The Oblong

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Dutchess, New York Colony

Territory ceded to New York colony by Connecticut colony.

"Under a new agreement of November 28, 1683 the boundary between Connecticut and New York was generally recognized as a line parallel to and twenty miles from the Hudson River north to the Massachusetts line. However, New York, acknowledging most of Connecticut's settlements in Fairfield County, gave up a claims to a 61,660 acre rectangle east of the Byram River, which became the area sometimes referred to as Connecticut's "panhandle" or the "handle of the cleaver". In return, Connecticut gave up its claims to Rye and ceded to New York a strip of land 580 rods (1.81 miles) wide "equivalent" to the area of the panhandle that extended north from Ridgefield along Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess Counties in New York to the Massachusetts line. This territory came to be known as "The Oblong". The Oblong has acquired the reputation of being a genealogical "black hole". Some information may be included among records of the 'parent' Connecticut towns and other information may in New York town and/or county records, but some families residing in The Oblong appear to have been missed by both states." ^[1]

Links

• • Some New York State documents related to the Oblong
  • Remembering Lewisboro, New York by Maureen Koehl - This book is available in preview, but the information about The Oblong is at the beginning of Part I, just after the Introduction.
  • A Connecticut take on the Oblong:
  • Quaker vital records from the Oblong.
  • Border Disputes Between New York and Connecticut
  • The Oblong Historic Marker
  • Driving on the Oblong: Route 22.
  • History of Putnam County, Chapter VIII, The Oblong - Note: this continues on the next page.
  • Four Waves of Settlement at the Patterson Historical Society (NJ)
  • The Oblong - Freepage at Rootsweb
  • The History of Dutchess County, New York by Frank Hasbrouck
  • Heads of Families, Oblong and Nine Partners Circularly, Dutchess, NY, 1761 transcribed from LDS Film # 873511

See also Border Disputes

Sources

1. ↑ [https://web.archive.org/web/20110314055555/http://www.cslib.org/panhandle.htm Connecticut's "Panhandle" at the Connecticut State Library]