This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: HAIT, SMITH, FINLAYSON, WOOLLEY, BENJAMIN Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/jUB.2ACI/1160 Message Board Post: As most of my family is from New York, I have some idea of how many areas (inc. LI) is broken up into towns, villages, etc. However, my question is specifically about the town of Brookhaven and the village of Patchogue. Am I correct in my belief that Patchogue is a village in the town of Brookhaven? Who would hold older vital records, the town clerk of Brookhaven or the village clerk of Patchogue? The reason I ask is that I wrote to the Town Clerk of Brookhaven requesting the death record of an ancestor who died in 1900, and was sent a letter stating that the record was not on file there. I know that there is a death record for this individual, as I have seen (someone else's) research that references it. I also have other family that died in Patchogue around the same time period and would like to figure out if I should bother sending any more letters to the TC or if there is somewhere else that would hold these records. -- Of course, there is always the possibility that he did not die within the town of Brookhaven, but if that is the case, I will just be grasping at air. I know that his widow and sons were there in the 1900 Census, and the whole family was there in 1880. So I assume he did. Thanks for the help, Mike