Smithtown, Long Island, New York circa 1698

Smithtown, New York, situated about 50 miles east of New York City in Suffolk County, was founded by Richard Smith and his family in 1665. The famous 1698 census enumerations for Smithtown have not survived; however, Kory Meyerink, author of New York in 1698: A Comprehensive List of Residents Based on Census, Tax, and Other Lists, was able to reconstruct the missing census from probate records initiated in 1702 by Richard Smith’s wife, Sarah Smith. You can see Mr. Meyerink’s reconstruction of the 1698 census for Smithtown below. Smithtown is just one of the score of New York localities whose population the author has identified for this important book. The work includes a complete name index and an appendix of Dutch names in common usage at the time of the census. Readers should also consult the Introduction to New York in 1698, which we reproduced in the November 12, 2024 issue of “Genealogy Pointers.”