New York State
What is a county board of supervisors?
Historically, New York counties had boards of supervisors as their legislative bodies. They consisted of the town and city supervisors within a county’s boundaries. Boards were required to meet at least once a year. Special sessions were held if an important matter came up outside their selected meeting timeframe. Nowadays, county legislative bodies may be named Board of Supervisors, Board of Representatives, Board of Legislators, or County Legislature.
What are supervisors proceedings?
Supervisors proceedings record actions taken by the board and reports given to the board by committees, institutions, and county government departments. Their main concerns involve financial responsibility, carrying out local and New York State directives, recording county law, and monitoring county property and institutions.
What can you learn about your ancestors and their communities?
If an ancestor or organization/institution that they were involved with received county funding, you may find them in board of supervisors proceedings. Here are some examples of what you may find.
- Crime records: penitentiary inmates, district attorney reports (indictments, names of the accused, crime), transportation of prisoners, sheriff fines collected
- Deaths: lists of coroner reports, deaths of those in county institutions, burials of the military poor
- Election results
- Institutions: placements in (including outside the local area), resident lists, deaths in, reports, activities, descriptions, inspections of
- Institutions commonly represented: poorhouses, penitentiaries, placements in mental health facilities and orphanages
- Local laws and officials
- Locate your ancestor in time and place
- Name lists: accounts (goods and services provided by individuals and businesses), jury, tax, warrants
- Occupation or industry (county account payments), county job salaries
- Orphans: placement of individuals in orphanages, lists of families who take in foster children
- Social history
Tips on using supervisors’ proceedings
Proceedings are usually published annually and arrangement is by meeting date. A main topic index is usually at the front or back of the book. Names are usually not indexed. Start by keyword searching online proceedings. If you don’t find what you are looking for, browse the index to see where your research subject may fit in.
Access, in-person
Supervisors’ proceedings are usually available in published book format and sometimes original, handwritten proceedings are accessible. County clerks and historians, genealogical and historical societies, colleges and universities, and public libraries generally hold the proceedings for the area in which they are located.
The following institutions have significant but not necessarily complete collections of published New York county board of supervisors’ proceedings. Supervisors’ proceedings are often kept off-site or in storage areas and may need to be requested in advance.
Cornell University, Library Annex
New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
New York State Library
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Oak Street Library
For more information
Hoffman, Rhonda. “County Board of Supervisors Proceedings: A Genealogy Source Revealed.” New York Researcher, 33, no. 2 (Summer 2022): 42-45.
Cat Eye Genealogy 