New York Law and Legislation

Online Resources

 * American Law Sources online
 * “Historic New York Statutes” – Links to “digitized law books include colonial laws, session laws, and private acts,” on The Advancing Genealogist. As of the time of this writing, this is the most complete set of digitized law books.
 * “New York Law Indexes and Extras” – Links to general Indexes to the laws of New York, 1777-1907, and related resources, on The Advancing Genealogist.
 * “Laws of the State of New York” – Links to historical laws of the state and colony of New York, available on an Internet Archive copy of Manhattan Past.
 * “Empire State Laws” – The same list, available on Judy G. Russell’s, blog, The Legal Genealogist.

Published Resources
Published New York session laws (laws enacted by both houses of the state legislature) are valuable for information about such things as changing town and county boundaries, militia enrollment, land confiscation, taxation, census laws, naturalizations, divorces, and poor relief.

New York state laws have been published. To find information on persons mentioned in laws and legislation, see Charles Z. Lincoln, editor. The Colonial Laws of New York from the Year 1664 to the Revolution, Five Volumes. and index (New York, New York: AMS Press, 1894–96; on 3 Family History Library films ). The volumes are in chronological order, and each volume has an index at the end. Use them to determine residence.