In reply to your inquiry about the derivation of the place name "Gilgo", I checked a very old place name derivation file we have here and did not find the place at all. 

I also checked the master list of NY place names and found a "Gilgo Heading" indicated as a bay in Suffolk County that was named by federal decision (Board of Geographic Names) in 1959. The date merely means that is when is was officially mapped, but it probably was a name in use for a long time before that. The USGS topographic map location is given as "West Gilgo Beach".

On our website you can find links to useful searching tools for place names: http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/hisnames.html

I will also copy this request to the New York History listserv, and perhaps someone will respond with a more concrete explanation. I imagine the answers are well recorded in local histories, but as you are in North Carolina, it would be difficult to get to them.

If you would likje to contact the county historian in the area of interest, a listing can be found on our website at http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/hishistorians.html

I will be interested in wha your search reveales, so please e-mail me when you find the answer.


Philip Lord, Jr.
Acting Chief, Historical Survey
New York State Museum
Albany, NY 12230
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>>> "Ellen  Cloud" <[log in to unmask]> 04/29 11:43 PM >>>
Hi, 
Will you please help me with a very long search for information on Gilgo Beach, Gilgo State Park, Gilgo Life Saving Station, Gilgo Island? I need to know where the name Gilgo came from. No one in the state of New York seems to know. The only Gilgos I have ever
known to exist, settled in eastern NC. There are no records of Gilgos anywhere in the US except descendents of the above. 

I have contacted almost every department in the state of NY, as well as a contact there that has personally inquired at libraries and court records with no success. Years ago one of the local Gilgos visited Gilgo Beach and Park and found nothing. No one believed that he was even a Gilgo and took his inquires as a joke. Surely there is a record somewhere!
Would the state of NY name a park Gilgo without knowing why?

A 1969 interview with an elderly Gilgo tell of a family member from NY that came to visit by way of a large sailing vessel. I'm trying to make the connection. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Ellen F. Cloud, Historian & Author
P.O. Box 172
Atlantic, NC 28511