New York State Archives

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Contact Information
Email: [mailto:archref@nysed.gov archref@nysed.gov] (Research assistance) Contact list of departments

Address:


 * The New York State Library
 * Cultural Education Center
 * 222 Madison Avenue
 * Empire State Plaza
 * Albany, NY 12230

Telephone: 518-474-8955

Hours and holidays: Hours. Closed on New York State holidays.

Directions, maps, and public transportation: Gives detailed information on Parking, fees, maps, driving directions, public transportation, and where to stay.

Internet sites and databases:


 * New York State Archives Home About us, Images, Audio, Video, Exhibitions, Research, Managing Records, Publications
 * NY State Archives catalog online and in WorldCat.
 * New York State Archives is the premier source. Website on a growing list of links for archival repositories in New York State.
 * Documenting New York, New York State Archives is working to preserve and make accessible to all New Yorkers a comprehensive documentary record of their history.

Collection Description
The New York State Archives has the following types of genealogical materials:


 * Vital records indexes, including the New York State Department of Health microfiche indexes to birth, marriage, and death certificates filed with that Department. which begins with 1880-1881. The index covers the entire state outside New York City.
 * Military Records, from various conflicts, and various branches of the service. They include service, pension, or bounty land warrant case files for persons who served in the U.S. armed forces. Mist colonial war records were destroyed in a 1911 fire but substitutes for some of these records are available. Revolutionary War Military Patents, land grant applications, accounts and claims, disabled veterans pension claims. Also contains records from the War of 1812, The Civil War. the Spanish-American War, the Mexican Border Conflict, World Wars I and II, and some other military files
 * Census records including 1915 and 1925 population schedules (unindexed). Also population censuses for indian reservations.
 * Land records including deeds, mortgages, grants, and patents.
 * Property tax records 1799 to 1804 for various years and selected areas.
 * Court records including trials and appeals prior to 1847, several series of probate records, and some chancery court records
 * Naturalization and related records. The State Archives holds Alien Depositions of Intent to Become U.S. Citizens, 1825-1913 (A1869) and abstracts thereof (A1870). Most naturalization records, however, are in the county courts and the National Archives.

Tips

 * Research Tips

Research Tips is a regular feature that introduces some of the most informative collections in the New York State Archives and guides visitors through their use. Each tip includes a brief description of records pertaining to a particular topic and clear and concise instructions on how to use the records to get information.


 * The New York State Archives provides access to more than 130 million documents that tell the story of New York from the seventeenth century to the present.

Guides

 * List of Guides


 * An essential guide to pre-l847 common-law court records in New York State.

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 at New York City, censuses, Ancestry.com, military, pensions, bounty land, photos, passenger indexes, New York port and shipping, naturalizations, inventions.
 * 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.

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 * 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.
 * Brooklyn Historical Society includes finding aids and collections guides to archives, manuscripts, oral histories, photographs, paintings, oral history database, and maps.
 * 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 Institute preserves family and community histories about Jews in German speaking countries.