Dutchess County

I grew up here… interesting place.

Farmers and IBM engineers. The best culinary school in the U.S. the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), Vassar college, Marist college… all in a place well over 300 years old with lost of history and the last stop on the Metro North railroad to NYC. :-)

Dutchess county is named in honour of Mary of Modena, Duchess of York, second wife of the future King James II. At some point the letter ‘t’ got added to the name. This is possibly due to the large number of Dutch immigrants.

In recent research of my ancestry, I have descended from Quakers who moved from Dutchess County to Saratoga County, then on to Michigan. I am having some difficulty in locating some documents to help in sourcing my research, so I’d just like to go straight to the source to find what I’m looking for!