Suffolk County New York Libraries

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Most public libraries now have websites and online catalogs that typically point to the most significant resources about the areas the libraries serve. Some of these libraries may have specific rooms dedicated to genealogical or historical research. Rarely is this material made available via library loan. Most often a researcher must visit the library, contact the library, or hire a local researcher to visit for them. Over the past decade, however, more of these libraries are digitizing their material and placing it online for free public consumption.

This is a list of libraries in Suffolk County, New York which presently house some sort of local historical or genealogical collection. You can view a complete list of libraries in New York on our New York Libraries Page.

The Suffolk Cooperative Library System has been designated as a Family History Center Affiliate Library. The designation entitles you to request most microfilm and microfiche listed in the Family History Library Catalog from any library in the Suffolk Cooperative Library System.

Most of these libraries also subscribe to the AncestryLibrary edition enabling you to have free (limited) access to that material from within the libraries. Please check, or call the library to insure it is part of the program before showing up.

Amagansett Free Library

215 Main Street
PO Box 2550
Amagansett, NY 11930

The Amagansett Free Library has a set of manuscripts devoted to local historical and genealogical research. Unfortunately, finding information about their holdings online is difficult. I suggest contacting the library if you’re looking for something specific, or trying a search in the Suffolk County Library Card Catalog. The most interesting thing I’ve found in their card catalog, outside of the numerous Amagansett manuscripts, is the following:

Genealogy and history of Suffolk County, New York (CDRom)

  • Marriage records 1871-1876 (441 p.)
  • Death records 1859-1861, 1867, 1868, 1870-1875 (625 p.) / comp. Gertrude Barber.
  • Index of wills to Dec. 31, 1850 / Edwin W. Wheat, comp. (20 p.)
  • Abstracts of interstate records (127 p.)
  • Abstracts of wills recorded at Riverhead (277 p.) / comp. Elizabeth van Buren.
  • Early Long Island wills of Suffolk County 1691-1703 / William Pelletreau Smith (ca. 280 p.)
  • Portrait and biographical record of Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. NY : Chapman, 1896 (1032 p.).

Babylon Public Library

24 South Carll Avenue
Babylon, NY 11702-3426

This library maintains a Local History Reference Collection and has the following newspapers on microfilm:

  • South Side Signal     07/1869-12/1920
  • Babylon Leader     01/1921-09/1958
  • Babylon Town Leader     10/1958-10/1966
  • Babylon Beacon    04/1967-08/1972
  • Beacon     08/1972-12/2009

Bayport-Blue Point Public Library

203 Blue Point Ave
Blue Point, NY 11715

Bay Shore-Brightwaters Public Library

1 South Country Road,
Brightwaters, New York 11718

Brentwood Public Library

Center Moriches Free Public Library

235 Main Street
Center Moriches, New York  11934

Central Islip Public Library

33 Hawthorne Ave
Central Islip, NY 11722

Cold Spring Harbor Library

95 Harbor Road
Cold Springs Harbor, NY 11724

  • Cold Spring Harbor Library
    • Special Collections
      The Local History Collections include approximately 1,200 books, serials, maps, and oversized planning documents that record the history of Cold Spring Harbor, Lloyd Harbor, Lloyd Neck, and Long Island. The collections are represented in the library’s online catalog. Items can be requested at the Information Services Desk. All material must be used in the library.
    • Local History Collections of the Cold Spring Harbor
      These photographs of Cold Spring Harbor and the surrounding communities were digitized from an album titled “Nostalgia” which was donated by Mr. Robert Bassardet. They were taken between the years of 1910 and 1930.

Cutchogue-New Suffolk Free Library

27550 Main Rd
Cutchogue, NY 11935

  • Cutchogue-New Suffolk Free Library
    The Cutchogue – New Suffolk Free Library Local History Center makes available a non-circulating collection of books, records, documents and pictures that document the histories of Cutchogue, New Suffolk and the Town of Southold.

