I am looking for some to help me obtain family information in Allegany County. I wrote to the Historian's Office in Belmont and received this reply: "I do not preform searches. However, our records are open to the public and you are welcome to visit here anytime to conduct your research. If visiting here is not possible, I respectfully suggest you contact our local genealogist who is available for hire." A name and address were given. Past experience with hiring genealogists has been to say the least a costly adventure. In all my 18 years of research, I have never received a letter such as that from an "Historian's Office." Does someone live in the Belmont area who would have the time and be able to do some lookups for a reasonable fee. I live several miles from that area and am unable to travel that far. Please contact me: anneto@scccinternet.com Anne Townsend

For those reluctant to contact a paid researcher: I would contact the local name supplied and ask upfront the charge per hour. I have occasionally hired selected research at far distant places and felt a small charge was well worth it. If you cannot afford the person whose name you were given, they may be able to suggest someone else who would do some looking for a lesser charge. I have received letters similar to yours from other county historians and historical societies in the past. I have been to Belmont to the historians office and Court house (across the street from each other) only once since Belmont is a several hour drive for me. The people in both places were pleasant, but there was not an abundance of staff and quite honestly they were busy steering people to the places where they could look for themselves. I remember in the court house having to climb ladders to get to the wills. The NYS census books and land records did not require climbing anything, however. The historians office had some interesting old local history books, if I remember correctly, family correspondence files in file cabinets. I do not remember if they had obituaries. Both offices were cramped for space. I found the most useful information in the Court House. With cutbacks in NYS and the various county employees I would not expect the situation to change soon. In the County I live in, County and State Employees are not being replaced and some layoffs are in the offing. That likely means nonessential services will be cut in many areas. That being said, I have no first hand knowledge about Allegany Co. Margaret Scheffler ----- Original Message ----- From: "Anne Townsend" <anneto@scccinternet.com> To: <NYALLEGA-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2003 2:40 PM Subject: [NYAllega] NEED HELP IN GETTING INFORMATION > I am looking for some to help me obtain family information in Allegany > County. > > I wrote to the Historian's Office in Belmont and received this reply: > "I do not preform searches. However, our records are open to the public and you are welcome to visit here anytime to conduct your research. > If visiting here is not possible, I respectfully suggest you contact our > local genealogist who is available for hire." > A name and address were given. > Past experience with hiring genealogists has been to say the least a costly > adventure. > In all my 18 years of research, I have never received a letter such as that > from an "Historian's Office." > Does someone live in the Belmont area who would have the time and be able to do some lookups for a reasonable fee. > I live several miles from that area and am unable to travel that far. > > Please contact me: anneto@scccinternet.com > > Anne Townsend