On Fri, 14 Jan 2005, .... valentine wrote: > if you click on the genweb for the county > you would find that niagara county was not always as it is now... > i am not saying that wolcottsville isnt in N cty, but depending on > WHEN the person is looking for a town in the county might mean that > they should consider also one or two or three other counties.... That is correct. The town/county database tells you only where a town is today and it does not include defunct towns, like Black Rock, which was annexed by Buffalo in 1853. Here's a site showing the evolution of county boundaries in NY State: http://olivercowdery.com/census/BurnEvlv.htm The only change for Niagara County since it was created in 1808 is that it once included what is now Erie County. Erie County was created in 1821. So if a town is still in Niagara County today, it has been there since 1808. Knowing the town's current location is still important for genealogists, because every attempt was made to transfer geographically appropriate records from the old county to the new, when new counties were formed. Thus it is that Erie County Hall has property transactions dating back to about 1800 even though Erie County didn't exist until 1821. -=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=- Webmaster: Cynthia Van Ness, MLS -- roots AT bfn DOT org Buffalo Roots: Genealogy & Family History in Buffalo, NY http://www.buffaloresearch.com/roots.html