Focusing on genealogy research with emphasis on New York State
In a recent announcement ProQuest and Ancestry.com have announced that after December 31, 2021 they will no longer offer remote access to library patrons for Ancestry.com Library Edition.
So be sure to take advantage of the remote access capability now until the end of the year. After December 31, the remote access link will be removed from the library website.
After that time you will need to come to the library to access Ancestry.com Library Edition on the library computers.
Some good news for local genealogists — Ancestry.com is providing free remote access now through the end of June to anyone with library cards in Nassau and Suffolk counties.
Just go to your home library website, go to the database section and look if your library subscribes to Ancestry.com.
As previously mentioned in another post, Ancestry.com is also providing free remote access to anyone who has a New York Public Library card.
For anyone outside of the Long Island, New York City area, check with your local library to see if you can use your library card for free access to Ancestry.com.
The German Genealogy Group (GGG) has recently added new records to its website.
The latest addition is New York Eastern District Naturalizations, 1988-1990. This collection adds 93,725 records to the GGG website.
To get started searching, go to: www.germangenealogygroup.com and click on Naturalizations on the left side of the page.
Ancestry.com and The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration are providing FREE access to search nearly 500 million records and images on Ancestry starting today.
You will need to set up a free username and password to access the records.
This includes nearly 300 different collections, including ship passenger and crew lists, naturalization and citizenship records, immigration records, and key military collections such as WWI and WWII draft cards. Some other collections include:
In addition, for those new to Ancestry.com, several videos are also available on Ancestry Academy™, a free program offering online courses to help families get started on their family tree building.
A library of educational videos can be found at: www.ancestry.com/academy.
The New York Public Library system is temporarily closed through at least Tuesday, March 31 due to COVID-19. However, to help serve its patrons, some of its database vendors are allowing the library system to offer home access to some of its normally on-site only databases.
Of interest to genealogists, the following databases can now be accessed from home using a NYPL library card:
*Ancestry.com Library Edition
*Newspapers.com
*JSTOR
*America’s Historical Newspapers
*Wall Street Journal, 1889-present
*New York Times, 1851-2016
To access these databases you will need your NYPL library card number and PIN. After the library system re-opens, these will not longer be available from home.
To start searching, go to: https://www.nypl.org/collections/articles-databases and type in the name of the database. You will be prompted for your card number and PIN.
A new New York State database set was recently added to Ancestry.com
The record set, “New York State, Address Notification and Absentee Ballot Application Cards, 1944,” contains notices received in 1944 by the War Ballot Commission from individuals of the Armed Forces, American Red Cross and other service organizations serving in World War II who resided in New York. These individuals were requesting absentee ballots or notifying the office of a change of address.
The two main forms in the collection are pre-printed applications for war ballots or postcards with change of address information.
This information was provided to Ancestry.com by the New York State Archives. If you live in New York State, you do not need a subscription to Ancestry.com to view this collection. To access this collection, go to: http://www.archives.nysed.gov/research/how-to-video-ancestry
The Federation of Genealogical Societies and the National Park Service’s Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park have collaborated on creating the U.S.-Mexican War Solider and Sailor database.
This searchable database has information on over 88,000 U.S. and Mexican veterans. Records include personal details such as hair color and occupation. Volunteers from the Federation of Genealogical Societies provided volunteers to input the data.
Individuals who participated in the war came from many countries and states.
To start searching the database, go to: https://www.nps.gov/paal/learn/historyculture/search-usmexwar.htm#sort=Title%20asc
The New York State Genealogical Research Death Index had been updated and now includes deaths up to Dec. 31, 1969.
The index starts at 1957. However, the index does not includes deaths for the five boroughs of New York City.
The index provides the date of death, gender, age at death, New York State file number and residence code.
In order to interpret the residence code number, you must go to the far right of the page and click on the red tab that says About. Scroll down to attachments and open either the third attachment for Out of State codes or the fourth attachment for New York State Gazetteer.
To search the index, go to: https://health.data.ny.gov/Health/Genealogical-Research-Death-Index-Beginning-1957/vafa-pf2s/data
The free genealogy website, Olive Tree Genealogy, recently added information on New Netherland baptism records in Orange County, New York.
This database collection includes baptisms from the Reformed Church at Machackeneck (Deerpark) in Orange County, New York. The records begin in 1716 and end at 1760. In the future, as more transcribing is completed, the records will end at 1827. Information includes the child’s name, parents names and witnesses.
Users of this collection may be interested in the database Machackemeck Gravestone Inscriptions for Orange County, New York also available on this website.
To search the baptism collection, go to: https://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/nn/church/machackemeck-deerpark.shtml
The not-for-profit organization Reclaim the Records recently announced that the New York City geographic birth index is available for searching on archive.org and FamilySearch.org.
This index covers the five boroughs of New York City from approximately 1880-1912. The index for each borough is arranged alphabetically by the exact street address. Directional markers are considered to be part of the street name so East Broadway would be found with other streets beginning with E.
The database contains index cards which have the street address at the top of the card and then the child’s name, child’s date of birth and birth certificate number.
Included in these records are hospitals, workhouses, prisons and even the Ellis Island hospital.
To get started searching using archive.org, in the search box put “New York City geographical birth index.”
To get started searching, on FamilySearch, go to: Geographical Birth Index
