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New
York Marriage Index a Boon to Researchers
Marriage
Index: New York City, 1600s-1800s
(Family Archive 239)
Reviewed by Marthe Arends
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If you've ever researched vital records in New York City, you know
that they can be found in a good number of places, such as city registrars
and county clerk's offices. This CD, created in collaboration with the
Genealogical Research Library (GRL) in Ontario, Canada, contains records
for "more than 410,000 individuals who were married in or near
New York City between 1622 and 1899." The introduction to the CD
notes that while over 90% of the marriages found on the CD were recorded
in New York City, the remainder were recorded elsewhere in New York
state. The introduction further notes that 300 of the records are from
Connecticut or New Jersey. A quick examination of the dates shows that
the majority are for the 19th century, although there are many entries
from the 18th century as well.
The CD consists only of an informative introduction, and an index
to the marriages. Both bride and groom are listed, and using the Search
Expert feature you can search by surname, county, marriage location,
marriage date, and marriage ID. Wildcards are allowed in the searches.
I was pleased to see that this marriage index CD contains references
to the source of the information, including (in many cases) marriage
certificate numbers, and the Family History Library (FHL) microfilm
or fiche number of the actual records. In viewing a random selection
of records, I found three basic sources of information for the CD: The
New York Genealogical and Biographical Record (quarterly), 1932,
selected extracts; Marriage Registers, Extracts from Manhattan (1869-1880)
and Brooklyn (1895-1897); and Early Settlers of New York State,
Their Ancestors and Descendants, Extracts from Vol.2, No.5 (Nov
1935).
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April
1, 1998
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Information available for each record includes:
- Individual's name
- Spouse
- Marriage Date
- Location
- County
- State
- Marriage ID
- Certificate Number
- Source Publication
- Page
- Publisher
- Date Published
- Comments (may include the FHL film number so you can locate
the actual certificate)
A sample record can be seen below:
Margaret Lonsberry
Spouse:
Henry Peterson
Marriage
Date: 1866
Location:
Manhattan
County:
New York
State:
New York
Marriage
ID: 2220768300
Certificate
Number: 3249
Publication:
Marriage Registers, Extracts from Manhattan (1869-1880)
and Brooklyn (1895-1897)
Page:
No page number listed
Publisher:
Dept. of Health, Division of Vital Statistics, New York.
Published: NY, NY.
Comments:
See Family History Library catalog for films 1543971-1562446
(Manhattan) and Film 1653852 (Brooklyn), for actual certificate.
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The Marriage ID number was assigned by the GRL, and can
be used to locate information on a "missing" spouse;
the introduction notes that "due to the nature of some
original records, individuals may be listed without a spouse.
This does not necessarily mean that the spouse is excluded
from this Family Archive..." Using the assigned Marriage
ID number, you can search for those cases where an individual's
spouse is listed as "???,???."
The inclusion of sources, certificate numbers, and FHL
microfilm catalog numbers are a great boon to researchers.
Although the information seems to be limited to the three
sources listed above, Marriage Index: New York City,
1600s-1800s will probably be of use to many researchers
who are trying to locating ancestors who resided in New
York City during the last century and a half.
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Marthe Arends has
been involved in genealogy for 18 years and is the editor of the computer genealogy
newsletter Online Pioneers. She has lectured on computers and genealogy
to many groups, has been the SysOp of a Fidonet genealogy BBS, has written articles
for a variety of genealogy publications, and currently teaches several online
genealogy classes. Marthe has also written Genealogy
Software Guide and Genealogy
on CD-ROM, both published by the Genealogical
Publishing Company.
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