[Genealib] Erie Water West

[Naukam, Larry]

We also have the title in our collection. We are often asked for passenger lists for the canal, boat schedules, etc. and to the best of our knowledge, if these exist they are not in easily accessible forms.

What we do with those questions (after all, we have a 5 minute limit on how long we can work on a query), is that we send them to the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse NY (http://www.eriecanalmuseum.org/) or show them our newspapers from that time period. 

We do have 19th century newspapers, but our experience has shown that it is easier to find out what crops were on a boat than what people. We have a 19th century newspaper index (http://www3.libraryweb.org/lh.aspx?id=685), but again, the underlying papers do not give passengers on any given vessel.

Patrons might try:
New York State Archives and Records Administration.
Title 	  The mighty chain : a guide to canal records in the New York State Archives.
Publisher 	  Albany, N.Y. : University of the State of New York, State Education Dept., Office of Cultural Education, State Archives and Records Administration, 1992.
Paging 	  3, 117 p. : maps ; 28 cm.
Notes 	  Cover title.
	  Prepared by Elisabeth A. Golding and others.
	  Includes index.
Subjects 	  New York State Archives and Records Administration Catalogs.
	  Canals New York (State) History Sources Bibliography Catalogs.

It couldn't hurt.