The Tryon County Militia Rosters were the result of a four-year project carried out by the New York State Comptroller's Office from 1895-1898. As you read these reconstructed rosters you'll observe peculiar spellings due to handwriting interpretation, literacy level of the soldier or scribe, or document condition; obvious counting of the same man twice; absence of ancestors you know or believe were in this regiment, etc. As I'm unable to answer your questions about these rosters or individual men, let me interject some commentary written in 1897 by James A. Roberts, at that time State Comptroller. The italics are mine.

"During my first term of office as comptroller, the work of putting the old records of the comptroller's department in systematic order for purposes of easy reference was undertaken. This work in its progress brought to light quantities of forgotten papers relating to the services performed by New York in the Revolutionary War. These papers, long since detached from their original file packages, were promiscuously scattered through great masses of old vouchers and files....Competent men were, therefore, set at work searching out and arranging these papers, and this task, though slow and laborious, is believed to have been thoroughly and intelligently done....These papers contain the muster and pay-rolls of different organizations, and the historic value and importance of the papers is clearly proved by the fact that they alone show New York to have furnished nearly one and a half times the number of troops with which she is usually credited, and adding to these the names obtained from other reliable sources, the aggregate is more than twice the number usually credited....I therefore submit the following pages containing the names, rank and organization of these 41,633 men, whose services can be shown beyond question, with the greater satisfaction for believing that a great historical injustice, reflecting in many minds on New York's patriotic spirit in the Revolutionary struggle, will hereby be rectified, and she take her place, second only to the Massachusetts in number of troops furnished, and, under the circumstances surrounding her, second to none in lofty patriotism....It is true that lists of names of New York's Revolutionary soldiers have been heretofore published, but these were derived almost entirely from other than original sources, the state treasurer's books of account being the chief source, and their accuracy, for this reason, has been a matter of grave doubt, and therefore the results could not be accepted in historical works. The names published in this volume are derived from that highest of sources, the original muster and pay-rolls, and thus the services of the individual and the aggregate are conclusively shown....Nor do the names contained in this volume in all probability comprise all of those from New York who performed service in that great struggle....As it is, there can be little reasonable doubt that in some cases records of service have been lost, and that New York can never show the full number of troops furnished by her in the struggle. This is almost conclusively shown by the fact that the papers relating to pensions granted by the state for injuries received while in service in the Revolutionary War disclose many names which do not appear upon any roster in our possession." - James A. Roberts, "New York in the Revolution as Colony and State" Albany, N.Y., Press of Brandow Printing Company, 1898.

The muster rolls, payroll records, family or soldiers' letters, etc. that were organized to reconstruct all of the regiments of the State of New York are held by the State Archives in Albany, other historical societies, or are in the private hands of descendants of the officers. It would be extremely difficult 105 years later to determine what specific record served as proof of your ancestor's service, how these records are archived today, or if any are accessible to the non-academic public. The recreated Tryon County rosters are being posted as a service to visitors to the Herkimer, Montgomery, Fulton and Tryon Counties NYGenWeb sites. We have no further information about the men below or the type of back-up documentation by which any individual's inclusion was merited.

WHY ARE NAMES SPELLED "WRONG"? - Some of the spellings on these lists will appear incorrect to their descendants. They're not typos and the lists were proofed against the original book. In the days before universal literacy, if a man couldn't spell his name, or wasn't asked, it was written down as it sounded to the person writing, and to the best of the scribe's spelling ability. The handwritten records were later subject to a transcriber's interpretation in the 1890s. Some men appear twice under variant spellings as the compilers added names found in various records, such as pension requests. Rather than taking the liberty of changing an historical document or creating further error, we're keeping all spellings "as is". Tip for new researchers - when researching your ancestors consider spellings based on sound, those alternate to spellings that later generations came to use, or how one letter might resemble another in old script. Examples of each - Peter Ayle would be Peter Ehle, John Algyre would be John Alguire, and George Wahadt would be George Walradt.

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