ALBANY, N.Y. -- This is a story more than a year in the making: Boxes upon boxes filled with historical – and historic – documents loaded into five trucks and brought from the New York County Clerk’s Office to Albany, making the state’s capital home to scores of records created between the 1680s and 1847.

While the documents may be from New York City, they cover virtually every corner of the state.

“For the first time since 1797 that complete collection of statewide court records are unified in one repository for researchers to come and access,” said James Folts, head of Researcher Services at the New York State Archives. 

In total, the State Archives received more than 2,000 boxes from the New York County Clerk’s Office and those boxes are chock full of history that weave the tale of how the Empire State was built up from the ground floor. Some of the names on these documents not only help shaped the state, but the entire nation.

Real property records signed by a young Alexander Hamilton, just a practicing attorney trying to support his wife and child.

Another local name you’re sure to know had court documents find their new home in Albany too. The family of Herman Melville.

“It’s the financial economic background to the life history of one of America’s great authors,” Folts said. “They were deeply in debt. The sheriff was after them, they kept moving.”

And that’s why many residences in the state can lay claim to being the “Melville House.”

“It helps explain the mobility of the Melville family. From New York City to Albany to Rensselaer County, then to Saratoga County,” Folts said.

It’s a huge day for anyone that interested in understanding New York state history, because now the Archives, this state-of-the-art facility where researchers can come, is open and these records are for them to use.