USA @ 250 AND NEW YORK: DISCOVERING LOCAL STORIES

• Loyalist land confiscations 1780-1783, New York State (digitized manuscript, New York Public Library)
• Sales of Loyalist Land (database through Ancestry; incomplete data, see above)
• Researching ancestors who were Loyalists in the Revolutionary War from New York Public Library (guide)
• Loyalist Records (online, guide)
• United Empire Loyalists:
  • United Empire Loyalists: Enquiry into the Losses and Services in Consequence of their Loyalty by Alexander Fraser. 2 vols. 1904. Reprint, Baltimore, Md: Genealogical Publishing, 1994. The types of claims are explained with dates, places, and evidence for each claim. Online at: Part 1 - FamilySearch Digital Library, Part 2 - FamilySearch Digital Library,
• Loyalist Research Site (Todd Braisted)

A selected Loyalist bibliography from the New York State Library:

• De Lancey's Brigade. (Loyalist) 1776-1778 Orderly Book of the Three Battalions of Loyalists, Commanded by Brigadier-General Oliver De Lancey, 1776-1778. New York: Printed for the New York Historical Society, 1917. (A,973.341,D33)
• Johnson, Sir John. Orderly Book of Sir John Johnson During the Oriskany Campaign, 1776-1777. Albany, NY: Joel Munsell's Sons, 1882. (R,973.3334,J67, additional copy in A)
• New York (State). Commission for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies, 1777-1778. Minutes of the Commissioners for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies in the State of New York. Albany County Sessions,1778-1781. Albany, NY: Published by the State of New York, 1909. 3v. (R,973.314,qN55, additional copy in A)
• New York (State) Comptroller's Office. New York in the Revolution as Colony and State, Supplement. Albany, NY: J.B. Lyon Co., 1901. (R,973.3447,qA2,1901, additional copy in A)
• Vincent, G.R. The Civil Sword: James Delancey's Westchester Refugees, 1776-1785. Victoria, B.C.: Cobequid Press, 1997. (R,974.7277,W524,96-15936)

Africans (Enslaved and Free)

• There are a few ways to identify African slaves and free persons of color in your community, though the records are scarce.  When reviewing your veterans lists (both published and manuscript pay records & rosters), look for terms like "negro" or "servant of."
• Check the marriage and membership records of local churches.  Sometimes they will identify with descriptors like "negro", "slave", "man of", "wench of", etc.
• After the war was over, New York passed its gradual emancipation law.  Each community was required to start a ledger of slave births and manumissions, so that a record of these individuals would be available.  If your Town's record book exists (often still in the Town Clerk's office archives), you can look for the names of the MOTHERS, who often would have been children during the war.
• Check wills probated shortly before, during, and after the war.  They will sometimes mention the name of enslaved persons as part of the distributed estate.  Those persons may not have served in the army, but they endured the war and worked toward the survival of themselves and their enslavers.

Indigenous/Native Americans

• Few records exist; however, the New York Colonial Muster Rolls DID include ethnicity and list a surprising number of American Indian soldiers; from these lists you can sometimes identify them, or family members, serving in the Revolution  TIP: The muster rolls start in the middle of the volume and are arranged chronologically.  The records from the 1750s and on may contain names of individuals who were young enough to also served in the Revolution.
• Overview (American Indian Soldiers and Scouts)
• Overview (American Indian Allies)

Check the wills of your Revolutionary veterans, and cemetery records, for women whose lifespan included the Revolutionary war, and try to verify their marriages, etc.

The pension files often will include testimony by them (a deposition given in person to a justice), that has details of their story.

Women Patriots of the American Revolution: A Biographical Dictionary (do an 'inside the text search for names/locations you may be familiar with).