New Scheduling System effective 02/18/2023

Our new scheduling system will send an email confirmation of your appointment.  A text message will be sent as a reminder if you provided a phone number.

LGS-1 Local Government Schedule

Effective August 21, 2020, the Washington County Board of Supervisors formally adopted the LGS-1 Records Retention Schedule that the New York State Archives approved earlier this year. This schedule directs how long records must be kept before disposing of them, regardless of their format - paper, images, microfilm, etc. Following is the direct link to the new schedule for your information. If additional help is needed, please feel free to reach out to me.  LGS-1

Please be advised that effective Monday, June 22, 2020, the Archives will re-open by appointment only.

 ***Prior to scheduling an appointment with Archives, please email [email protected]
or call 518-746-2136. This will help maximize the time
you are here to get as much information as possible,
and to also determine if archives is what is actually needed. Thank you in advance for your cooperation. 

You may schedule an appointment by clicking this link:

Archives Appointments

*Please be advised that if you will need more than a half hour for research that you will need to schedule multiple appointments, one after the other. Please do not schedule more than a 2 hour block of time so others may also schedule time if needed. PRIOR to scheduling this amount of time in the archives, please contact Melanie at the above email or phone number. 
 
Archives research requests may be sent in the mail with a $20.00 research fee. Please see below for further instruction.

The Archives

Housed in a 5,000 sq. ft. vault in the basement of the Washington County Municipal Center, the Archives is the repository for many of the County's oldest and most fragile documents. For that reason, it is an environmentally controlled facility where temperature and humidity are constantly monitored. In addition, the documents are stored in acid-free containers and many are microfilmed to ensure their preservation. 

An area has been set aside within the Archives where the public is welcomed and encouraged to conduct their family or historical research. A collection of newsletters, pamphlets, indices, books, and other research aids are available to help in your effort.

Requests for Record Searches

The Washington County Archives is located in the basement of Building “A” in the County Municipal Center, and is open to the public Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. The Archives holds records from numerous County Courts, Departments, and Offices, and visitors have access to databases and other finding aids to help in their research. Photocopies/microfilm copies are $1.30 per page.

Researchers can request a “records search” through the mail. To order, send a non‑refundable $20.00 check or money order, made payable to the “Washington County Clerk,” and a letter providing relevant information about the person, family or subject, and what information is being sought. The course of each search is based on the written request, so care should be taken in its composition. The researcher will receive a report of findings, and photocopies are provided if the relevant pages are few in number. If numerous records and pages are discovered, a listing will be sent from which to order copies at $1.30 per page, but do not send additional money for copies with the initial $20.00 fee. Direct your requests and inquiries to:

Washington County Clerk's Office
Attn: Melanie M. Howard, County Archivist
Washington County Municipal Center
383 Broadway Blg A
Fort Edward NY 12828
 

Additional Resources

In addition to the resources in Archives, researchers have easy access to records in the County Clerk's Office, the Surrogate's Court, and the County Historian's Office.