long Island Wills of Suffolk County, 1691-1703
This title, originally published in 1897 by F. P. Harper, is accessible to us today thanks, in no small part, to some canny recognition of its value. The book's editor, William S. Pelletreau, recounts:
Up to 1844 the County Clerk's office was wherever the clerk happened to live. Thomas Helme was clerk in 1691, and for many years after. William Henry Smith, a son of the Judge, held the office from 1730 to 1739. After the Revolution, under the State Government, Hon. Ezra L'Hommedieu was clerk from 1784 to 1810, and again in 1811. He died in office September 27, 1811. The book of which this volume is a copy was among his official books and papers. By some oversight it was not transferred to his successor in office, but remained in the hands of Thomas S. Lester, Sr., who died September 13, 1817. With the rest of his private papers it came into the possession of his only son Thomas S. Lester, Jr., who was a child at the time of his father's death. Many years later, when he came to manhood, his attention was called to the book by the late Charles B. Moore of New York City, and he saw at once that it was an original Book of Records, belonging to the County Clerk's office; and on October 13, 1871, he transmitted it to George C. Campbell, who then held the office, and it was thus restored to its proper place after having been lost to the public for a period of sixty years.