New York State Secretary of State Field Books

The series volumes are in no discernable order. Each volume is divided into a number of subdivisions identified by a letter, each of which is a separate set of field notes bound into the volume. The various subdivisions in each volume are not arranged, nor are they consistently related to each other in terms of geography, date of survey, or other factors.

Section 1171 of the Laws of the Colony of New York, passed on January 8, 1762, stipulated that patentees or other proprietors of large tracts of land who wished to divide their land among themselves or for sale, were obliged to have a survey made for these purposes. Two copies of the field notes and two copies of a map produced from these notes were required to be produced by the surveyor. One set of field notes and maps were filed with the secretary of the colony and the other with the clerk of the county where the greatest part of the land lay.

After the establishment of New York State a similar system was adopted for the disposal of unappropriated state-owned land. Chapter 60 of the Laws of 1784 required the surveyor general to have a survey made each time a group of settlers petitioned the state for a land grant, so that the land granted could be equitably divided into lots. Four copies of the surveyor's field notes and four copies of a map produced from these notes were to be produced. These were filed in the secretary of state's office, the surveyor general's office, the office of the clerk of the county where the land lay, and the clerk of the town where the land lay.

Throughout the late eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century the legislature from time to time directed the surveyor general to have special surveys conducted to divide privately held patents or estates. Multiple copies of survey notes and maps were produced from these surveys and filed in a manner similar to surveys undertaken under Chapter 60 of the Laws of 1784. In 1819 the legislature directed the secretary of state to bind and/or label all records in his custody. At that time all surveys in the custody of the secretary of state were arranged and bound into the present series. The maps relating to these surveys were numbered and are now in the custody of the Office of General Services, Division of Land Utilization.

This series consists of bound volumes containing surveyor's field notes and related material.

Field books vary in the information they contain. Every survey in the series, however, contains the date of the survey, the name of the surveyors, the name of the patent and/or a narrative description of the land surveyed, and a narrative description of each lot laid out by the surveyor, including acreage. Some field notes also contain small scale maps depicting the land surveyed and the lots laid out. Also included with many surveys from the statehood period are summary tables containing the acreage, value of each acre, and total value of each lot. A number of surveys also contain copies of legal papers filed during the land granting process and copies of "Proceedings and Balloting Books". The latter contains a narrative description of the actual meeting during which lots were assigned to the various petitioners for a grant and record which petitioners received which lots.

Field book no. 27, pp. 195-204, contains a census of the Brothertown Indians, 1795, taken pursuant to Laws of 1795, 18th Session, Chap. 41 (1795). The Brothertown reservation was located in the present town of Marshall, Oneida County. The census is published as: Roger D. Joslyn, ed., "The 1795 Census of Brothertown Indians, Oneida County," New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, 141:3 (July 2010), 213-18.

Microfilmed in 1973 at the Department of State by the Genealogical Society of Utah, microfilm reels 945384-945385, 946129, 946409-946410, 946421-946427, 947115 (item 3). Cataloged by the GSU as "Field Books, New York, 1701-1848." Some reels of the GSU microfilm have been digitized by FamilySearch: 945384 (volumes 6-10), 946421 (volumes 22-25), 946422 (volumes 26-29), 946423 (volumes 30-33), 946424 (volumes 34-37), 946427 (volumes 50-53), 947115 (item 3) (volume 46). Images can be viewed online at FamilySearch Affiliate Libraries (including the New York State Archives and the New York State Library).

The surveyor general's copy of land surveys are contained in old series number 99 "Land Survey Field Notes" which are grouped with other land records of the Department of Transportation.

This series was originally indexed by Series A4694, Old index to field books and maps, 1762-1843. This index has been superseded for all practical purposes by Mix, David E.E. "Catalogue of Maps and Surveys in the Office of the Secretary of State, State Engineer and Surveyor, and Comptroller and the State Library" (Albany: 1859).

Volume list.

Some volumes have indexes to purchasers of lots for particular areas, grants, purchases, etc., or listing number of lot, value, or improvements.

Maps in custody of the Office of General Services which relate to the surveyor general's copy of land surveys are generally referred to as "Maps in Portfolios", (within Mix's "Catalogue of Maps and Surveys...", pp. 8-35).

Field notes and maps are indexed in Freeborn G. Jewett, comp., Cataloogue of Records of the Office of Secretary of State (Albany: 1898), pages 32-123.

Microfilm is not available for duplication or inter-library loan.