New York, U.S., Governor's Registers of Commitments to Prisons, 1842-1908

Source Information

New York State Archives
Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Governor's Registers of Commitments to Prisons, 1842-1908 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.
Original data: Governor’s Registers of Commitments to Prisons, 1842–1908. Series A0603. Records of the Office of the Governor [New York State]. New York State Archives, Albany, New York.

About New York, U.S., Governor's Registers of Commitments to Prisons, 1842-1908

This collection of registers records summaries of prison commitments in the state of New York for the years 1842–1908. The registers changed slightly over the years, but typically you’ll find:

  • name of the convict
  • date of sentence
  • court
  • judge (last name)
  • county
  • crime
  • term of sentence and expiration

Later registers also added the date received at the prison and remarks. The records are arranged chronologically by year, prison, then by month and sometimes somewhat alphabetically by the prisoner's name.

Reports are present for the following institutions: Sing Sing Prison; Clinton Prison; Auburn Prison; State Prison for Women (Auburn); New York Penitentiary (Blackwell's Island); Kings County Penitentiary (Brooklyn); Albany County Penitentiary (Albany); Onondaga County Penitentiary (Syracuse); Monroe County Penitentiary (Rochester); Erie County Penitentiary (Buffalo); State Reformatory at Elmira; Eastern New York Reformatory (Napanoch); New York House of Refuge; Western House of Refuge; and Western House of Refuge for Women.