Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Online New York City databases

UPDATE TO INFORMATION BELOW:
You can search the databases on the ItalianGen website. I never bothered scrolling down past the warnings that funds were needed to keep the project going. I need to make a donation in addition to my indexing work to help expand these databases.

ORIGINAL POST:
I wanted to write about the New York City naturalization and vital records database hosted on the ItalianGen website at http://www.italiangen.org/. Unfortunately, it looks like the databases have been temporarily taken offline do to funding issues. These databases are the result of many hours put in by volunteeers and is hosted free of charge by ItalianGen. As a previous (and hopefully future) volunteer, and someone who has benefited from this information, I hope these issues are resolved soon.

The same databases are also available on the GermanGen website at: http://www.germangenealogygroup.com/otherdb.stm. Included are naturalization records for NYC and several surrounding counties and death & marriage records. Again, the databases are hosted free of charge.

The NYC records are all located at the Municipal Archives and can be ordered online at: http://www.nyc.gov/html/records/html/vitalrecords/home.shtml. The search fee is lower because you'll already know the certificate number. This is a good thing, one because you save money when you find the right record, and, two, because it lets you order a few "maybe" records without breaking the bank.

You may say "but I don't have any Italian or German ancestors". These databases are still for you...they list all indexed records without regard for previous nationality.

1 comment:

Thomas MacEntee said...

Thank you so much for this post! I was not aware of the German Genealogy link and it will help me with my Henneberg ancestors.

I found your blog via Jasia's Creative Gene and your recent post for the 41st Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy.

Cheers!