Niagara and Erie County were Indian lands in 1790. They were not part of Ontario Co. Before Niagara was a county (1808) it was part of Batavia town of Genessee County. From the Genesee Co. USGenWeb project: "Before the arrival of the first settlers, "Genesee Country" was the home of the Seneca Indians.   Robert Morris of Massachusetts, purchased "Genesee Country" in 1791 and sold it to the Holland Company, a group of Dutch bankers, on July 20, 1793.   the Holland Company opened for business in 1800, the first sale was 1801, and they moved the office to Batavia when Genesee county was founded in 1802. "The county was named for the indian word meaning "beautiful valley". Originally Genesee County comprised virtually all of Western New York and was divided into only four "Shires" or towns; Batavia, Northampton, Southampton, and Leicester.   Gradually, parcels of land were taken from Genesee County to form other counties; Allegany (1806), Cattaraugus (1808), Chautauqua (1808), Niagara (1808), part of Livingston (1821), part of Monroe (1821), Erie (1821), Orleans (1824) and Wyoming (1841).  What was left is the present Genesee County." If you're doing any substantial research on early settlers in Erie and Niagara Co's I recommend both USGenweb county sites, as well as reading up on the Holland Land Purchase. FAMILY history is made more difficult without knowledge of the HISTORY behind it; you'll save yourself a lot of wasted effort if you get some historical background under your belt. If you don't know what land was part of what county and town when, you can spend a lot of time looking in the wrong place. There is an excellent atlas the name of which escapes my menopausal brain at the moment...they have it in all genealogical and most public libraries. It shows the counties of every state for every census. I photocopied all the maps for each state I was going to be doing research in for each census year. The web is fine but there are times you can't get to it or have trouble downloading something (it took me EIGHT tries to get onto the web tonight, i kept getting bumped!) > -- "Three-fourths of philosophy & literature is the talk of people trying to convince themselves that they really like the cage they were tricked into entering." ~Gary Snyder, Zen Anarchist Poet ---------- >From: "Rene' Nilsson" <amoeba@adelphia.net> >To: NYNIAGAR-L@rootsweb.com >Subject: Where is Niagara County in 1790 census? >Date: Sat, Sep 9, 2000, 8:01 PM > > Hi, > > I was looking at Ancestry's images of the 1790 census online, but I wasn't > sure where to look for Niagara County. I believe this was part of Ontario > County at the time? However, after selecting this, I need to choose a > township. Those listed are: > > Canandaigua > Erwin District > Genesee District > Jerusalem District > > Does anyone know if any of these cover present-day Erie or Niagara County? > I'm assuming this isn't all of Ontario county, since both Erie and Niagara > county were part of it at the time, so it must have been large. Or were the > townships/districts just really big? > > Any help appreciated, as I'm not sure where to start. :) > > Thanks, > > Rene' Nilsson > amoeba@adelphia.net > > > ==== NYNIAGAR Mailing List ==== > To obtain New York State vital records (birth, death, marriage), see > <http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/consumer/vr/geninst.htm>. > >