Kalyn Loewer, Manager of Digital Collections, walks participants through two of the NYG&B’s online collections: New York State Birth Indexes and New York City Birth Indexes. This session is part of the NYG&B’s online series, Collection Close-Ups, in which Kalyn will explore one of our many online collections, explaining what you can find and how you can search.
The New York City Birth Index contains text searchable images of the official City birth index produced by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOH). Organized by year, names are arranged alphabetically by the first letter of the last name. The index represents births reported in all five boroughs of New York City (Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island) from 1911 to 1918. Names, dates of birth, and certificate numbers can be found in the index, which can then be used to request birth certificates from the DOH.
The New York State Birth Index contains images of the official State birth index produced by the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH). Organized by year, names are arranged alphabetically by the first letter of the last name. The digitized images can be browsed, but cannot currently be searched. The images contain names, place and date of birth, and the certificate number, which can then be used to request the original birth certificate from the NYSDOH. The collection includes indexes from 1881 through 1942.