New York City, often hailed as the historical gateway to America, holds a unique and pivotal place in United States history. As one of the primary entry points for immigrants during the 19th and 20th centuries, it became a melting pot of cultures and a central hub of movement with a far-reaching impact on the entire country’s demographic and historical landscape. Even if your family settled far away from New York City, chances are, at least some of your relatives passed through or lived the city at some point. That’s what makes the New York City vital record collections on MyHeritage such a crucial resource for anyone researching American roots. These records, which include birth, marriage, and death records from the 5 boroughs of New York, illuminate the lives of those who settled and thrived in the Big Apple and provide crucial information for their descendants all across North America.
Search New York City birth records
Search New York City marriage records
Search New York City death records
In this article, we’ll explore each of these three crucial historical record collections, understand the history behind them and the coverage they offer, and take a look at samples from each of them to help you get the most out of the records you discover in these collections.
Jurisdictions of New York City
First, let’s understand the geography and jurisdiction of New York City. The city contains five boroughs, and each of them is represented by a governmental district:
- Manhattan (New York County)
- Brooklyn (Kings County)
- Queens (Queens County)
- The Bronx (Bronx County)
- Staten Island (Richmond County)
The five boroughs came into existence with the creation of what we know today as New York City in 1898. That year, New York County, which then included part of the Bronx, Kings County (Brooklyn), Richmond County (Staten Island), and part of Queens County, were consolidated within one municipal government under a new city charter.
When discussing New York City, we generally include areas in the greater area, including counties in Long Island, Westchester, and even New Jersey. However, for the purposes of this article, we’ll be focusing on the 5 boroughs of New York City.
Vital records from New York City on MyHeritage
MyHeritage offers 3 essential collections of vital records from New York City:
- New York, New York City, Births, 1866-1909
- New York, New York City, Marriages, 1866-1949
- New York, New York City, Deaths, 1866-1948
You can search in a specific collection from the links above, or conduct a general research on myheritage.com/research. Any records relevant to the person you’re searching for will appear in the search results. You can narrow down your results by adding more information in the search fields, or clicking on a specific record category in the sidebar on the left.
These vital record collections from New York City contain a total of 37.4 million records, not only the primary individuals mentioned in the records (for example, the bride and groom in a marriage record), but also secondary individuals — for example, the parents of the bride and groom — that have been indexed and made searchable. This greatly expands the number of records you may find for a given ancestor. Additionally, MyHeritage conveniently provides the scanned images of the records alongside the indexed information, allowing you to dive deeper and uncover more fascinating information about each record easily and quickly. There is always value in looking at the associated image, since additional information and individuals may appear there: for example, details about the witnesses to a marriage.
The records have different coverage of time periods based on the collection and the location of the records. In the Bronx, for example, the birth records go back to 1895, whereas in Kings County or Brooklyn, they go back to 1855. Due to the 115-year privacy rule, the collection contains records going up to 1909. It’s important to note that New York City was relatively advanced in their vital record-keeping; many states didn’t start taking official vital records at all until the early 1900s or 1910s.
The marriage records include a few different types of record. The collection contains marriage certificates from 1866-1937 and marriage licenses from 1938-1949. This is because the New York City Department of Health issued marriage certificates through 1937, and beginning in 1908, in compliance with New York state law, couples planning to marry obtained a license from the city clerk. The city clerk marriage license typically included an affidavit filled out by the couple and the license issued by the clerk, and then a certificate completed by the person performing the ceremony. MyHeritage combines these documents together in a set when relevant: if there’s both a certificate and a license, you’ll see both in the same record.
Let’s take a look at some examples of records from each of these collections.
Sample New York City birth record
Here’s an example of a New York City birth record for Edward Braithwaite. He was born in 1908 in Manhattan.
The index tells us his name, gender, birth date and place, and names, birthplaces, and ages of each of his parents. Note that the record includes his mother’s maiden name, which is tremendously valuable genealogical information. If we take a look at the digital image, we can find additional crucial details. The record includes the place of birth — not just the borough, but the exact street address — and the places of residence of both parents as well as their ages and birthplaces. In this case, we see that the father was born in England and the mother in France. In some of the birth records, the parents’ birthplace can be more detailed, for example the name of a county in Ireland.
