The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record

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Twenty-first century genealogists have research tools and opportunities that their nineteenth-century counterparts would find astonishing.

Yet The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, published continually since 1870, remains a constant in this changing world.

covers of The Record

The second-oldest genealogical journal in the United States, The Record has as its goal the scholarly preservation of the history of families who have contributed to the rich diversity of what is now New York State.

Here you will find accounts of New York documented at the level of the individual, and find that history is not only shaped by its prominent citizens, but by all of its residents, rich and poor alike.

The New York State Family History Research Guide and Gazetteer offers an excellent summary of The Record and its use for genealogists: 

"In 1870 the NYG&B began publishing its quarterly, The NYG&B Record, the second-oldest continuously published genealogical journal in the English language.

In its thousands of pages are genealogies of New York families and transcripts and abstracts of New York records, the largest collection of reliable New York family history under one title. 

The Record participated in the development of scholarly genealogy, and today it is one of the few peer-reviewed American scholarly journals in the field, a magnet attracting the best and brightest researchers and writers.

Anyone who fails to include The Record in their research, especially when working on New York families before 1900, risks missing unique and crucial information, and thus repeating old errors or creating new ones.

Even when a family is not found in The Record, reviewing its articles will help in understanding how scholarly genealogy should be written, and how New York sources can be used."

Sample page from an issue of The Record

The Mission of The Record

Adhering to scholarly standards, The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record publishes written works that solve genealogical problems, provide compiled genealogies, make available transcriptions of original records, and offer research guidance relevant to families who have contributed to the rich diversity of what is now New York State.

With its long history of scholarly publication, The Record is an essential New York source for genealogists, historians, and biographers, as well as individuals researching their New York families. It is published four times a year, in January, April, July, and October, and is a benefit of membership in the NYG&B; subscriptions to The Record are also available. NYG&B members also have online access to the complete run of The Record.

Every issue of The Record contains articles that preserve the history of the families and individuals who settled in New York. Those articles can include:

  • Solutions to difficult problems, such as identifying a spouse, parents, or another place of residence, with the associated genealogical summary.
  • Compiled genealogies of families beginning with an immigrant (in any time period) and covering the initial generations in America.
  • Compiled genealogies beginning with a later American generation, especially those that illustrate use of unusual sources.
  • Documentation of the origins of New York families in foreign countries or other colonies or states, with the associated genealogical summary.
  • Corrections or additions to a prior article in The Record.
  • Transcriptions or abstracts of genealogically and/or historically relevant records.

The NYG&B Record is one of a handful of highly respected peer-reviewed genealogical publications in the country.

Serious genealogists study its pages to learn about families, sources, history, and genealogical problem-solving techniques. Whether or not the subject of an article is of direct interest in one’s own research, readers can improve their own genealogical knowledge and skills by studying its contents.

Read the Most Recent Issue

The most recent issues are available for members to read online, and the full archive of The Record is available to search and browse on our website.

Read the latest issue

Searching and Accessing Past Issues of The Record

As such a crucial resource for New York family history, our society has ensured that The Record is more accessible to researchers than ever.

There are numerous ways to use The Record—read our article 5 Ways to Use The NYG&B Record Online Archive to make sure you're getting the most from this deep resource. 

Thinking of Writing for The Record?

Writing for a peer-reviewed publication such as The Record is a learning experience valued by many researchers, since their submissions will receive input from experts in the field.

Not every article is accepted for publication, but those that are turned down are returned with suggestions for improvement. Authors who write for publications like The Record are eager to have their work critiqued and improved by their peers. Those articles accepted for publication will undergo several rounds of editing and vetting.

If you believe you might be ready to submit a manuscript for consideration, study recent issues of The Record to become familiar with the articles or pieces generally published. Submissions should focus on residents of New York State and its colonial predecessors, or can deal with adjacent areas or countries of origin if there is significant migration to or from New York State.

We seek unique manuscripts—studying families of any ethnic, religious, or social group in any time period—that have not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere.

For more information, please thoroughly review our Writing for The Record page, or contact editor@nygbs.org.