Hello Jay, Welcome to New York Research! You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll swear at the State Records people. Your plan, excerpted below, sounds good. One caveat, however: Be aware of, and make your correspondents aware of the other surnames involved. Many times just down the road, or next door, will be the family one ancestor marries into. Or the matriarch will move in with a son-in-law. I've just discovered a missing "son" who had already married before the census was taken; and found proof of the parents of a gggrandfather which proof was missing in earlier censuses. So, be sure to look around, and let us and others know who else besides Kortright might be on those films or books. Happy hunting. Or as Chingatchgook would say, "Hugh!" Daniel of ENG&FR>CT&PQ>NY. --- "J.Steffens" <lynx1063@erols.com> wrote: > Hello, > > To officially start off my genealogy Research for > my NY ancestors. I am > going to start off with my ancestors that left the > Empire State and headed > to Virginia. There were four such families involved > in that exodus. I will > pick one and work on him with your help untill > exhausted before moving on > down the line. ===== Working on the following surnames: "Upstate NY": BARLOW BOMBARD BURDICK CARPENTER DOTY ELMS/EEMS EUSTIS GATES GOODWIN HALL HINCKLEY MARCOUX MOORE PILLING PRATT RUSSELL STEWART Quebec: BACQUET dit LAMONTAGNE BELANGER BOMBARD(IER) DALLAIRE DELAUNEY DOIGT GAGNON JOUINEAU LAMONTAIGNE LEBRUN dit CARRIER MAGNAN MARCOUX MERCIER MORAN/MORIN POETE de RAINVILLE ROI/ROY "The effectiveness of fudge-making in fending off the male and impressing him with the female's divine unapproachability can not be over-estimated." James Thurber, E.B. White: "Is Sex Necessary?" __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com