Find your ancestors in millions of online records you can't find anywhere else.
Since 1869, the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society has been preserving historical records that are useful to family history researchers investigating people from New York State.
Much of this material is now available to search and view on the web, and we're adding new online records all the time.
Explore All Online Collections
Below you will find a complete list of each online collection. Click the title of each collection to view a full description and search the collection individually.
| Collection Title | Collection Category |
Location |
Collection Type | More Info |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long Island Cemetery Records | Cemetery | Image Browse | View description | |
| Transcribed gravestone inscriptions from cemeteries on Long Island, in both Nassau and Suffolk counties. Researchers can browse digital images of these records, but they cannot currently be searched. The collection page contains a complete list of all cemeteries available, including waypoint links to view images from each cemetery. Read More | ||||
| Albany County Cemetery Records | Cemetery | Albany County | Image Browse | View description |
| This collection contains transcribed gravestone inscriptions from cemeteries in Albany County, New York. Researchers can browse digital images of these records, but they cannot currently be searched. The collection page contains a complete list of all cemeteries available, including waypoint links to the records of each cemetery. Read More | ||||
| Albany County Religious Records | Religious Records | Albany County | Text & Images | View description |
| Transcribed genealogy records from churches in Albany County, New York. Most volumes are searchable, but two are image browse only. The collection page contains a complete list of all churches available, including waypoint links to view images from each church. Read More | ||||
| The Capital (Periodical) | Periodicals | Albany County | OCR | View description |
| The Capital, a quarterly periodical created and edited by Arthur C.M. Kelly, founder of Kinship Books, includes rare and essential record extracts and transcriptions from Albany and Rensselaer counties. Individual issues cover a wide range of materials documenting families who lived in (and around) Albany and Rensselaer counties in the 1700s and 1800s. Read More | ||||
| New York State Estate Inventory Abstracts, 1666 - 1825 | Wills & Probate | All NY Counties | Text | View description |
| The documents compiled in this collection consist of “petitions, letters of renunciation, bills and receipts” regarding the estates of the deceased. NYG&B Fellows Kenneth Scott and James A. Owre compiled and transcribed Genealogical Data From Inventories of New York Estates, 1666-1825 in 1970. Read More | ||||
| Force/Vorce Surname Given Name Index | Index | All NY Counties | Text & Images | View description |
| This collection—digitized by NYG&B volunteers—compiles typewritten index cards with the given names of Force/Vorce children. Read More | ||||
| Bible Records from the American Bible Society | Religious Records | All NY Counties | Indexed | View description |
| Beginning in 1987, the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society (NYG&B) and the American Bible Society undertook to make the family records documented in these Bibles accessible to researchers. NYG&B volunteers examined the ABS collection and identified 632 Bibles that contained records of interest. Read More | ||||
| New York Times Obituaries Index | Death | All NY Counties | Text | View description |
| A complete index to obituaries published in The New York Times between 1858 and 1968. Researchers may use the information found in this index to locate the full obituary in The New York Times archives. Read More | ||||
| NYG&B Family Files | Compiled Genealogies | All NY Counties | Text & Images | View description |
| This collection includes compiled genealogies that have been donated to the NYG&B by members and other researchers. Most of these volumes are text searchable, and some include family trees along with correspondence between researchers and families. Read More | ||||
| WPA Historical Records Survey - New York State Research Volumes | Research Aids | All NY Counties | Image Browse | View description |
| The Historical Records Survey Project was an ambitious attempt at hiring unemployed clergy members, researchers, historians, teachers and lawyers. This helped assemble historical records that were intrinsic to government and vital records from churches. Part of this initiative, was creating inventories of ecclesiastical records of every church in every state. Read More | ||||
| Female Descendants of William Brewster - Compiled Genealogies | Compiled Genealogies | All NY Counties | Image Browse | View description |
| Handwritten research notes on female descendants of William Brewster. In 1908, Emma C. Brewster wrote an authoritative genealogy of the descendants of Elder William Brewster of the Mayflower and Plymouth Colony. Due to practical constraints at the time, she included mainly male lines in her published work. Jones donated her unpublished, handwritten research notes on these female lines to the NYG&B in the early twentieth century. Read More | ||||
| Shipwrecked Passengers Bound for the Americas, 1817 - 1875 | Immigration | All NY Counties | Text | View description |
| This collection was researched and transcribed by NYG&B Fellow Frank A. Biebel in 2013. He states that the Act of 1819 "made no provision for the inevitable shipwreck(s), including survivors.” This lead to there being “no comprehensive list” of the names of the victims of the shipwrecks, leaving most of them unknown. Read More | ||||
| NYG&B Member Biographies | Biographies | All NY Counties | Indexed | View description |
| Biographical surveys filled out by NYG&B members in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This collection includes a searchable every-name index that covers all names mentioned in the responses, not just the names of NYG&B members. Read More | ||||
| Veterans Buried in New York (Nationwide Gravesite Locator) | Death | All NY Counties | Indexed | View description |
| The Nationwide Gravesite Locator is a database that allows researchers to find the gravesite of military veterans and their families. This collection includes all entries in the NGL database for veterans buried in New York State. Read More | ||||
| NYG&B Record | Periodicals | All NY Counties | Indexed | View description |
| An archive of every issue of The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record - a scholarly journal dedicated to preserving New York State history and genealogy. Search this collection by an every-name index to The Record, and find rare record transcriptions, compiled genealogies, case studies, and more. The Record is an essential resource for anyone researching New York State families. Read More | ||||