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.
Reading Room Update
The Reading Room is open by appointment only on Wednesdays, from 9:30-11:30 a.m. and 1:30-3:30 p.m. Both room and staff availability may change so we encourage you to check Reading Room hours and/or call us at (914) 231-1500.
Please note: Starting the week of January 6th, 2025, the Archives Reading Room will be open Tuesdays & Wednesdays 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. with no appointment necessary. We do still strongly encourage anyone thinking of visiting to contact us at Archives Reference Desk ahead of time with your planned visit date what you are interested in researching.
- Interested in learning about your family’s genealogy?
- Doing research on the history of a house?
- Need records in order to get dual citizenship?
- Looking for birth, marriage, or death certificates?
- Searching for digital images of the county?
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.