Orleans County, New York, situated in the northwestern corner of the state along Lake Ontario was a staging area for a vast westward migration of persons associated with various religious denominations who were seeking greater opportunities in Ohio, Illinois, and the other states of the Old Northwest Territory. The bulk of Arad Thomas's account of Orleans County consists of histories of the following principal towns and villages of Orleans County: Barre, Albion, Carlton, Clarendon, Gaines, Kendall, Murray, Holley, Hulberton, Hindsburgh, Ridgeway, Medina, Knowlesville, Shelby, and Yates. The genealogical meat of the volume can be found in the roughly 300 biographical sketches that are distributed at the end of the town and village profiles.