The scanned image also mentions the father’s occupation, in this case probably a chauffeur, as well as the race or color of the child. We can also see how many children this mother has had previously and how many of her children are currently living, which can help us understand if there were additional children who passed away that we may have been unaware of.
These records do evolve over time, and there are some differences in the forms you can find in this collection and the exact questions they ask.
Sample New York City marriage record
Let’s take a look at the marriage record of George Eugene Anderson and Mary Emma McKay. In this case, we have a marriage license and marriage certificate combined into one record, and it’s just packed with incredible information. The page number drop-down menu above the scan, highlighted in red below, indicates that there are multiple pages in this record. You can navigate between them by clicking the arrows or selecting a page number. You can also click the button highlighted in green below to enter full screen mode for easier viewing and to download or print the record.
The first page is the affidavit for the license to marry. Here, we see that the groom, George, is 49 at the time of the marriage, while the bride, Mary, is just 23.
We also see their names and ages. Note that the groom’s age was originally written as 50, then later crossed out and amended to 49. We learn that George was born in Norway, and get the full names of his parents, including his mother’s maiden name, as well as their birthplaces — in this case, also Norway. The bride’s birthplace is provided in greater detail: she is from Port Washington, Long Island, New York. Her father was also from Port Washington, but her mother was from Philadelphia. The record even includes the signatures of the bride and groom. How cool is that, to see a real-life signature of your family member from many, many decades ago?
Page 2 is left blank. It contains a certificate of consent, which is only relevant when the couple is underage and the marriage requires written permission from the parents. I haven’t seen these filled out very often, but I imagine such cases do exist.
On page 3, we find a summary of all the information given until now, but it also includes the places of residence of the bride and groom.
I find it interesting that this bride and groom listed their residences as being the same place. It’s possible that they were living together before they were married, but it might simply indicate where they intend to live together once married.
The last page contains the marriage certificate that was filled out by the minister when the wedding took place in January 1947.
Here we get details about the person who performed the ceremony, in this case Reverend Ludwig W. Jansen, Minister of the Gospel, who resided in Brooklyn and performed this ceremony in Kings County. We also get the names of two witnesses: Mary Zachariassen and Kåre Zachariassen, as well as their signatures and addresses — in this case, the same address. Perhaps these were family members or acquaintances that this couple chose to witness their marriage.
The record also lists the name of the church where the ceremony took place: Bethelship Norwegian Methodist Church in Kings County or Brooklyn. And, of course, the date of the marriage.
Sample New York City death record
Now let’s take a look at a death record. This one is for a woman named Alice Mary Balchin who was born in Nova Scotia, Canada, and died in New York City as a widow in 1948. The index includes the names and birthplaces of her parents as well as the name of her spouse, which means you can find this record by searching for their names as well as hers.
This record includes two images. The first includes details about the death, including the time, date, and place, as well as details regarding the deceased: their name, residence, how long they’ve lived at that address, marital status, date of birth, occupation, citizenship, and whether they were a war veteran in addition to the name of their spouse and the names and birthplaces of their parents. At the bottom, we see the signature of the informant and their relationship to the deceased — in this case, Alice’s daughter — as well as their address, and then the place and date of burial and details about the funeral director.
The second page contains the funeral director’s certificate. In this case the only new information it adds is the name of the manager of the funeral director.
The vital record collections from New York City on MyHeritage are indispensable for anyone researching their American ancestry. With over 37.4 million records available, ranging from the mid-19th to mid-20th century, the collections can provide a wealth of detailed and crucial information, including detailed family backgrounds and original scanned documents, which can help you understand more about your ancestors and lead to further discoveries.
Whether you have many ancestors with deep roots in New York or just a few who lived there for a short time, exploring these records on MyHeritage could unlock significant connections and insights into your family’s past.
Search New York, New York City, Births, 1866-1909 on MyHeritage
Search New York, New York City, Marriages, 1866-1949 on MyHeritage
Search New York, New York City, Deaths, 1866-1948 on MyHeritage
This article was adapted from part of a webinar given by Mike Mansfield on Legacy Family Tree Webinars on April 12, 2024. Watch the full webinar for free: Searching for Your Family in NYC? Resources and Techniques at MyHeritage and Beyond
