19th century Church records CNY
If you are lucky the ancestor (s) has an affiliation with a Church, and if you are really lucky any of the Churches left records. In the record as an example you will find thing like date admitted, examined, dismissed and dropped to list a few. I am sure the verbiage and wording goes with the denomiation and current phrases used for a time fram in question. For women you may find the maiden name along with the husbands surname, “wife of” is common as a descriptor for married women, under dismissed can be where the person’s next place might be or the fact that they went from one faith to a newer on. Church records may have been digitized, microfilmed or transcribes. Historian’s offices, societies or Religious college libraries may have them. Good luck with search