East Hampton Library

159 Main Street
East Hampton, NY 11937

East Islip Public Library

381 East Main Street
East Islip, NY 11730

Emma S. Clark Memorial Library

120 Main Street
Setauket, NY 11733

Hampton Bays Public Library

52 Ponquogue Avenue
Hampton Bays, NY 11946

  • Hampton Bays Public Library
    • Long Island Collection
      The Long Island Collection consists of non-circulating books, journals, newspapers, CDROMs, and other items of interest to Hampton Bays and Southampton Town, and Long Island as a whole.
    • Local Newspaper Collection
    • Hampton Chronicle 1936 – 1986 (Inclusive)
      • Hampton Bay News 1939-1975
        • Hampton Bays News Jan 1975 – Mar 1975
        • Hampton Chronicle Jan 1975 – Mar 1975
        • Hampton Chronicle News Mar 1975 – Dec 1975
      • Hampton Chronicle News (1976-1996)
      • Southampton Press (1996-2011)

Hampton Library in Bridgehampton

PO Box 3025
2478 Main Street
Bridgehampton, NY 11932

  • Hampton Library in Bridgehampton
    • Elise Quimby Long Island Room
      The Hampton Library’s Long Island Collection is a repository for materials about the greater Bridgehampton area and its early settlements of Mecox, Hayground, Scuttlehole, Bull’s Head, and Sagg. It also has items relating more broadly to Suffolk County and Long Island. The collection consists of non-circulating books, town records, diaries, ledgers, photographs, oral histories, maps, manuscripts, genealogies, and periodicals, all available for in-house research. The mission is to preserve for future generations all materials that document the history and evolution of the hamlet of Bridgehampton and its people.

Harborfields Public Library

31 Broadway
Greenlawn, NY 11740

Huntington Public Library

209 Main Street
Huntington, NY 11743

Islip Public Library

71 Monell Avenue
Islip NY 11751

John Jermain Memorial Library

Main Street P.O. Box 569
Sag Harbor NY 11963

  • John Jermain Memorial Library
    • The Sag Harbor History RoomThe Sag Harbor History Room is housed on the third floor of the John Jermain Memorial Library on Main Street in the Village of Sag Harbor. It holds an extensive collection of materials related to the history of the people and communities of the Sag Harbor area. The room and its holdings are available to researchers by appointment only.

Longwood Public Library

800 Middle Country Road
Middle Island, NY 11953

  • Longwood Public Library
    • Bayles Local History Room
      The Thomas R. Bayles Local History Room, located in the Adult Department, is a room full of local history. Most of the books, pamphlets, postcards and photographs were donated by Mr. Bayles in 1976. The collection was dedicated in his honor on October 4, 1980. The portrait of him by Audrey Swanson Marlow that hangs in the room was donated by his wife, Gertrude Bayles and his son, Donald M. Bayles.

Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library

407 William Floyd Parkway
Shirley, NY 11967

Mattituck-Laurel Library

P.O. Box 1437
13900 Main Rd.
Mattituck, NY 11952

  • Mattituck-Laurel Library
    • Southold Town-Shelter Island Register 1910-1911
      A digitized copy of the Southold Town-Shelter Island Register  published by the Lawton Company of Maine.
    • Gildersleeve Scrapbooks
      A digitized copy of the Gildersleeve Newspaper Scrapbooks compiled and donated by the late Donald Gildersleeve of Mattituck.  The scrapbooks consist of newspaper clippings from local North Fork newspapers. There are 22 scrapbook covering the years 1915-1982.
    • Marriage Indexes
      An index of marriage announcements located in the Gildersleeve Newspaper Scrapbooks and an alphabetical index of marriages recorded by the Mattituck Presbyterian Church from 1884-1934.
    • Obituaries Indexes 
      An index of obituaries published in the Suffolk Times for the years 1900-2005 and an index of of obituaries listed in the Gildersleeve Newspaper Scrapbooks.
    • Summer Camps of Mattituck and LaurelReminisce in photos and postcards about a bygone era of summer camps and days spent in the outdoors of Peconic Bay and Laurel Lake.

