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Archiver > GEN-NYS > 1996-09 > 0843605150


From: Charles Sullivan< >
Subject: Marriage and Birth records in New York City
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 1996 18:45:50 -0400


>Both of my Irish ancestors (Henry McGinnis and Alice Smith) landed in New
>York City about 1850 and were married there. I do not have firm dates for
>either their arrival or marriage. Can anyone help me with suggestions to
>find their marriage record ?
>
>Their first two children, John Thomas and Alice, were born there before they
>made the move west to Illinois before 1860. The recent letter to GEN-NYS
>from Charles Sullivan made a valuable suggestion to look for birth records in
>the LDS microfilm of the NYC Municipal Archives. Is this the main source for
>such searches, or are there other possibilities ?
>
>Thanks for any and all ideas and suggestions !
>
>Roy Hayter
>
>Mountain View, California

If your ancestors were typical Irish immigrants of the famine era, you will
probably find neither a civil marriage record nor civil birth records for
their children as none of these were mandatory during that period.

Your best bet is to try to locate their address(es) in the NY City
Directories between 1850 and 1860, then try writing to nearby churches
for their marriage and baptism records. Try for the baptisms first,
then you can figure back a closer approximation for the date of marriage.
The City Directories list the addresses of churches and also have a
city map and street/avenue finder in the appendix.

Another source is the 1855 NY State census, but this is not indexed so
you will probably have to search the whole city ward.

All the above are available on microfilm from the LDS. If they were not
RC, there may also be microfilmed church records available.

Regards,
Charles Sullivan

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