In a team effort between New York City’s Department of Records/Municipal Archives and Ancestry.com, the City’s Vital Records indices are now available online for free.
Volunteers from the Italian Genealogical Group and the German Genealogy group diligently worked over ten years to compile these indices. Now, thanks to the concerted efforts of these four groups, would-be genealogists can instantly query more than ten million birth, marriage, and death records ranging in years from 1862 to 1942.
Depending on the query, Ancestry.com’s New York City Department of Records search page will list the person’s name, birth date, death date, spouse’s name and marriage date, and the county where the event took place.
If you’d like to acquire certified copies of original certificates and/or images, you must order the document directly from the NYC Department of Records. You will need to reference the certificate number, which can be obtained by becoming a Registered Guest of ancestry.com. A registered guest account does not require credit card or billing information, and requires nothing more than your name and email address.
Online access to these indices means everyone can search for records, not just New Yorkers. New York City was the first destination of many immigrants and has always been a popular tourist destination, so it’s no stretch of the imagination that a significant event of family history, like birth, marriage, or death, might have happened in NYC. Take advantage of this free resource to find out more about your family history.
