RESEARCHING A HOUSE IN BETHLEHEM

Many people ask me if I have information or pictures about their old home in Bethlehem.  The answer is “sometimes.”  I am happy to check the Town Archives database for documents and photographs.  While I can search on any word, the database is most easily accessible if you have a family name associated with the property.  Where we go from there depends on what turns up in the database search.  If it is something simple, I can pull the item and show it to you.  If it is more complicated, we’ll have to make an appointment for you to come into Town Hall to do your own research.

Linda Stanley and Ellen Manning in their book Inside/Outside: Finding a Sense of Place. A Building Research Manual for Albany County suggests the following methodology for researching your house’s history:

1. Observe the structure

2. Check architectural guidebooks for date of style

3. Collect tax assessment data

4. Gather necessary deed work

5. Compile data from city directories

6. Check maps

7. Check additional appropriate sources - i.e. census rolls, registers of voters, wills, building permits, common council minutes, and secondary and other sources.

Resources

Town of Bethlehem (www.townofbethlehem.org) You can find info about the Tax Assessors office, Building Division, Town Clerk and Town Historian.

Albany County Hall of Records (albanycounty.com/achor) is where you find information about deeds for the Town of Bethlehem and lots of other good tools, including an online version of Inside/Outside mentioned above.

Bethlehem Public Library (bethlehempubliclibrary.org) Lots of good stuff here, including directories and maps.  You can access census records online through Heritage Quest on their web site (you need a library card to do so).

Bethlehem Historical Association (bha1965.webs.com)

Other resources are the New York State Library, New York State Archive and the New York State Office of Historic Preservation.  Search for their websites and lots of online info and research tools.  Also Historic Albany Foundation.

Bethlehem History Books

Bethlehem Revisited: A Bicentennial Story, edited by Floyd Brewer
Times Remembered and More Times Remembered by Allison Bennett
Records of the People of the Town of Bethlehem Albany County New York 1698-1880

Notes

Notes on tax assessment records – the Tax Office at Bethlehem Town Hall only has records from the 1990’s on.  The archives data base has hit or miss records from about 1920.  Kathy Newkirk, former Town Clerk, speculates that earlier records might be in some of the “big books” which have town board minutes and other info.

Talk to previous owners, neighbors, and old timers!

Read old newspapers or periodicals from when your house was built.

Susan Leath, Town Historian
(Last updated January 12, 2010)

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