Excellent news for New York researchers with Catholic ancestors: New York Roman Catholic Archdiocese indexes are online on Findmypast. This never-before-available collection includes baptism records, marriage records, and congregational records from more than 400 parishes across the Archdiocese of New York.
Refer to Findmypast's list of New York Catholic Records for details on each parish and a note on which collections are new.
New York Roman Catholic Baptisms
Parishes covered: 440—click here to see the full list
Years covered: 1787–1920
Counties covered: Bronx County, Dutchess County, New York County (Manhattan), Orange County, Putnam County, Richmond County (Staten Island), Rockland County, Sullivan County, Ulster County, and Westchester County
Each transcript contains the following information:
- First name(s)
- Last name
- Birth year
- Birth date
- Birthplace
- Baptism year
- Baptism date
- Baptism location
- Father’s first name(s)
- Father’s last name
- Mother’s first name(s)
- Mother’s last name
- Language
- Parish
- County
- Archdiocese
- State
- Country
Researchers should note that baptisms often contain information on other religious life events, including events that happened after the baptism—this is because Priests would often communicate and retroactively update baptism registers to reflect further sacraments.
New York Roman Catholic Marriages
Parishes covered: 440—click here to see the full list.
Years covered: 1802–1920
Counties covered: Bronx County, Dutchess County, New York County, (Manhattan), Orange County, Putnam County, Richmond County (Staten Island), Rockland County, Sullivan County, Ulster County, and Westchester County.
Each transcript contains the following information:
- First name(s)
- Last name
- Birth year
- Age
- Denomination
- Occupation
- Residence
- Marriage date
- Marriage place
- Spouse’s first name(s)
- Spouse’s last name
- Spouse’s birth year
- Spouse’s age
- Spouse’s denomination
- Spouse’s occupation
- Spouse’s residence
- Father’s name
- Mother’s name
- Spouse’s father’s name
- Spouse’s mother’s name
- Language
- County
- Archdiocese
- State
More About the Project
A Breakthrough for New Yorkers with Catholic Roots
Many New Yorkers have Catholic ancestors. Despite substantial discrimination in the early history of the state, New York’s Catholic population began to explode in the mid-1800s, due largely to Irish, and later Italian immigrants.
These indexes are valuable due to the challenging landscape of civil birth, marriage, and death records in New York State.
New York vital records are not organized in a single system—depending on the time and place of an ancestor’s life event, researchers will need to look in different repositories maintained by different organizations.
Furthermore, many municipalities in the state did not fully comply with New York’s record-keeping laws, so in many cases, birth, marriage, or death records will not exist. This makes religious records crucial vital record substitutes.
Areas covered by the Archdiocese of New York
Original image via Wikimedia Commons.
The Archdiocese of New York does not cover the entire State of New York. As you can see from the image on the right (counties covered are in blue), only a portion of the state’s 62 counties is covered by this Archdiocese. Counties covered include:
- New York County (Manhattan)
- Bronx County
- Richmond County (Staten Island)
- Westchester County
- Rockland County
- Putnam County
- Orange County
- Dutchess County
- Ulster County
- Sullivan County
There are a few projects to bring online records from other Dioceses in New York, but the Catholic Heritage Archive on Findmypast only holds indexes for the above counties at this present moment.
Other Catholic records on Findmypast: US and Ireland
While members of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society likely have an interest in the Catholic records of the Empire State, researchers with family elsewhere should also examine the Catholic Heritage Archive as a whole—there are many Catholic collections from elsewhere in America, including Philadelphia and Baltimore, with records from Chicago, Cincinnati, Wilmington and Toledo on the way. Remember, members of the NYG&B have free access to all North American records on Findmypast.
For those with Irish heritage who are interested in tracing their heritage back across the Atlantic, Findmypast also has an extensive collection of Irish Catholic records, which serve as crucial supplements for the many missing records of Ireland. These Irish Catholic records are completely free to search and access—enjoy!