I guess I'll throw in my 2 cents about visiting Utica. I went there about 2 years ago. I found the Oneida Historical Society very helpful and their library provided me with all kinds of information. I spent the better part of a day there. I heard the county library has alot of geneological materials but unfortunately I never got around to visiting there. The Oneida County Building has land records (in the basement). There is an easy, searchable index to use (by date and by name) and the books were easy to pull and find what I wanted. I was in and out of there with copies of deeds and whatnot from 1840 - 80 in about 45 minutes ($1 a page to copy oversized pages). I also found the Rome Historical Society very helpful. What I enjoyed the most was using old maps from the historical societies to locate where my ancestors lived/worked and walking the same streets or paths that they must have walked.