New York City Municipal Archives: The largest collection of NYC vital records His suggested repositories and record sets also include many vital record substitutes for periods and locations when official city copies are unavailable. This guide provides comprehensive information on locating vital records in New Netherland, colonial New York, and in the five boroughs of New York City. If you're looking for a birth, marriage, or death certificate from the early 1800s or before, a good place to start is Harry Macy's detailed New York Knowledge Base guide to New York City vital records. Where to look and what methods to use can vary depending on the county or borough you're looking in, as well as the exact year. The New York City Municipal Archives (operated by the Department of Records and Information Services, or DORIS) houses the largest collection of birth, marriage, and death records for New York City, but other collections exist. Albany, Buffalo, and Yonkers Vital Records Before 1914įor an even more comprehensive overview of New York State vital records, see the NYG&B Guide to Birth, Marriage & Death Records available in print in our online store.įinding a New York City birth, marriage, or death record can be complicated due to the different territorial and record-keeping histories of each of the five boroughs, which are the Bronx (Bronx County), Brooklyn (Kings County), Manhattan (New York County), Queens (Queens County), and Staten Island (Richmond County).This guide includes the following sections: You will need to investigate sets of vital records in Albany, New York City, or other locations depending on the time period of the event you're investigating. New York vital records are not all stored in the same location or by the same authority. If you're looking for a birth, marriage, or death record prior to 1880, you should check with local records offices first, but you may need to ultimately seek a vital record substitute.įact #2: Where you look for a vital record will change depending on the year and location of the event you're investigating. For the most part, New York State did not force local governments to track birth, marriage, and death events until the 1880s-even after that, many smaller municipalities were not stellar in their compliance. The history of New York State vital record-keeping is complex and convoluted. There are a couple of crucial facts all researchers should know about locating vital records in New York State.įact #1: New York State did not require local governments to report births, marriages, and deaths until 1880.
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