Ebook The Salmon Records

The Salmon Records are a private register of marriages and deaths of residents of the Town of Southold, Suffolk County, New York, or of persons more or less closely associated with that place.

The lists extend from 1696 to 1811, and were commenced by William Salmon of Southold, a son of John and Sarah (Barnes) Salmon of said town, and a grandson of William Salmon, who was born in England in 1610, whence he emigrated in 1635, and settled soon afterwards at Hashamomack in Southold, where he married, for his first wife, Katherine, widow of Matthew Sunderland, and, for his second wife, Sarah, widow or daughter of Caleb Curtis.

William Salmon, who started this register, was born August 12, 1684, and died May 10, 1759. The record was continued by members of the Salmon family.

The manuscript was presented by the late Gideon Salmon to the late Rev. Jonathan Huntting, from whom it descended to his youngest son, Henry Huntting, Esq., the first treasurer of the Southold Savings Bank, who presented it to Nathaniel Hubbard Cleveland of Southold. From the latter it, together with an incomplete copy and an index made in 1860 by Joseph H. Petty, has recently come into the possession of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society through purchase.

Several copies of these records are said to be in existence. One, in particular, known to have been made by the said Henry Huntting, Esq., himself, is described by the late Stuart Tuthill Terry of Southold, as "a beautiful and exact copy," from which he made his copy in 1869. But this Huntting copy is not complete, the marriages ending with the entry of October 16, 1746. It is probably the one recently acquired by the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society.

The Terry copy is complete, the marriages between October 16, 1746, and November 25, 1762, having been copied direct from the original, although the spelling was not followed, and those subsequent to the latter date having been copied from the copy made by said Joseph H. Petty, which was said to be "very exact, showing every blot, erasure, and mark."