Mary, What you need is a good Gazeteer. There are at least 3 for New York. The classic is J. H. French's "Gazeteer of the Stae of New York". There are two others, both titled, "Gazeteer of New York State", one by Hough and the other by Gordon. Bob Protzmann You wrote: Mary Schwarzenberger [marysch1@ptd.net] Sun 4/16/00 5:48 AM NYROCKLA-L@rootsweb.com [NYROCKLA] Re: NY towns I have a death cert for my ggf, which lists his town of birth. It is very illegible, even after enlarging it many times. Is there a list of NY municipalities from around 1840 that I can check it against? I can make out only the last few letters. Mary