The following announcement was written by the folks at MyHeritage:
We are thrilled to announce the publication of three new and important historical records collections: New York City birth, marriage, and death records. These robust collections are some of the most important vital records in the U.S. available online today, and MyHeritage is the only genealogy company that hosts the index for these records with scanned images. After a year-long process of creating this brand new index, we are glad to share the collections with you. New York City has played a pivotal role in the story of the United States as a nation and in the personal stories of countless American families. If you have any American roots at all, chances are, at least one person in your family tree was born, got married, or died in New York City, and may be found within these collections.
Search New York City Births, 1866–1909 on MyHeritage
Search New York City Marriages, 1866–1949 on MyHeritage
Search New York City Deaths, 1866–1948 on MyHeritage
The collections contain a total of 37.4 million records and include a complete index created by MyHeritage alongside beautifully scanned color images of the original certificates and licenses.
In addition to indexing millions of primary individuals in the records, we invested a lot of time and effort in making millions of secondary individuals indexed and searchable as well. For example, in marriage records, while the bride and groom are the primary individuals listed in the record, the parents of the bride and groom are secondary individuals that you wouldn’t typically find indexed for these types of records. But on MyHeritage, we made a special effort to index these individuals as well. That said, there are additional individuals — for example, witnesses of a marriage or the person reporting a death — who are mentioned in many of the records but not indexed, so it’s always wise to look at the scanned image.
Let’s delve further into these collections:
New York, New York City Births, 1866–1909
This collection contains 7,560,069 birth records from New York City, New York, United States, between the years 1866 and 1909. Records typically include the name of the child, date and place of birth, the names of the parents, and information about their birth.
Search New York, New York City Births, 1866–1909
New York, New York City Marriages, 1866–1949
This collection contains 20,912,650 marriage records from New York City, New York, United States, between the years 1866 and 1949. Records typically include the names of the groom and the bride, their birth place, their ages, the date and place of marriage and the names of their parents.
There are two different types of marriage records within this collection: marriage certificates issued by the New York City Health Department and marriage licenses issued by the New York City Clerk.
The NYC department of health issued marriage certifications through 1937, and beginning in 1908, in compliance with New York State law, couples planning to marry obtained a license through the city clerk. The city clerk license typically included an affidavit filled out by the couple, the license issued by the clerk, and the certificate completed by the person performing the ceremony.
We consolidated the multiple marriage records for the same individuals and we put them together as a set, so if there are both a marriage certificate and a license (which would be found for the years 1908–1937) then you will see both as part of the same record. If there is only one or the other, you will see just the one.
The information recorded in these two different types of records is mostly the same. However, the city clerk marriage licenses include additional information about the couples’ parents and occupations, which can be extremely helpful.
Search New York, New York City Marriages, 1866–1949
New York, New York City Deaths, 1866–1948
This collection contains 8,893,688 death records from New York City, New York, United States, between the years 1866 and 1948. Records typically include the name of the deceased, date and place of birth, age at the time of death, date and place of death, the names of the parents and the name of the spouse.
Search New York, New York City Deaths, 1866–1948
Examples
In a recent webinar about New York City historical record collections, hosted on Legacy Family Webinars, our Director of Content, Mike Mansfield delved into the new New York City’s birth, marriage, and death records, and featured some examples.
Each of the examples highlights the wealth of information contained within New York City’s historical records. From births to marriages and deaths, these documents serve as invaluable resources for understanding the lives of past generations and tracing familial lineages.
You can read a lot more in this announcement in the MyHeritage Blog at: https://bit.ly/3UKmmZ9.