New Historical Records Added in March 2018
We’re delighted to announce the addition of 27.1 million historical records to SuperSearch™, bringing the total number of records available to 8.96 billion.
| Exclusive to | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 New York City Marriage License Index 1908-1972 | Search collection now | |||
 Denmark Church Records, 1576-1919 | Search collection now | |||
 Kentucky Newspapers, 1848-2009 | Search collection now | |||
 West Virginia Newspapers, 1930-2009 | Search collection now |
Here’s a more detailed description of the new collections added. Click the title of each collection below to search it.
New York City Marriage License Index 1908-1972
A significant update to this index of marriage licenses — from the New York City Clerk Offices from 1930 to 1972 — adds 6.6 million additional records to the 2.9 million records we released just a few months ago. Images of the records were provided by Reclaim the Records. We thank this organization, led by Brooke Schreier Ganz, for its important work bringing public records to the public.
The marriage records are from all five boroughs of New York City. The index contains the given names and surnames of both the bride and the groom, the date of the license application, and the license number. The images are split by borough, bride and groom, and then sorted alphabetically. We have linked the bride and groom together, when possible, using the license number.
" width="396" height="472" />A record of American businesswoman, writer, and television personality Martha Stewart’s marriage license from the New York City Marriage License Index. Note she is listed by her maiden name Kostyra.
Marriage records are an important genealogical record as they not only include information about the bride, the groom, and their residence when the marriage occurred but often contain additional information such as birth dates, birth places, occupations, and whether they were single, widowed, or divorced at the time of the marriage. Often a marriage license will also contain information about the parents of the bride and groom including their names and birthplaces. Copies of the original marriage records in New York City are available to order for a fee from the Office of the City Clerk. Marriage records that are 50 or more years old are classified as public documents and are available to all researchers. Marriage records from less than 50 years ago are restricted and only available under certain circumstances that are outlined at the webpage linked to above.
Details of Martha Stewart’s marriage license in our record index
Denmark Church Records 1576-1919
This is a collection update to the existing Denmark Church Records collection: About 17.7 million of these records are from the years 1576–1814 and about 1 million are from 1814–1919. This is an exclusive collection you can only find on MyHeritage.
Significantly, this new set includes three new types of historical records the original collection did not have: Communion, Introduction, and Absolution records.
Baptism records from the new Danish Church Records collection; image provided by the Danish National Archives
Communions (Confirmerede): These records show the individuals who received communion on a given date. Sometimes individuals were recorded in family groups with only the head of the family listed by name, and the other individuals in the family being referenced by number and relationship to the head. For example, “Hans Jensen and wife and 2 sons and a daughter”.
Introductions (Introduserede): These records show the women who were reintroduced into the congregation by their husbands, after childbirth. At the time, after a woman gave birth, according to the Denmark Church, she was considered “unclean” and had to be reintroduced into the congregation. The woman may be listed directly (by her name), or indirectly (by her husband’s name, e.g. “wife of ….”).
Absolutions: These records show absolved individuals. At the time, according the the Denmark Church, certain transgressions had to be absolved by the Church. The most common absolution was for pre-marital sex resulting in a pregnancy, in which case both parties had to be publicly absolved before they could return to the congregation. Other transgressions that could be absolved included failing to receive communion regularly, public drunkenness, violence, blasphemy, theft, and murder. These records were kept up until about 1767.
This exclusive collection includes about 1.38 million records published in newspapers from various cities and towns in the state of Kentucky from the years 1848–2009.
A sample record from the new Kentucky newspapers collection with an article about the funeral of KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) founder, Colonel Sanders
West Virginia Newspapers 1930-2009
This exclusive collection includes about 371,000 records published in newspapers from various cities and towns in the state of West Virginia from the years 1930–2009.
A sample record from the new West Virginia newspapers collection with an article honoring Charles “Chuck” Elwood Yeager, the first person to break the sound barrier by flying faster than the speed of sound
Newspapers are an important resource for genealogy and family history research as they contain obituaries and other vital record substitutes such as birth, marriage, and death notices. Additionally, society pages and stories of local interest contain rich information on activities and events in the community and often provide details about the persons involved.
These two newspaper collections join a number of important U.S. newspaper collections we released in the last few months.
Summary
All of these newly digitized and updated collections spanning 27.1 million records are now available on MyHeritage SuperSearch. Much of this content is exclusive to MyHeritage and cannot be found on any other major genealogy service. Searching is free. A Data or Complete subscription is required to view the records.
Keep an eye out for Record Matches! Our Record Matching technology will automatically find relevant historical records for people in your tree.
We hope you enjoy searching through these collections and gain new insights into your family history.
