Genealogical researcher Barbara Leiger Granato happened to be at the Oneida County Archives when she stumbled upon boxes of old birth, death, and marriage records. The records are typically housed at Towns throughout Oneida County, but somehow ended up at the Oneida County Clerk’s office. Barbara spent nearly a year sorting and organizing the information. These kinds of records have become exceedingly desired online.

"As far as ancestry/genealogy research is concerned, the pandemic has become a really, really great time to get online and start looking for records, but people need to remember that not all records are always online."

These records can now be found at the Towns of origination, and the requests for this kind of information is keeping Bridgewater Town Clerk Laura Eaton busy.

"It’s one of the most frequent phone calls or requests that we receive."

Augusta Town Clerk Sonya Furness says with everyone now spending more time at home because of the pandemic, family history has become a popular hobby. 

"So what we received today is just like a wealth of information for these genealogists that are looking for their history."

The Executive Director of the Oneida County History Center Rebecca McLain says you can also find all of these records at the Oneida County History Center.

"A lot of researchers/genealogists you need to go to a lot of the Towns and Villages your ancestors lived in, so we can kind of be a one stop place for some of those records now."

Some of the records date back to the 1800’s, but none of it would have been available if it hadn’t been for Barbara’s hard work.

"Because if we don’t preserve yesterday’s history, we’ll never be able to answer those unknown questions, those unanswered questions."

Anyone interested in viewing these documents can come to the Oneida County History Center. You do need to make an appointment. To set up an appointment by website please allow 48 hours advanced notice: www.oneidacountyhistory.org
Phone: 315 735-3642