Where to find what you are looking for........ City of Elmira ONLY

Do it yourself research


CENSUS

• EASY ONLINE - Steele Memorial Library - if you have a CCLD library card you can use their HeritageQuest Online census from your home - click here
• otherwise Steele Memorial Library has microfilm of the local census from 1790-1930 that you may look at, at the downtown branch

NEWSPAPERS ON MICROFILM

• EASY ONLINE, but slow - Old Fulton, NY Postcards - Elmira Morning Telegram 1888-1921, Elmira Star-Gazette 1891-1907 - click here
• otherwise Steele Memorial Library has most of the microfilm from all the local papers

OLD MAPS

• EASY ONLINE - city maps Elmira 1869, 1876, 1896, 1904 - Steele Memorial Library - click here
• EASY ONLINE - Historic Map Works - search or buy - click here
• Sanborn maps - Chemung County Historical Society
• Atlases - Steele Memorial Library

CITY DIRECTORIES

• EASY ONLINE - Ancestry.com  NOT FREE 
• otherwise Steele Memorial Library has many but not all directories

OLD PHOTOGRAPHS of Elmira

• Chemung County Historical Society
• American Memory at Library of Congress

BIRTH RECORDS

• EASY ONLINE - FamilySearch.org FREE click here.
• EASY ONLINE - Ancestry.com (limited free search) click here. If you have a CCLD library card you may use the Ancestry computer at the Steele Memorial Library for FREE.
• Chemung County Historical Society
• Chemung County Vital Records

DEATH RECORDS

• EASY ONLINE - FamilySearch.org FREE click here.
• EASY ONLINE, but limited - Steele Memorial Library - click here
• Chemung County Historical Society
• Chemung County Vital Records

CEMETERY LISTS (within city limits)

• Woodlawn Cemetery
• Woodlawn National Cemetery
• Second Street Cemetery
• Fulton Street Cemetery
• St. Peter & Paul - Steele Memorial Library is in process of digitizing it... otherwise contact the cemetery
• Wisner Cemetery - very old records
• Elmira Prison camp burials

ELMIRA HISTORY

• History of Elmira and Chemung County
• Elmira & Chemung Driving Tour
• Civil War Driving Tour
• Chemung County Historical Society
• Why "Chemung"?
• Timeline of history - from then until now
• Labrador duck
• Chemung Canal: A Link in the Great Chain: A History of the Chemung Canal, by Gary Emerson. Purple Mountain Press.
• Old Neighborhoods of Elmira
• Native American local history - village names
• General John Sullivan and the Battle of Newtown
• Mark Twain
• John W. Jones Museum

Elmira historian will commemorate Civil War soldiers

Elmira Star-Gazette, May 4, 2012

Elmira City Historian Diane Janowski has signed on as one of the peddlers at "Camp Chemung," the Civil War event on Saturday and Sunday.

Janowski created her own version of a re-enactor's costume, the attire that her German great-grandmother would have been wearing in 1865.

Janowski wrote a book, In Their Honor: Soldiers of the Confederacy, The Elmira Prison Camp, from New York History Review Press.


In the last year of the War Between the States, more than 12,000 young Southern men passed through the camp. Many suffered the harsh winter. Nearly 3,000 died.

The Ben Newton Memorial Civil War Event will be held on the grounds of the Elmira Prison Camp between Fosters Pond and the Chemung River in Elmira.

Visitors are asked to park in a special area at the Grove Street boat launch.

The event is sponsored by the Chemung Valley Living History Center and will include battle re-enactments, a period church service, candlelight tour, living history demonstrations, drill and artillery competition and other events.