Where to order

Westport, Connecticut, 1966

bound by Sleepy Hollow Restorations
Tarrytown, New York, 1976

[That is all there is on the title page. No copyright notice, no library catalog number.]

The following manuscript, comprising basic genealogical information on most of the colonial residents of Philipsburgh Manor and many from Cortlandt Manor and other parts of Westchester County, was compiled over a period of more than thirty years by the late Grenville C. Mackenzie, a professional genealogist from Westport, Connecticut. Starting in the mid-thirties he prepared these pages and forwarded a copy to the Westchester County Historical Society. His most recent revisions were made in 1966.

While Mr. Mackenzie's bibliography is sketchy and apparently was never updated, he is known to have used the full range of documentary sources, most of which are readily accessible to anyone wishing to collaborate his research and judgments. The basic sources are Dutch Church records, gravestone inscriptions, wills, and deeds, all of which are available in research libraries. Correspondence and bible records which he collected are not as easily located, but they may be in his files, which were bequeathed to the Westchester County Historical Society. They have not yet been arranged; nor have they been examined thoroughly.

The usefulness of Mr. Mackenzie's work would not be underestimated because of the limited biographical data and lack of documentation. His simple format makes possible a quick identification of persons appearing in colonial records. His encyclopedic approach has provided us with a remarkable extensive record of the residents of colonial Philipsburg. Very few living historical sites of periods before the federal census was begun can match the possibilities for demographic study inherent in this manuscript.

Field Horne

Sleepy Hollow Restorations

September 10, 1976

While parts of his work have been superseded and corrected, Mackenzie serves as a common starting point for discussion of Philipse Manor genealogy. Rumor has it that Mackenzie's earliest work on the Philipse Manor families was almost perfect, but that the later work was somewhat diluted by a lax acceptance of data contributed by others. Because the items are not individually sourced, there is now no easy way to sort the good work from the flawed. (Though one might reasonably wonder what became of all his notes).

Photocopied pages from Mackenzie's unpublished work are available from either:

Westchester County Historical Society
2199 Saw Mill River Road
Elmsford, NY 10523
914 592-4323    (cost is 50 cents a page)

or

The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society
122 East 58th St.
New York, NY 10022-1939
212 755-8532    (there are probably photocopy-per-page and research fees -- they will tell you)

Many pages are available from:

William B. Bogardus
1121 Linhof Rd.
Wilmington OH 45177-2917    (25 cents a page, if available)

The author of this page has no official connection with the above institutions. Charges, of course, may change without notice.

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