Cliff: Kudos to both you and Agnes for making the 'Will Abstracts for the Town of Kinderhook, Columbia Co., NY' available to the Columbia Co., NY RootsWeb mailing list!! The wills of Jan Hendrickse BURGHARDT and his son, Garrett, were among the abstracts. The names of children, grandchildren, and in-laws listed in these abstracts have answered many questions for me. I have not yet perused the other abstracts, but expect that will also be very useful, since the BURGHARDT families from around Claverack and Kinderhook intermarried with many individuals of many of those families--GOES, HALLENBECK, HUYCK, KITTELL, KLAUW, LEGRANGE, MOOR[E], VAN DEUSEN, and VOSBURG. Jan was a brother of my direct ancestor, Coenreat Hendrickse BURGHARDT, who also lived in Claverack and Kinderhook before migrating to the area around Great Barrington, Berkshire Co. [then Hampshire Co.], MA in the early 1700's to help establish 'Housatonic Colony.' Thanks again! Otto Burgett Fort Lauderdale, FL ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Subject: [NYCOL] Will Abstracts for the Town of Kinderhook, Columbia Co., NY > Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2001 13:12:48 -0400 > From: Cliff Lamere <clifflamere@global2000.net> > To: NYCOLUMB-L@rootsweb.com > > I have just posted 25 will abstracts for the Town of Kinderhook, Columbia Co., NY (1708-1786). All were proved in New York City at a time before a Surrogate's Court was established in each county in 1787. New Amsterdam / New York City was the capitol of New York Province/State until the capitol moved to Albany in 1797. [NYC even became the first capitol of the United States in 1789, but only remained so for a year. In 1790, the capitol moved to Philadelphia.]. Apparently, if a will had a value over 50 pounds, it had to be proved by the provincial government. That government had its seat in New York City. When NY became a state in 1777, the capitol did not change until 1797 when it moved to Albany. > > Agnes Cloninger typed the will abstracts, and I created the index of 328 names that were in the wills. Since I was born in the Town of Kinderhook, this project has been very special for me. My thanks to Agnes for her tireless efforts in this project that will increase our online knowledge of Columbia Co. > > http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~clifflamere/Wills/Wills-Kinder.htm > > Cliff > > http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~clifflamere/