The Reading Room for both the Westchester County Archives and the Westchester County Historical Society is open on Wednesdays by appointment only. There are two sessions: 9:30-11:30 a.m. and 1:30-3:30 p.m. To sign up for one of the sessions, please visit No Wait Inside. If you need help scheduling your appointment, please 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.
We will send you a confirmation email before your appointment. Please let us know what you’re interested in seeing by responding to that email.
- Is it a specific document? We can have that ready for viewing. For naturalization documents, marriage certificates, incorporation records, and other records from our online indices, simply provide us with the identification number.
- Is there a topic you’re researching? Our stacks are closed for browsing, but we can prepare a selection of relevant materials for you to peruse.
Please review the Archives' Guide to Collections and the Westchester County Historical Society online catalog before your visit, and submit all research requests to the Archives Reference Desk.
For directions and other information about visiting us, please check out Visitor Information page.
Please arrive on time, as we cannot extend research sessions. A maximum of 3 patrons at a time will be allowed per session. Also, we encourage you to take photos of materials rather than request photocopies whenever possible.
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.
The Westchester County Archives has wills and probate records dating from the late 18th century through the first few decades of the 20th century. These records, obtained from the Surrogate Court for Westchester County, are useful for tracing the transfer of property and possessions from one generation to the next, determining dates of death, and in identifying the heirs of a individual, among other things.
The Westchester County Archives is creating an online index to the Wills (Series 132) and Estate Records (Series 16) it holds. The index covers all wills from 1775-1784 (gaps), 1787-1941 and estate records from 1775-1915. Please note that because our online index only covers wills and estate inventories and there are additional surrogate records available (such as guardianships and letters of administration), it is still a good idea to check our in-house microfilm index of the Surrogate records in case you do not find what you are looking for in the online index. To request a search of the microfilm index, please submit a Custom Research Request.
Listed below are the probate records held by the Archives and the years for which they are available. Click on the series numbers to view a description of the records.
Probate Records Available at the Westchester County Archives:
- Series 168 Administration Letters, 1787-1940
- Series 16 Estate Records, 1775, 1782-1921
- Series 167 Guardianship Records, 1802-1896
- Series 171 Surrogate Records, Index, 1772-1983
- Series 201 Testamentary Letters, 1830-1897
- Series 132 Wills, 1775-1784 (gaps), 1787-1941
To locate a specific will (for the years 1775-1941) or estate record (for the years 1782-1921) held by the Archives, the first step is to consult the Surrogate Records Index (Series 171). This can either be done online for all wills and for estate records for the years 1775-1920, by visiting the Archives in person, or by submitting a Custom Research Request specifically asking that the probate records be searched for an individual. Once it has been determined that a will, estate file, or other probate record exists for an individual, the record itself can be reviewed.
To obtain copies of wills from 1942 to the present or probate records from 1922 to the present, please contact the Surrogate Court directly at (914) 824-5656.
If you have any questions regarding locating or using historic probate records (wills up to 1941 or probate records up to 1921) at the Westchester County Archives, please contact us.