Happy 400th Anniversary to New York!

Hudson, Hudson, hmmm....

Back in 1609, Henry Hudson, an English sea explorer, took a trip down the river now known as the Hudson River in an effort to find a quicker route to the Orient. Well, he may not have found that route on this adventure, but we in America can now celebrate the area in New York he explored 400 years ago.

To help celebrate 400 years, ancestry.com has gathered its databases on NY on a special New York Anniversary page.

The majority of the databases there at this time are from the mid 1800s on. So, it most likely won't be a jump for joy moment for genealogists who are always searching for those elusive New York roots from the 1700s.

Me? My quest in genealogy certainly has taken me back to the mid 1700s in New York. I have been fortunate to find some records on my family as they owned a tavern on Wall St before and after the American Revolution. Now, if I could just find the place of burial for "Big John" when he died in 1795. The papers at the time named him the largest man in New York. He was also a member of the Trinity Anglican Church in New York City, but we family genealogy types have not uncovered any evidence of him being buried there or in the other really old New York Cemetery.

So, enjoy the databases on New York. Perhaps, Ancestry will release more that really date back in time. Perhaps, someone, somewhere will point me in the direction so I can finally put "Big John" to rest.