MyHeritage Releases New York City Birth, Marriage, and Death Record Collections
We are thrilled to announce the publication of three new and important historical records collections: New York City birth, marriage, and death records. These robust collections are some of the most important vital records in the U.S. available online today, and MyHeritage is the only genealogy company that hosts the index for these records with scanned images. After a year-long process of creating this brand new index, we are glad to share the collections with you. New York City has played a pivotal role in the story of the United States as a nation and in the personal stories of countless American families. If you have any American roots at all, chances are, at least one person in your family tree was born, got married, or died in New York City, and may be found within these collections.
Search New York City Births, 1866–1909 on MyHeritage
Search New York City Marriages, 1866–1949 on MyHeritage
Search New York City Deaths, 1866–1948 on MyHeritage
The collections contain a total of 37.4 million records and include a complete index created by MyHeritage alongside beautifully scanned color images of the original certificates and licenses.
In addition to indexing millions of primary individuals in the records, we invested a lot of time and effort in making millions of secondary individuals indexed and searchable as well. For example, in marriage records, while the bride and groom are the primary individuals listed in the record, the parents of the bride and groom are secondary individuals that you wouldn’t typically find indexed for these types of records. But on MyHeritage, we made a special effort to index these individuals as well. That said, there are additional individuals — for example, witnesses of a marriage or the person reporting a death — who are mentioned in many of the records but not indexed, so it’s always wise to look at the scanned image.
Let’s delve further into these collections:
New York, New York City Births, 1866–1909
This collection contains 7,560,069 birth records from New York City, New York, United States, between the years 1866 and 1909. Records typically include the name of the child, date and place of birth, the names of the parents, and information about their birth.
Search New York, New York City Births, 1866–1909
New York, New York City Marriages, 1866–1949
This collection contains 20,912,650 marriage records from New York City, New York, United States, between the years 1866 and 1949. Records typically include the names of the groom and the bride, their birth place, their ages, the date and place of marriage and the names of their parents.
There are two different types of marriage records within this collection: marriage certificates issued by the New York City Health Department and marriage licenses issued by the New York City Clerk.
The NYC department of health issued marriage certifications through 1937, and beginning in 1908, in compliance with New York State law, couples planning to marry obtained a license through the city clerk. The city clerk license typically included an affidavit filled out by the couple, the license issued by the clerk, and the certificate completed by the person performing the ceremony.
We consolidated the multiple marriage records for the same individuals and we put them together as a set, so if there are both a marriage certificate and a license (which would be found for the years 1908–1937) then you will see both as part of the same record. If there is only one or the other, you will see just the one.
The information recorded in these two different types of records is mostly the same. However, the city clerk marriage licenses include additional information about the couples’ parents and occupations, which can be extremely helpful.
Search New York, New York City Marriages, 1866–1949
New York, New York City Deaths, 1866–1948
This collection contains 8,893,688 death records from New York City, New York, United States, between the years 1866 and 1948. Records typically include the name of the deceased, date and place of birth, age at the time of death, date and place of death, the names of the parents and the name of the spouse.
Search New York, New York City Deaths, 1866–1948
Examples
In a recent webinar about New York City historical record collections, hosted on Legacy Family Webinars, our Director of Content, Mike Mansfield delved into the new New York City’s birth, marriage, and death records, and featured some examples.
Each of the examples highlights the wealth of information contained within New York City’s historical records. From births to marriages and deaths, these documents serve as invaluable resources for understanding the lives of past generations and tracing familial lineages.
Birth Record of Sophia Wilhelmina Henrietta Wiggins
Sophia Wilhelmina Henrietta Wiggins’s birth record from 1882 reveals more than just her date and place of birth. It provides essential details like her parents’ names, including her mother’s maiden name — a crucial piece of information for tracing lineage. Additionally, it lists the birthplaces of both parents, offering insights into their origins. In this case, only the country, Germany, is listed, but there are many records with even more detailed places, such as the specific county in Ireland for someone with Irish descent. Another notable detail is the record of the number of children Sophia’s mother has had, and how many are still living, shedding light on family dynamics and potential siblings.