North Shore Public Library

250 Route 25A
Shoreham NY 11788

Northport-East Northport Public Library

151 Laurel Avenue
Northport, NY 11768

Patchogue-Medford Library

54-60 East Main Street
Patchogue NY 11772

  • Patchogue-Medford Library
    The Patchogue-Medford Library serves the communities of Patchogue and Medford on Long Island, Suffolk County, New York.

    • Celia M. Hastings Local History Room
      The Celia M. Hastings Local History Room webpage provides a number of online resources:

      • Long Island and Patchogue Vertical File
        The Vertical Files contain newspaper articles, papers, brochures and ephemera regarding the history of Long Island, New York and, more specifically, the history of Suffolk County, the Town of Brookhaven and Patchogue Village and its environs. The complete index is preceded by a hyperlinked list of all Subject Headings, Villages and Patchogue Village subheadings in the index. Many past residents of Long Island have a vertical file dedicated to them.
      • Long Island Forum Index
        This is an electronic version of the printed indexes to the Long Island Forum, published from 1938 to 2004 by the Friends for Long Island’s Heritage.
      • Records of Men from Patchogue and Vicinity Who Took Part in the World War
        Here, you’ll find 225 named individuals, represented by 319 searchable records, digitized, transcribed, with added notes and related links, made generally available to the public for the first time since they were created, bound in a scrapbook, part of a larger survey. These records of 225 Patchogue-area men who took part in the First World War are drawn from a 9-item survey sent to veterans on Armistice Day 1918. Browse through the database or search by keyword. The data fields in the results are last name, first name, middle name, and type of item. A link to a transcription of the item and an image of the original record is provided. The surveys were bound into scrapbooks, which can be viewed on the website.
      • Index to Birth, Marriage and Death Announcements in The Long Island Advance, 1879-1926
        Established in 1871, the Long Island Advance weekly newspaper was previously published as Advance and the Patchogue Advance. Library volunteers extracted birth, marriage, and death announcements from 1879 through 1926 to create the online index. The database can be searched by last name, first name, and keyword or phrase. Narrow your search by event type and by date or date range. The data fields in the search results are last name, first name, event, and issue date. Additional information may include the name of the spouse or parents.
      • Local Histories and Bibliographies

Rogers Memorial Library

9 Jobs Lane
Southampton, NY 11968

Sachem Public Library

150 Holbrook Road
Holbrook NY 11741

  • Sachem Public Library
    • Gurtha H. Strand Collection
      The Gurtha H. Strand Collection captures through still photography the Holbrook area from the late 19th Century to 1970. Many of these photographs are included in Ms. Strand’s Book, Memories From Holbrook.
    • Overton Tapes of Brookhaven Town
      During the late 1990’s Brookhaven Town Historian David Overton composed and recorded short histories of the towns, villages and hamlets of Brookhaven, NY. These vignettes were originally broadcast on Mr. Overton’s weekly radio program. Mr. Overton worked with the Library to digitalize these tapes so that they could be made more available as a permanent record of Brookhaven’s local lore.
    • Robert Jama — Long Island Railroad Slide Collection
      Between 1968 and 2005 Robert Jama photographed Long Island Railroad trains and stations. This vast collection consists of 1,456 color slides.

Sayville Library

11 Collins Avenue
Sayville, NY 11782

Smithtown Library

One North Country Road
Smithtown, NY 11787

  • Smithtown Library
    • The Long Island Room
      The Long Island Room is located on the lower level of the Main Smithtown Library at 1 North Country Road, Smithtown, New York 11787. The Long Island Room, like many local history archives, houses a wealth of primary source materials that allow researchers to better understand how the past shaped the local community. These materials, including original documents, ledgers, account books, scrapbooks, journals, personal correspondence, business records, pamphlets, photographs, postcards, contemporary books and many other similar items, tell the story of daily life in a particular location at a specific moment in time.

Southold Free Library

53705 Main Road
Southold, NY 11971

  • Southold Free Library
    • Whitaker Historical Collection
      Consisting of books, diaries, letters, scrapbooks, post cards, photos, yearbooks, and newspaper articles, this invaluable reference preserves the history and people of Southold since its founding in 1640. This non-circulating collection is located on the 2nd level in the original part of the building. Library personnel locate requested materials to be used in-house.

 

 

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