Westchester County Archives
The Westchester County Archives is the unit in the Department of Information Technology that serves as the central repository for the historical public records of Westchester County, NY. These governmental records date from 1680 to the present and provide not only documentation of the history of county government, but also the growth of Westchester from an agrarian society through the industrial age to today’s commuter and service economy.
Stored in the environmentally controlled vaults at the County Records Center at 2199 Saw Mill River Road, Elmsford, the Archives’ resources cover a wide range of subjects and come in a variety of formats. A special feature of the Archives is that visitors to the Archives’ Reading Room are also offered access to the library collection of the Westchester County Historical Society, located in the same building. Those records often complement and enrich the public documents.
Whatever your topic – tracing your Westchester ancestors, the cultural growth of suburbia or the background to a local governmental issue – we encourage you to visit us online or in person. Indexes, finding aids, and collection guides have been prepared to assist you in your research, and our professional staff and trained volunteers are ready to help you with your discovery process.
What's New at the Archives
What do the County Board of Legislators, the County Historian, the County Department of Correction and the County Courts all have in common? Records documenting their work were all added to the collections of the Westchester County Archives during 2011. In fact, over 500 cubic feet of new records were added to our holdings last year. These newly organized and arranged materials are available now for researchers interested in learning more about the operation of Westchester County government or their family history. Learn More
Collections at the County Archives
Researchers will find estate inventories and wills, naturalization records, deeds, maps, photographs, and records of individual county departments among the collections at the Westchester County Archives, all of which help document Westchester County and its history. Learn More
Genealogical Resources
Researchers interested in tracing their family roots have plenty of options at the Westchester County Archives. Check out our help page highlighting the genealogical collections available at the Archives and also giving suggestions on where else to look. Learn More
Digital Collections
Love history but don’t have time to visit the Archives in person? The Westchester County Archives is working hard to increase access to its collections online. Although it isn’t possible to digitize every single item that the Archives holds, our Digital Collections primarily highlights many of our photographic collections while the Virtual Archives is a collaborative web site that exhibits some of Westchester’s rich documentary resources online. Learn More
Volunteers in Archives (VIA) Program
Since 1985, the Westchester County Archives has offered an exciting volunteer opportunity, known as Volunteers in Archives. Those accepted into the program are trained and then assigned specific reference or processing projects tailored to their individual interests and skills. Approximately two dozen volunteers of all ages and backgrounds -- from student interns to retirees -- share a love of local history that enriches and strengthens the Archives’ mission to increase public access to Westchester’s primary source materials. Learn More
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