At last week’s NY Family History Conference, Stephanie Barrett talked on “Civil War at the NYSL” (New York State Library). She has been a librarian with the New York State Library for over twenty-five years. She is a reference librarian, who specializes in online resources and education.

Ms. Barrett referred to the Civil War Resources page at the NYSL website which outlines the extensive collection of materials in their collection. The Selected Civil War Resources page is a bibliography of printed sources available at the library. One of the most used series of books is Phisterer’s New York in the War of the Rebellion, 1861 to 1865 that gives histories of the NY State units in the Civil War.

The library has letters, diaries, battle maps, broadsides and prints in their manuscript collection. To see a description of the various manuscripts see the Finding Aids to Special Collections.

There is only a small amount of the library’s collection in their online digital collection. If you want to do extensive research on your Civil War ancestor it would be best to make a visit to the library.