This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------61BA204760DB252C478AE312 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit List members - I thought I would weigh-in on the current thread concerning reading material on the history of Niagara County. I am reasonably certain that my ancestor, Noah Cooley, migrated from Pittsford, Vermont to western New York in 1815-1816. Therefore, he most certainly settled upon a Holland Land Company plat, probably Wilson. In preparation for a genealogy research trip to Niagara Falls in the next year or two, I have been reading up on the Holland Land Company history. I've had use of couple of great resources: o The Holland Land Company/Selected Resources at http://www.hlc.wny.org/ by John R. Stewart o and Research Guide No 56 at State University College at Fredonia, Daniel A. Reed Library http://www.fredonia.edu/reed/hlcguide.htm by Franciska Safran Through inter-library loans I have read the following books: o "Joseph Ellicott and the Holland Land Company" by William Chazanof o "Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase" by O. Turner o "Western New York Land Transactions" by Karen E. Livsey o "Joseph Ellicott and Stories of the Holland Purchase" by Clara L.T. Williams o "Frontier Settlement and Market Revolution" by Charles E. Brooks I have one general comment about all five books. For a subject as intensely geographic as the Holland Purchase there is an amazing paucity of MAPS in these books. For example, in the Turner book, which gives the best history of the subject, "Twenty four townships were surveyed or commenced to be surveyed in conformity to [the first plan of the agent general, Theophilus Cazenove, and implemented by Joseph Ellicott], although the uniformity of the size and shape of lots was often departed from, where large streams, such as the Tonawanda running through the townships, were, for convenience, made boundaries of lots." While I wouldn't demand a map so detailed as to show individual lots, I would like to see a map of the area where the survey was started, and how it proceeded from east to west and how ranges and townships were laid out. None of these books has but the most general of maps. With that sweeping criticism, I can say that for those interested the history of the Niagara County area of the Holland Purchase, the Turner book is the most comprehensive and thorough. The Brooks book looks at the Holland Company and its part in the settlement of the western country. If you are interested in Joseph Ellicott and his role in the Purchase, Chazanof recreates historical situations (probably from Ellicott's diary) while Williams book is homey and more personal. The best of the five, however, is Livsey's book, which is a huge list of people and their transactions. I found my ancestor (Noah Cooley-1816) and, to my surprise, two of his older brothers who followed him (1817-1818). He may have held land for them in anticipation of their arrival. There are keys to many different types of land transactions and there are cross-references to modern geographic locations (but, alas, few maps). By the way, I was elated to see in the message from Ellen Keyne Seebacher last Sunday, a reference to 1860 maps by the Niagara County Genealogical Society http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyniagar/extras/ncsmaps.htm I went immediately to the site and, lo and behold, they have maps with Holland Land Company lots indicated. I've ordered several of them and can hardly wait for their arrival. -- Dan Cooley San Mateo, Calif. Researching COOLEY and WARREN in Niagara County and Oakland County, Michigan. --------------61BA204760DB252C478AE312 Content-Type: text/x-vcard; charset=us-ascii; name="danbcooley.vcf" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Description: Card for Daniel B. Cooley Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="danbcooley.vcf" begin:vcard n:Cooley;Daniel B. x-mozilla-html:FALSE adr:;;;;;; version:2.1 email;internet:danbcooley@home.com fn:Daniel B. Cooley end:vcard --------------61BA204760DB252C478AE312--