Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Ancestry.com Recently Added New York State Birth Index, 1881-1942

One of the latest (23 July 2018) added record collections on Ancestry.com is the New York State, Birth Index, 1881-1942.  They describe the database as:
This collection consists of indexes of births from the state of New York between the years 1881 and 1942. The State of New York began statewide registration of births in 1881, under the supervision of local boards of health. The collection contains only indexes to records, but the certificate number can be used to order a copy of the original certificate. 
Details vary, but records may include the following information:
  • Name
  • Birth Date
  • Birth Place
  • Gender
  • State Certificate Number

Obtaining Copies of CertificatesCertificates may be purchased from the New York Department of Health website, located here.
I wondered how many "Seaver" entries there were in this collection, so on the collection page I entered "seaver" the surname field:


I clicked on "Search" and saw 198 entries (but some of them seem to be duplicates):


I clicked on the 4th result on the list for George A. Seaver, and saw the record summary:


There is not much information on the record summary, is there more on the actual index record?

Here is the record image for the entry for George A. Seaver:


So there is only a surname, a given name, a birth place, a date, and a certificate number.

The index is by year, then by alphabetical surname, and then alphabetical by given name (although children without a given name are listed first for each surname).

That's not much, but it's more than researchers had without going to Albany and seeing these indexes.   So it is progress.  To see more information about the birth event, the researcher needs to order the birth certificate using the link provided.

I wonder how soon it will be for Ancestry Hints to appear for this database?

I need to mine these records and add source citations for persons in this database to my RootsMagic family tree, and thence to my Ancestry Member Tree using TreeShare, and to the FamilySearch Family Tree using RootsMagic's FamilySearch Person Tool.

Am I related to George A. Seaver?  Yep - he is my 5th cousin 2x removed, born George Archibald Seaver on 5 December 1886 in Bath-on-Hudson, Rensselaer County, New York to Joseph Henry and Frances H. (Bennett) Seaver.

UPDATED:  Thank you to Zio for correction!

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Copyright (c) 2018, Randall J. Seaver

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3 comments:

Zio said...

Randy,

Bath-on-Hudson is not in Steuben County... that is Bath. Your hamlet is in Rensselear County.

Dick said...

Just remember this is the New York State Birth Index, it does NOT include births in New York City (they have their own system). The same, I believe, applies to the cities of Buffalo and Yonkers.

Nancy Hill said...

You know you are getting OLD when NY Birth Index adds a birth Index and it stops on the year you were born! Ygh!!! But wait maybe I can find some of my ancestors there! LOL