Birth Record of Edward Braithwaite
Moving on to Edward Braithwaite’s birth record, we see similar comprehensive details like the child’s name and date of birth. Once we look at the scanned image of the record, we can see that the record includes additional information such as the parents’ occupations — in this case the father appears to be a chauffeur — and race or color of the child; in this case, white. We also see the mother’s maiden name, where both parents are from, how many children they have, and how many are still living. These records evolve over time and the form varies based on when it was created.
Marriage Records of George Eugene Ottosen and Mary Emma MacKey
The marriage record of George Eugene Ottosen and Mary Emma MacKey offers insights into their union. Alongside the age difference between the groom (49) and bride (23), the record provides essential details like their occupations, places of residence, parents’ names, including the mothers’ full maiden names. George is listed as a cook who comes from Norway. As an added bonus, the record includes their signatures!
As mentioned above, some marriage records are composed of a few different types of records. This is one such example, and you will see the option to scroll through other pages. In this case, there are four different record pages.
The third page is the marriage license. It’s mostly bureaucratic, but it does include additional information, such as the place of residence listed for both the groom and bride.
The fourth document is the final certificate that was filled out by the minister, with his information, the ceremony information, and it also includes the names of witnesses, their addresses, and their signatures — a detail often overlooked but valuable for uncovering potential familial connections or friendships.
Death Records of Alice Mary Balchen
Alice’s death record consists of two pages. It provides us with a lot of information such as her parents’ names, her residence, place of death, exact time of death, information about the attending physician. It also includes information about her spouse, the cemetery where she is buried, the burial date, the person who was requesting the funeral services, and more.
Testimonials
MyHeritage user Leah Snider from the United States told us that while looking through the newly released NYC vital records, she found a record of her maternal great-grandfather’s second marriage, which she’d been looking for for years. She was thrilled by the depth of information within the records, and was even more excited to see pages in her ancestors’ own handwriting with their signatures, in addition to indexed information further confirming what was written by hand.
“The information found in my great-grandfather’s marriage license easily matched up with several well-known facts for me — birthdate and place, his first wife’s name and the fact she was deceased, his occupation, and his father’s name and birthplace. I was pleased to learn a bit about his second wife, too. All in all I am quite confident these records matched up with my great-grandfather. I was also able to find a death record for one of my great-grandfather’s brothers who was also living in NYC.”
Dianne Ward from Western Australia said that discovering the new NYC collections has been a game-changer for her genealogy research: “Among the multitude of records I’ve uncovered, one particular gem stands out: the second marriage certificate of my illegitimate first cousin three times removed, Heinrich Theodor Georg Liebenow,” says Dianne. “This fascinating document sheds light on Heinrich’s journey from Germany to New York, where he married Henriette Lisette Alwine Pisch in 1867. While I’m still searching for their initial marriage records, stumbling upon their second marriage certificate was a remarkable find.”
Mike Mansfield, our director of Content Production, remarked that “One of the highlights of my career has been working on this collection.”
Our senior staff writer Daniella Levy found her maternal great-grandmother’s birth certificate and marriage certificate in these collections: “It was only thanks to the fact that the team indexed secondary people in these records that I was able to find the birth certificate,” she says, “because as it turns out, my great-grandmother was given a different name at birth! It came up when I searched for her mother.” Both records revealed details she didn’t know before and helped her identify and correct an error in her tree.
Summary
The new New York City vital record collections are rich resources full of fascinating information for anyone researching ancestors living in New York City during the twentieth century.
Combined with MyHeritage’s many additional valuable collections from New York City and from the United States, these records can help paint a fuller picture of your ancestors’ lives and lead to important family history discoveries.
Searching this collection on MyHeritage is free. To view the records or to save records to your family tree, you’ll need a Data, Complete, or Omni plan.
If you have a family tree on MyHeritage, our Record Matching technology will notify you automatically if records from this collection match your relatives. You’ll then be able to review the record and decide if you’d like to add the new information to your family tree.
Search New York City Births, 1866–1909 on MyHeritage
