Hello fellow potential cousins,

Was there a fire in the town of Chautauqua sometime after the 1840 census? I'm having a heck of a time trying to find a free version of the Chautauqua, Chautauqua, New York 1840 Census record. I half recall my late grandmother mentioning something about an old courthouse fire that burned records of my early ancestors. This "fire" or a similar one has caused me much trouble in researching my family who came from the surrounding area during the early 1800's.

Thanks for the help,

~Andrew C. Pratt
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Pratt.74@osu.edu

Andrew,

Inquire at your local library to see if they have access to heritagequestonline.com. This website has all the census records. And it's free. If you have a library card with a 13 digit number, you can access this site from your own computer through the library's website.

Bob Swanson
Kennedy, NY