Wednesday, November 7, 2012

FamilySearch has New York Marriages, 1908-1935

FamilySearch.org keeps adding new record collections - they are up to 1,312 collections as of today.  One of the record collections added (or last updated, I don't know which) on 31 October 2012 is the New York Marriages, 1908-1935.

The collection description says:

"Name index and images of New York county marriage records. New York state began requiring marriage records for each county in 1908. The collection includes the following counties: Allegany, Broome, Cattaraugus, Cayuga, Chautauqua, Chemung, Chenango, Clinton, Columbia, Delaware, Essex, Fulton, Genesee, Greene, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lewis, Livingston, Madison, Monroe, Montgomery, Nassau, Niagara, Oneida, Ontario, Orange, Orleans, Oswego, Otsego, Putnam, Rockland, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schuyler, Seneca, St. Lawrence, Steuben, Sullivan, Tioga, Tompkins, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Westchester, Wyoming, and Yates. The collection does not include New York City nor its boroughs. Currently this collection is 41% complete. Additional records by county will be added as they are completed."

While I don't have any ancestors in this time period, I will mine it for information about Seaver, Vaux, Carringer and Auble families in my database.  I went looking for Seaver entriesto determine what information might be available in these records:

1)  Here is the record collections page for New York Marriages, 1908-1935:


I entered "seaver" in the Last Name field, and checked the "exact" box.

2)  After clicking on the aqua-colored "Search" button above, the list of matches appeared:


If I wanted to, I could narrow my search for a specific first name, or for a birth year range, or a marriage year range or location, etc. by using the search fields in the left-hand sidebar.

3)  I clicked on the first name on the list (for Charles H. Seaver) and saw:


The record summary provides the indexed information - name, event type, event date, event place (state only), age, estimated birth year, father's name, mother's name, spouse's name, spouse's age, spouse's birth year, spouse's father, spouse's mother, reference number, film number, digital folder number, and image number.

4)  I clicked on the "View image" link in order to see the actual record:


In this instance, the marriage information is on a page with five records, and on an image with 10 records.  The County is not on this particular marriage record (I think it is Cattaraugus County).  The information for the groom and bride includes name, color, residence, age, occupation, birthplace, father's name, father's birthplace, mother's name, mother's birthplace, consent by, date of license, date of marriage, place of marriage, official's name, profession, and witness(es).

5)  Thinking that different counties, or different years, might have more information, or a different form, I clicked on the third name on the list in the second image above.


The record above is also from Chautauqua County, New York, in 1921, and has two records per page, and four records per image.  There is more information in this record, in sections for Marriage License, Marriage Certificate, Affidavit for License to Marry, and Certificate of Consent.

The form used, and the information thereon, may vary for year and county.

The value of these records for someone like me "mining" the records for information are the names of the bride and groom, their ages, the  marriage date and place, and the names of the parents.

So I can enrich my database by going through these 113 records one at a time adding content and source citations.

If you have ancestors or relatives marrying in New York between 1908 and 1935, this may be a very useful collection.  Of course, the collection is only 41% complete...so you may have to revisit it after more information is added.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/11/familysearch-has-new-york-marriages.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

No comments: