The County Clerk Ancient Document Search allows you to explore digital images of 52,000 pages of eighteenth-century legal documents.
These records comprise the oldest surviving manuscripts from the Dutchess County Court of Common Pleas and General Sessions, which began operation in 1721 through 1820 (document numbers 1-20999).
These documents detail daily life in Dutchess County as seen through both civil and criminal cases that came before the judges and justices of the peace.
You can search our documents using any one or a combination of the items listed here.
Name/Party
Enter the name of an individual for which you are searching or the party identifier (a party identifier is the role a person played in a documented case – for example, a justice of the peace).
Record Type
Enter the type of record for which you are searching. These include:
Type of Offense
Enter the variety of crime. Examples include:
Location
Enter the municipality in which you are interested. Whenever possible we include where an incident occurred.
Year or Date
Enter the target year, full or partial date (month/day/year format) to search specific periods of time. (The dates reflected in our system are when the document was created and not necessarily when an event happened).
Continue to the Ancient Document Search
If you encounter any technical issues, please contact internet support. If you have questions about the actual data, please contact the County Historian.
Generous support from the New York State Archives Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund supported the digital imaging portion of this project.
