Welcome to the Columbia County, NY

GenWeb


About Columbia County

Columbia County was formed in 1786 out of Albany County. In 1799, the southern boundary of Columbia County was modified to include the portion of Livingston Manor located in Dutchess County.

The county seat was originally at Claverack, but moved to Hudson in 1805, where it is today.

Columbia County is in the northern part of the Hudson River Valley, about 125 miles north of New York city and 35 miles south-east of Albany. It is 36 miles from North to South, and 18 miles from East to West. It contains 688 square miles


Boundary

Columbia County is bounded by the following counties:


Town Development

Original settlement was by the Dutch near Kinderhook, in the north-west corner of the county, followed by a Palatine German settlement at Germantown (then East Kamp) in the southwest corner of the county. The eastern border was settled in the 1750's by New Englanders from Massachusetts and Connecticut. In the 1780's a group of New England Quakers from Nantucket and surrounding areas created the city of Hudson.

The original land disbursement in Columbia County was in the form of Patents:

PatentAcresDate
Purchased
from Indians
Date
Patented
Patentees
Van Hoesen (Hudson)16621667Jan Frans van Hoesen
Major Abraham Staats (Stockport)2001667Major Abraham Statts
Major Abraham Staats (Stockport)4001685Major Abraham Statts
Flodder/Baker (Kinderhook)16671667Jacob Jansen Flodder
Capt. John Baker
Wessels/Teunissen (Kinderhook)Dirck Wessels
Gerrit Teunissen
Lower Manor (Claverack)700,000 (Including remainder of Manor)16491685Killian van Rensselaer
Livingston Manor160,24016841686Robert Livingston
de Bruyn (Kinderhook)16681686Jan Hendrick de Bruyn
Powell Tract (Stuyvesant)
Burghart/van Schaack (between Kinderhook and Claverack)4,000Conradt Burghardt
Elias van Schaack
van Alen/van Schaack (Kinderhook)1703Lawrence van Scaack
Lawrence van Alen
(East of Kinderhook Creek)6,0001731Burgar Huyck, et. al.
Mawighanunk Patent (Northeast of Kinderhook)4,3801743Stephen Bayard,
Cornelius van Schaick,
John Baptiste van Rensselaer,
Johannes van Deusen,
Barent Vosburgh
Wawieghnunk Patent1743William Bayard,
Stephen Bayard
(East of Kinderhook Creek)1668Peter van Alen
Gore (between Claverack and Livingston Manors) originally part of Claverack Manor10,1521767Abraham Lott, et. al.
On Kinderhook Creek7001788John van Ness
Canaan1791Given to settlers in actual possession
Lands between Canaan to the north, Claverack to the south, Canaan to the East and Kinderhook to the west1793Given to settlers in actual possession

The original towns of Columbia County were Canaan, Claverack, Germantown, Hillsdale, Hudson City, Kinderhook, and Livingston.

TownDate
Founded
Created From
Livingston Manor1686
East Kamp1709Livingston Manor
Kinderhook1772Original Town
Kings District1772Original Town
Livingston1772Original Town
Germantown1775East Kamp (town renamed)
Canaan1778Kings District
Hillsdale1782Claverack
Hudson1785Claverack
Columbia County Formed 1786
Clermont1787Livingston
Chatham1795Kinderhook, Canaan
Granger1803Livingston
Gallatin1803Livingston
Ancram1814Gallatin (town renamed)
Taghkanic1814Granger (town renamed)
Austerlitz1818Chatham, Hillsdale, Canaan
New Lebanon1818Canaan
Ghent1818Chatham, Claverack, Kinderhook
Stuyvesant1823Kinderhook
Copake1824Taghkanic
Gallatin1830Ancram
Stockport1833Hudson, Ghent, Stuyvesant
Greenport1837Hudson
Germantown1858Germantown, Clermont

Lookup Volunteers

At this time we have no volunteers

If you have any books or CDs on this county and will volunteer to do lookups, please email me at bathrick@berkshire.net .

Please follow these guidelines when requesting a look-up.

  1. Put name of county and LOOKUP in caps in subject of message. This will ensure that your request is not accidently overlooked or deleted.
  2. Put name of book or CD you are requesting the lookup from in the first line of the message. Many of these wonderful volunteers have more than one book or CD and need to know what you are looking for in order to try to help you.
  3. Limit your request to 1 or 2 specific names. Asking for ALL the marriages on a surname of Brown or Jones or Smith will probably be ignored or request denied.
  4. Don't forget to thank your volunteer for their time and trouble.


Queries

A query page has been developed for the Columbia County On-Line Historical Archives. Since it would be counter-productive to have two query pages, we'll be referring everyone to that page. You may enter queries through the New York Query page as well.


Other Sites Relating to Columbia County


Other Sites Relating to New York



NYGenWeb


  • NYGenWeb Master County Index Page Find out all about the NYGenWeb project and visit the other counties here.
  • US GenWeb Archives: NY Archives
  • US GenWeb Index Page
  • Gene Stark's Index of Names for all Gen Web Sites (Includes all Adair County lines.)
  • John Rigdon's Index
  • Rules and Regulations Read the projects rules and regulations, and download sample pages and gif files.


  • Commercial Sites of Interest

  • KINSHIP, publishers of much source material for Columbia County.


  • Thanks are due to BerkshireNet for storing this site.
    Page Design by Michael D. Bathrick