Today’s GeneaGem is all about New York and more.

New York Heritage most definitely has a New York focus, but there is a wide range of material on this website.

From the About page:

New York Heritage is a research portal for students, educators, historians, genealogists, and anyone else who is interested in learning more about the people, places and institutions of New York State. The collections in New York Heritage represent a broad range of historical, scholarly, and cultural materials held in libraries, museums, and archives throughout the state. Collection items include photographs, letters, diaries, directories, maps, books, and more.

The site is very easy to navigate. Just click on Explore and choose Digital Collections from the drop-down menu.

Here are some examples of the items in the Digital Collections:

La Bella America: From the Old Country to the North Country – Interviews with Italian-Americans of Watertown, New York, 1987

Safe Haven contains photos and documents from Fort Ontario, which housed Jewish refugees during World War II.

Medieval and Early Modern Studies manuscript and book collection covers the years 1200-1837

Vassar Brothers Hospital School of Nursing

Zonta International – Formed in 1919, the Zonta Club of Buffalo was the first club in what is now Zonta International, a leading global organization of women professionals

Kay Flickinger Dockstader Papers, 1910-1995 – Photographs, reverse side personal notes, and postcards of the Adirondack Mountains and other Northern New York locations

15th New York National Guard Enlistment Records – This collection pertains to the first African-American regiment of World War I, which served in both World Wars and nicknamed the “Harlem Hellfighters.”

There are also currently four online exhibits:

Albion Winegar Tourgee, an early civil rights activist involved in the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court case.

Making Sense of the Census in New York

Two Hundred Years on the Erie Canal

Recognizing Women’s Right to Vote in New York State

I’ve tried to share a variety of types of records found on New York Heritage, which include town records, ethnic histories, library collections and documents of day-to-day life in various time periods of history.

Whether you have family connections to New York or just memories of visits and vacations, you’ll enjoy browsing the MANY digital online collections.