If you research your own family — or help us remember Sayville’s — there’s fresh material to dig into. FamilySearch, the free genealogy website, added or updated 41 record collections in just the first half of October (October 1–15), and several of them speak directly to the kind of history we chase here.

For Sayville and Long Island researchers:

• United States Census, 1920 (updated) — the 1920 census catches our community between the wars: families, occupations, and who lived where, street by street.
• U.S. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917–1918 (updated) — nearly every man of draft age filled one out, including plenty of Sayville names, with birth dates, occupations, and next of kin.
• United States Passport Applications, 1795–1925 (updated) — a gold mine for immigrant families and for anyone whose people sailed back to the old country.
• U.S. Registers of Enlistments in the U.S. Army, 1798–1914, and the 1890 Census of Union Veterans and Widows of the Civil War — for the soldiers in the family tree.

For the roots so many Sayville families brought with them:

• Six Massachusetts collections, including State Vital Records, 1638–1927, Town Clerk Vital and Town Records, and Revolutionary War Index Cards to Muster Rolls — for ancestors who passed through New England before reaching Long Island.
• Connecticut Births and Christenings, 1649–1906 and Rhode Island Births and Christenings, 1600–1914, plus New Hampshire marriages and Vermont births.
• Netherlands, Births and Baptisms, 1564–1910 — for our Dutch Long Island families, West Sayville especially.

Everything at FamilySearch is free to search. The full list of all 41 collections is here: https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list — and our thanks to The Ancestor Hunt for rounding them up: https://theancestorhunt.com/blog/familysearch-new-and-updated-collections-october-1-15-2026/

Searching a Sayville name this week? Tell us what you uncover — the stories behind these records are exactly what this site is for.