Digitized replicas of Islip records, some dating to 1701, to be displayed at Town Hall
Chris Albergo, left, assistant to the Town of Islip historian, and Devonne Sanchez, records management assistant, display a 1702 document with a royal wax seal at the bottom that was scanned and conserved. Credit: Newsday/John Paraskevas
Replicas of the oldest records held by the Town of Islip — those relevant to the formation of the town — will soon be displayed at Town Hall, according to the town historian and clerk.
Seven documents consisting of a royal patent and six corresponding deeds dating to the early 1700s, were scanned and touched up by the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia, which also created life-size replicas of each.
The documents’ conservation is part of a larger push from the town clerk's office to preserve historic records and ease public access to Islip’s records. The documents, some of which cover the eastern portion of what was West Islip, were displayed in Town Hall until July 2021, said Islip Town Clerk Olga Murray, where they were improperly stored for decades. The originals will be stored in the town record center, while the framed replicas will return for display in the rotunda of Town Hall.
Staff said it took years to obtain town funding for the venture, which totaled $17,000.
A town spokesperson attributed funding delays to the pandemic.
"It was challenging. People see their streets plowed and people see their garbage being picked up, but people don't see these things, which is part of the reason I'm so excited to bring it to their attention," Murray said.
She said the conservation center worked to restore the documents as close to their original appearance as possible.
Town historian George Munkenbeck said the digital scans are “breathtaking” — somehow “more legible and clearer than the originals.”
One of the wax seals, white in color, is probably among “the rarest of Colonial seals,” he added, issued by Edward Hyde, the governor of New York and New Jersey at the time.
A deed dated Aug. 1, 1701, records the transfer of 1,734 acres of land at Brightwaters, known as Mispotuck Neck, from the Native American living there to Johannes and Oloff Van Cortlandt. Credit: Newsday/John Paraskevas
One deed, dated Aug. 1, 1701, records the transfer of 1,734 acres of land at Brightwaters, known as Mispotuck Neck, from the Native Americans who lived there at the time to landowners Johannes and Oloff Van Cortlandt. Munkenbeck said this deed covers a portion of what was Sagtikos Manor, a historic home in West Bay Shore.
Another deed, dated March 2, 1705, documents the transfer of land in Brightwaters and Bay Shore from the Van Cortlandts — Oloff, Phillip and Stephen — to John Mowbray, all early settlers in the town. The land was purchased three years earlier from Native Americans for 100 pounds, or $500 at that time.
The conservation of these documents is only the latest venture by the town to conserve and ease public access to nearly 4,000 boxes of records dating back three centuries.
The purchase of a state-of-the-art scanner has enabled staff to so far scan around 52 books of birth and death certificates in Islip dating to 1881, vital records the town is obligated by state law to maintain in perpetuity. The highway record books and many of the town minute books have also been scanned.
Digitizing the records makes it easier to access and retrieve records, staff said.
“Part of the problem was, this stuff was never really marshaled under one umbrella,” Murray said. “We’d find a room there, we’d find a closet there. We’d have donations of records. They’ve never really been pulled together in a centralized system. And that’s what I was hoping to do, so we would have a better handle on what we have.”
Islip records
According to town historian George Munkenbeck, a royal patent overrode any other land claims and "is the basis for clear title with no chance for dispute."
"The patent then is the basis for all deeds to the present day as it is the base document that shows clear title," he said.
Brianne Ledda covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. She previously covered Southold and Greenport for The Suffolk Times and is a graduate of Stony Brook University.
