New York State Comptroller's Office Applications to Redeem Property from Tax Sales

Numeric by old box number, then assigned number.

This series contains applications by occupants or mortgagees of non-resident lands sold for unpaid taxes, seeking to redeem the lands from sale upon payment of taxes plus interest.

Most of the documents in this series are affidavits of occupancy, giving detailed information on how long the occupant of the land had occupied it, and what use had been made of the land (usually farming or lumbering). Most of the affidavits of occupancy concern lands in the foothills of the Adirondack and Catskill Mountains, but there are also many for lots in Buffalo and Erie County during the 1850s.

The series also contains some affidavits of mortgagees from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These affidavits state the mortgagee's interest in the property for which redemption is sought.

All the documents in this series are endorsed with the word "Redemption", the name of the county, and a description of the lands redeemed. The series contains both approved and denied applications.

Series A1407, Abstracts of Applications to Redeem Land from Tax Sale of 1920, and series B0933, Miscellaneous Documents Reacting to Cancellations and Redemptions, contain related records.

Series B0851, Index to Applications to Redeem Property from Tax Sales is the index to this series.

Container list.

In March 1999, Archives staff refiled ca. 50 applications previously estrayed from the series. All applications were to redeem property in Lewis County sold for unpaid taxes in the tax-sale of 1900.

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.