Class Highlight: Researching New York: Resources and Strategies with Karen Mauer Jones

Are you stuck in New York? Research in New York is complicated by its urban-rural extremes and its 400-year, multi-ethnic history.

This course tackles those complexities, arming the researcher with the knowledge needed for success in this difficult state. This course will cover New York’s history as it impacts the researcher, and examine in detail the records that have been created and preserved.

Broad topics include immigration/migration, laws and the legal system, military records, ethnic groups, vital records, land and property, urban research, turnpikes/canals/railroads, local government/institutional records, probate, newspapers, directories, censuses, and more.

Former class participant Vickie Young said "having done little research outside of Kings County, and none prior to 1830, I found the course informative in providing a good overview of the history and available records for researching in the State of New York."

Karen Mauer Jones, CG, FGBS, of Cooperstown, New York, is an editor, author, lecturer, and professional genealogist, specializing in upstate New York, and currently employed as editor of The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. She was named a fellow of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society in November 2012.

She holds an MA in museum studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program in Museum Studies (State University of New York, Oneonta) and a BS (honors) in history (State University of New York, Oneonta). She has served on the Education Committee of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society since 2011.

The owner of Frontier Press, a genealogical and historical bookstore, she is the author of articles in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly and the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, as well as the two-volume set of The Kentucky Gazette: Genealogical and Historical Abstracts, 1787-1820, the two-volume set of Pioneer Ohio Newspapers: Genealogical and Historical Abstracts, 1793-1818 (winner of the 1989 Salmon P. Chase Award, Council of Ohio Genealogists), and The Maryland Gazette: Genealogical and Historical Abstracts, 1727-1761 (winner of the 1991 Norris Harris Award, Maryland Historical Society).

Have questions about whether this course is right for you? Email us at info@ugagenealogy.org.