National Archives at New York City

United States New York  Archives and Libraries 

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Contact Information
E-mail: [mailto:newyork.archives@nara.gov newyork.archives@nara.gov]

Address:


 * Alexander Hamilton U.S. Customs House


 * One Bowling Green


 * New York, NY 10004

For Directions, map, and public transportation: see the Archives website.

Telephone: 1-866-840-1752, or 212-401-1620 Fax: 212-401-1638

Hours and holidays:


 * Monday-Friday 10:00 to 5:00
 * Records are pulled every half hour between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. All original records must be returned to staff by 4:30 p.m.
 * Saturday Open one Saturday a month from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (computer and microfilm research only). Please see the schedule for dates of Saturday openings. Please call toll-free at 866.840.1752 during weekday public research hours to verify Saturday openings.
 * Closed all Sundays and Federal holidays.

Researcher note: We encourage you to check the web sites of the:


 * Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) for city bus &amp; subway schedules
 * Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corporation (PATH) for PATH train info


 * By PATH train: 33rd Street train to Christopher Street. Walk south on Hudson St. to Houston St.
 * By Subway:
 * # 1 train to Houston Street (corner of Houston and Varick).
 * C or E trains to Spring Street (corner of Spring and 6th Avenue).
 * A, B, C, D, E, F (not all run full-time) to West 4th Street (corner of West 4th and 6th Avenue).
 * By Bus: M5, M6, and M21 buses stop on W. Houston near Varick. M10 bus (7th and 8th Ave.) uptown on Hudson to near Houston. Some, not all, M10's downtown go as far south as Houston. M15 bus connects with the M5 and M21 at E. Houston. Take M21 bus to Varick, or M5 bus to 6th Avenue.

Internet sites and databases:


 * National Archives at New York City Internet site The move, FAQs, historical documents, bankruptcy and court records, events, guides and research aids, workshops, exhibits, new accessions, staff, forms.
 * For Genealogists and Family Historians resources, how-to, workshops, military and civilian records.
 * Access to Archival Databases (AAD) a search engine into some of NARA's holdings of electronic records. Search by person, geographic areas, organizations, or dates.
 * Archival Research Catalog (ARC) the online catalog of over 63% of NARA's nationwide holdings. Searches by keywords, by location, organization, person, or topics, and for digitized images.
 * Archives Library Information Center (ALIC) American history and government, archival administration, information management, and government documents for archivists, librarians, and the public.

Collection Description
Serves New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the U.S Virgin Islands. Includes census, naturalization, passenger arrivals, Canadian border entry, passport applications, customs, draft, military with pension and bounty land, Chinese Exclusion Act case files, Freedmen's Bureau, African American research, Dawes Commission Final Cards of the Five Civilized Tribes, and vital records. Free Internet services include the catalog, America: History &amp; Life, Ancestry, ArchivesUSA, FamilySearch, Fold3, GaleNet's Biography and Genealogy Master Index, ProQuest/UMI Heritage Quest Online, and ProQuest Direct.

Tips

 * Make your initial visit as early in the day as possible.
 * Be able to give: the Federal or presidential connection to your ancestor; agency, or office involved; time period; the kinds of records (textual, maps, photographs, electronic) needed.

Guides

 * Guide to Archival Holdings at NARA's Northeast Region provides record group level descriptions.
 * Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States record group descriptions.
 * Guide to Puerto Rican Records in the National Archives at New York City (pdf). Federal government activity in Puerto Rico spanning 20 record groups and over 1,800 cubic feet.
 * Chinese Immigration and the Chinese in the United States including courts, census, customs, immigration, public health, and the New York Chinese Exclusion Index at Ancestry ($).

Alternate Repositories
If you cannot visit or find a source at the , a similar source may be available at one of the following.

Overlapping Collections


 * New York Public Library Genealogy Division has an outstanding collection of American history at national, state and local levels; international genealogy and heraldry in Roman alphabets; Dorot Jewish collection; photos; New York censuses, directories, and vital records.
 * New York Public Library Branches over 90 in New York City.
 * New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, national in scope. Over 100 million name database, of vital records, genealogies, journals, over 200,000 books, 100,000 microfilms, and over 20 million manuscripts with emphasis on New England and New York since the 1600s.
 * National Archives Northeast Region (Boston) (that is Waltham), censuses, Ancestry.com, military, pensions, bounty land, photos, passenger indexes, naturalizations, African Americans, Indians.
 * Stadsarchief Amsterdam (Amsterdam Municipal Archives) early Dutch notarial records of New York.

Similar Collections


 * Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, holds 450 computers, 3,400 databases, 3.1 million microforms, 4,500 periodicals, 310,000 books of worldwide family and local histories, civil, church, immigration, ethnic, military, and Mormon records.
 * Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, Indiana, premier periodical collection, genealogies, local histories, databases, military, censuses, directories, passenger lists, ethnic collections, and Canadians.
 * Library of Congress, Washington, DC, Local History and Genealogy Reading Room is part of the world's largest library including 50,000 genealogies, 100,000 local histories, manuscripts, microfilms, maps, newspapers, photographs, books, strong in North American, British Isles, and German sources
 * Newberry Library, Chicago, genealogies, local histories, censuses, military, land, indexes, vital records, court, and tax records mostly from the Mississippi Valley, eastern seaboard, Canada, &amp; British Isles.
 * Mid-Continent Public Library Midwest Genealogy Center, Independence, MO, national censuses/indexes, 80,000 family histories, 100,000 local histories, 565,000 microfilms, 7,000 maps, and newspapers.
 * National Archives I, Washington DC, census, pre-WWI military service &amp; pensions, passenger lists, naturalizations, passports, federal bounty land, homesteads, bankruptcy, ethnic sources, prisons.
 * Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, 85,000 volumes about the Jewish Holocaust, largest yizkor book collection.

Neighboring Collections


 * New York State Library, Albany, has local histories, genealogies, atlases, church, cemetery (including DAR), city directories, microfilmed newspapers, censuses, passenger lists, and periodicals.
 * New York State Archives, Albany, has manuscripts, vital record indexes, land grants, maps, military, court, alien depositions, prisoners, Erie Canal passenger lists, wills, estates, and state censuses.
 * New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, New York City has censuses, city directories, church, cemetery, Bible, land, probates, genealogy, local history, and manuscripts.
 * New York Historical Society manuscripts, newspapers, periodicals, histories, directories, maps, photos.
 * Vital Records Section of the New York State Dept. of Health, Menands, NY, for outside New York City births and deaths (1881-present), and marriage licenses (1880-present). Also, all divorces since 1963.
 * Municipal Archives has New York City birth, death, and marriage records; the 1890 police census; city directories; voter registrations; almshouse records; and municipal government records.
 * Courts: city, state, and federal.
 * Columbia University Libraries, history, biography, ethnic studies, newspapers, government documents.
 * Holland Society 7,000 New Netherland family and local history books, Dutch Reformed Church records.
 * Huguenot Historical Society open by appointment: history, settlement, genealogy, biography, theology.
 * YIVO Institute for Jewish Research East European Jewish immigrant studies, gazetteers, yizkor books (Holocaust town memorial books), biographical directories, Landsmanshaft records.
 * Leo Baeck Insitiute preserves family and community histories about Jews in German speaking countries.