In 1912, William Richard Cutter, the editor of many genealogical compendia on the New England and Middle Atlantic states, published the three-volume work entitled Genealogical and Family History of Western New York. A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Building of a Nation.

Each of the more than 400 essays in these copiously illustrated works begin with an explanation of the derivation of the family's surname. Cutter then traces the line forward from the oldest known ancestor to the principal subject of the essay. This is followed by a detailed biography of that person, often with his photo, as well as an enumeration of collateral lines related to the principal subject. The index identifies some 2,000 descendants of the main families listed below, which, in the aggregate, constitute a unique and previously inaccessible source of Western New York ancestry:

Abbey, Abbott, Acocks, Adsit, Allen, Amidon, Andrews, Ashby, Atkins, Avery, Bailey, Baker, Barker, Bassett, Beach, Beals, Becker, Bedell, Bedient, Bell, Bemus, Benham, Benson, Beverly, Bidwell, Billings, Birdseye, Bissell, Bixler, Bootey, Booth, Botsford, Bourne, Bradley, Briggs, Brown, Brunson, Bulkley, Burrows, Burton, Bush, Butterfield, Cadwell, Camp, Campbell, Candee, Carfer, Carlson, Carpenter, Case, Castle, Caverly, Champlin, Chapin, Chapman, Clark, Clarke, Cogswell, Colburn, Cole, Conic, Conley, Cook, Cooke, Corwin, Coulter, Cowing, Cowles, Crandall, Crissey, Currier, Curtis, Curtiss, Cushing, Dahlgren, Dahlstrom, Dale, Derby, De Voe, Dickerson, Dickson, Dix, Dobbins, Doering, Donaldson, Donnelly, Douglas, Downs, Dunbar, Dusenbury, Eaton, Eddy, Eilers, Ellis, Ely, Ensign, Ernest, Everett, Ewing, Fancher, Fish, Fisher, Fiske, Foote, Forbes, Frank, Fredrickson, Freeman, Fronczak, Fuller, Gibson, Gillett, Goodyear, Green, Griswold, Gron, Gunn, Hackett, Hale, Hall, Hamlin, Harrison, Hatch, Hawley, Hayward, Haywood, Hazard, Hazeltine, Heller, Helvering, Henderson, Hequembourg, Herrick, Hill, Hilsle, Hoag, Holbrook, Holcomb, Hooker, Hopkins, Hopson, Howard, Hunt, Hutchinson, Jackson, Johnson, Johnston, Jones, Kelley, Kellogg, Kidder, King, Knapp, Knox, Lang, Lathrop, Lawrence, Leet, Leggett, Lewis, Litchfield, Locke, Lusk, Lydell, McFate, Madigan, Maher, Manchester, Mark, Maroney, Marshall, Martin, Marvin, Matthews, Maynard, Miller, Minard, Montgomery, Moore, Morton, Mosher, Munson, Murdock, Murray, Myers, Neff, Newton, Nichols, Nixon, North, Norton, Olds, Olmsted, Ormes, Orton, Paige, Parker, Partridge, Patterson, Pearson, Peaslee, Peckham, Peirce, Perkins, Peterson, Pickard, Pierce, Porter, Prather, Pratt, Prescott, Preston, Proudfit, Putnam, Ransom, Rathbone, Reade, Redfield, Rider, Robertson, Rochester, Rockwell, Ross, Rundquist, Sander, Sawyer, Schmidt, Schoellkopf, Schulz, Scott, Searle, Seekins, Seely, Seitz, Shearer, Sheldon, Sherman, Sherwood, Simon, Skiff, Skinner, Smith, Stearns, Stodder, Stone, Strong, Swan, Swanson, Sweeney, Swett, Taylor, Tenbrook, Thomas, Thompson, Tiffany, Todd, Towne, Townsend, Troy, Van Brocklin, Vedder, Vom Berge, Vought, Wade, Wakeman, Walkup, Walsh, Ward, Warner, Warren, Westcott, Weston, Wheaton, Wheeler, Whipple, White, Whitmore, Whitney, Whittemore, Wiard, Wilcox, Williams, Wilner, Wilson, Winship, Winsor, Winters, Woodward, Wright, Yates, and Youngs.