New York Bible Records

Online Records

 * New York State Library
 * New York Public Library
 * Ancestors at Rest
 * New York Genealogical and Biographical Society*The Family Bible Index - with over 200,000 entries
 * The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) has an index of over 40,000 digitized family Bible records and each day more records are digitized and added to the Index.
 * 10,000 New York, Family Bible Records, 1581-1917 ($)
 * Free Family Bible Index with over 200,000 entries.

Family Bible records often give birth, marriage, and death information for several generations. The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) has collected many volumes of Bible records for New York families. This collection, known as Bible, Family and Miscellaneous Records from New York State, consists of over 230 volumes compiled from 1924 to the present. These are located at the New York State Library, the New York Public Library, and at the DAR Library in Washington, D.C. Most individual volumes of Bible records are indexed. The Family History Library has Bible records volumes 1–143, 158, 163, and 189–210 on microfilm and microfiche (on 33 FHL films; fiche ).

Start with the free Index to Early Bible Records (pre-1830; 17,000 entries).

Copies, or abstracts of old family Bibles that are no longer known to exist, may survive in Revolutionary War Pension application files at NARA, Washington, D.C., which are available online at three commercial websites: Ancestry, fold3, and Heritage Quest Online.


 * 1581–1917 New York, Family Bible Records at Ancestry– ($); Index. Database is a collection of genealogically important records taken from the Bibles of colony and state residents. Reveals the Bible's original owner, brief record of descendants,and a particular event such as birth or marriage as recorded in Bible.

Some additional records are listed in the FamilySearch Catalog Place Search under:

NEW YORK, [COUNTY] - BIBLE RECORDS

NEW YORK, [COUNTY], [TOWN] - BIBLE RECORDS

There are also some partial indexes, such as:


 * Whitacre, Constance M. Master Index New York State DAR Genealogical Records. See New York Genealogy.


 * New York State Library. Surname Card Index. Albany, New York: New York State Library, 1979. . This work is primarily an index to genealogies the state library acquired before 1980. References to the DAR collection say "DAR Bible" and give volume and page numbers.


 * Kirkham, E. Kay. An Index to Some of the Bibles and Family Records of the United States. Volume 2. Logan, Utah: The Everton Publishers, Incorporated, 1984..


 * Robison, Jeannie Floyd Jones and Henrietta C. Bartlett. Genealogical Records: Manuscript Entries of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Taken from Family Bibles, 1581–1917. New York, New York: Colonial Dames of the State of New York, 1917. . Available online through the FamilySearch Catalog link.

New York Bible Records
A Bible was often given by relatives to a bride as a wedding gift, where she recorded information about her immediate family and close relatives. Relationships were seldom stated but were often implied. Names of parents, children, and their spouses, including maiden names, were frequently given along with dates of birth, marriage, and death. Sometimes the age of a person was given at the time of death. Many families kept Bible records from the 1700s (and sometimes earlier) to more recent times, although few have survived. Some have been donated to local libraries or societies.