New York Law and Legislation

Online Resources

 * American Law Sources online
 * Historic New York Statutes at The Advancing Genealogist – Links to “digitized law books include colonial laws, session laws, and private acts,”
 * New York Law Indexes and Extras at The Advancing Genealogist – Links to general Indexes to the laws of New York, 1777-1907, and related resources.
 * Historic New York Case Law at The Advancing Genealogist - Links to digitized books of the digests of statutes and reports for New State courts, giving brief information on most cases that appeared before the New York court.
 * “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.