Thanks so much to the listers who posted the information re the online Surrogate Court Records site. I accessed the site, http://surrogate5th.courts.state.ny.us I then registered as a Genealogist, put in my address and phone number and a requested password. The next day I received a confirmation with a user name and password. I am delighted to write that I found the following record re my gr-grandfather: AA-1930 - FRANEY, JOHN - 1458 - 133 DOD:11/07/1930 Again I contacted the Surrogate Court and once again received a prompt response. I was told the document was a one-page will. The charge for one page is 25 cents unless I want a certified copy which would be $6.00. Today I sent a check for 25 cents (never wrote one for such a small amount before) along with a cover letter and a SASE to: Onondaga County Surrogate Court 401 Montgomery Street Room 209 Syracuse, New York 13202 I am delighted with the service provided by the Surrogate Court personnel and look forward to reading my gr-grandfather's will. Kay Timmons

Kay, I'm so glad you found an ancestor via the new service. I was certain somebody would. Once you have registered and received your username and password, you can then actually pull up a digital copy of the document itself and print it off if you wish. I found that this only works using Internet Explorer however. If you use the slightly different URL they gave you in your registration message, login using the username and password that you chose (don't worry about it being all uppercase on their system), then choose between the HTML or ActiveX versions (ActiveX works a bit better, but you must first allow Internet Explorer to install two downloads -- just use HTML if you don't want to do that). Then repeat your search, and when the name information comes up, click on the name, and you should get a digital copy of the document opening up in another window. If you choose HTML, then the digital copy will open up in a different frame of the same page you are seeing. If you choose ActiveX, then the digital copy will open up in a new page. In order to see the digital copy, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your system; you can download that for free from <http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html>. Since I use Netscape almost exclusively myself, it took me a while to figure out that you have to use Internet Explorer in order for this site to work properly. It may be the case that an older version of Internet Explorer won't work either, and that you need the most recent version of Internet Explorer, but I can't say that for certain. Now if only I had ancestors who lived here...... -- Mary Taffet Syracuse, NY [email protected] [email protected] wrote: > > Thanks so much to the listers who posted the information re the online > Surrogate Court Records site. I accessed the site, > http://surrogate5th.courts.state.ny.us > I then registered as a Genealogist, put in my address and phone number and a > requested password. The next day I received a confirmation with a user name > and password. > > I am delighted to write that I found the following record re my > gr-grandfather: > AA-1930 - FRANEY, JOHN - 1458 - 133 DOD:11/07/1930 > > Again I contacted the Surrogate Court and once again received a prompt > response. I was told the document was a one-page will. The charge for one page is > 25 cents unless I want a certified copy which would be $6.00. > > Today I sent a check for 25 cents (never wrote one for such a small amount > before) along with a cover letter and a SASE to: > Onondaga County Surrogate Court > 401 Montgomery Street Room 209 > Syracuse, New York 13202 > > I am delighted with the service provided by the Surrogate Court personnel and > look forward to reading my gr-grandfather's will. > > Kay Timmons > >