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Subject: Need Help with 1915 NY State Census
Date: 6 Mar 2006 08:44:58 -0700

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.

Classification: Query

Message Board URL:

http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/TUB.2ACI/5054

Message Board Post:

Group,

I posted this last week on the Bronx board and have received no replies. Since the resources I seek are centered in Manhattan, I'm reposting this on the New York board, hoping to get to a wider audience.

Many of you have used Steve Morse's One Step website and his search engines, some on databases that a number of us have generated for finding addresses to enumeration districts (federal) or election districts (state). Those utilities and databases have probably saved you hours and hours of work. Here's a way of paying us back.

At http://www.stevemorse.org/nyc/nyc.php there is a utility for finding AD/ED numbers and FHL corresponding census films for the NY State Census for NYC for 1905/1915/1925.

Right now we are missing information for Bronx 1905 and half of Bronx 1915.

Because I could not locate 1905 AD/ED maps of the Bronx (actually the 1904 general election used for the June 1905 state census) or text descriptions of the census districts, I finally decided to go through the 4 full rolls, and one partial roll, of the Bronx census sheets taking street names directly off the film. It's taking me less than 2 hours to get the necessary information from each roll, and I just ordered the last two rolls to be transcribed. Thus the 1905 Bronx box should be usuable within a month or two.

That leaves 1915 Bronx. The NY Public Library has a 1914 AD/ED map of the Bronx, but it's only half of the area. I think the Municipal Reference Library at 31 Chambers Street has "aperture cards" of the Bronx AD/EDs for 1914 showing a complete AD/ED map, and I know that the Bronx County Courthouse on Grand Concourse has such maps that, though fragile, could be scanned by a digital camera. Perhaps other historical society holdings might also have the 1914 AD/ED Bronx map or descriptions of the AD/ED boundaries.

If I could get a copy of the 1914 map (sources mentioned above), I could complete the utility for 1915. I'm 3,000 miles away from those sources, however. Certainly somebody reading this is near the Courthouse or going to the Archives and can get me a copy of the map. If so, contact me for further information.

The alternative, is to go through the 10 FHL films for the Bronx 1915 census, recording street names off of the film. In some ways this is a better method as it's primary material on where an address is, not where a map predicts it might be (within an AD/ED). It would take me 20 hours or so to do this transcription.... and I would have to order each of the films (as I've done for 1905). Again, especially for the NY based group, these films are at the NY Public Library and probably FHL branches in the area. Specifically I would need transcriptions of 521954 (part), 521955-56, 521957 (2 EDs only), 521962-67. I would appreciate some help with this.....and if you have access to these films we could quickly solve the problem of the missing material for the 1915 utility. Each film wouldn't take more than 2 hours or so of your time to transcribe.

Contact me directly if you are willing to help. We acknowledge all volunteers on the One Step site.

Joel Weintraub
Dana Point, CA

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