New York County

It should be stated at the outset that researchers can find this phase of genealogy most difficult, the researcher with expertise in New York City sources being no exception.

Note. The references listed in the excellent bibliography below are no longer available at the NYG&B Library. They are, however, available at the New York Public Library where our collection is now housed.

A useful work for finding families in New York and in New Jersey before 1900 is Henry Pennington Toler, The New Harlem Register: A genealogy of the descendants of the twenty-three original Patentees of the Town of New Harlem, containing pr

Below is a list of non-secular resources located in New York City for doing genealogical research on Jewish immigrants to the United States.  Several organizations have online catalogs to their collections and some have digital collections of

New York is the only state with two sets of vital records, one for the 57 counties outside of New York City and the other for the five counties/boroughs of the city.

It is as if time stood still in New York City. On any given day between 1939 and 1941 photographers were capturing city buildings on film for the Department of Taxes (now the Department of Finance).

The NYG&B is very fortunate to occasionally receive collections of materials that had theretofore been unknown. One such wonderful collection was donated by James Brush of Mills River, North Carolina.

The Evolution of the Presbyterian Movement in New York

John Wesley founded the Society called "Methodists" in 1729, as a movement within the Church of England. Organized Methodism began in America in 1766, when six persons led by Philip Embury met at his home in New York City.

Over the past 300 years the Episcopal Church has been the spiritual home of numerous New York City families. Its registers form a major resource for genealogists, even more so because many non-Episcopalians also appear in them.