This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Polhamus, Polhemus, Relyea Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/5RB.2ACE/1336 Message Board Post: The town of Esopus was founded in 1811. How can I determine whether a family (in my case, Polhemus) were in the same location & the town changed or if they moved there? Who would have the tax rolls indicating the change from one township to the other? Do maps exist (like the later ones of the area) showing property owners? Jordan Polhemus is listed in 1790, 1800 & 1810 in New Paltz. I have been given 1816 as his date of death. In 1830, David Polhemus appears for the first time (Jordan had a son named David, born in 1782), but David is listed in Esopus. I'm trying to determine if he moved to Esopus or if the creation of the township changed the family's "address". Peck's genealogy of the Polhemus family states that the land sold by David & his brother John during the 1820's (which is said to be in New Paltz in one deed & Esopus in the other, but was, I believe, on the Hudson & the 2 lots adjacent to one another) belonged to their father Jordan. The deeds don't say that, so Peck must have had some other resource. I am descended from David & Elizabeth. Have been unable to verify that he was Jordan's son so I thought I'd try "following the land".