New York

VITAL RECORDS

NYC Historical Vital Records Project - Download images of actual vital records, Status of Digitization

Italian Genealogical Group - Indexes to NYC birth, groom, bride, death and criminal records.

German Genealogy Group - Indexes to NYC birth, groom, bride, death, naturalization, criminal and tax records.

BIRTH

MARRIAGE

DEATH

DIVORCE

NY divorce records are sealed for 100 years.  If you find they were in NYC and you want to search the records there, you can contact Joseph Van Nostrand at cjvannost@nycourts.gov of the NYC courts' old records department to see if he has something from New York County.  I believe he can confirm up to 1940. 

PROPERTY RESEARCH

PROBATE RECORDS

New York Probate  Choose County. Go to General Card Index.

Kings County Probate

Kings County Surrogate Court 2 Johnson St. Brooklyn, NY 11201 Phone: 347-404-9700 Hours: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Researcher: Allan Jordan  Aejordan@aol.com

Someone already pointed out that the older probate records for Brooklyn are scanned and on the FamilySearch.org site.  Newer records from the 1920s on

(plus the older ones) are all stored in the basement at the Brooklyn Court House.  (2 Johnson St. Brooklyn, NY 11201).  Only the fairly recent records are scanned and on the computers at the Court House. I do this research going to the court house for people.  You have to get the file number from the index and then fill out a request slip and in about 30 minutes or so they will bring the file to a desk where you can go through it. You are free to read it and take notes. (The last time I went the clerks were out sick so there was no one to do the retrievals that day .... so you might want to call before you go.) They have two rickety photocopies (one was broken the last time I was there) in the room in Brooklyn and they are often monopolized by the professional researchers and lawyers who are doing work there.  They are coin operated and last time the dollar bill reader was not working.  I had my iPad along and I asked the clerk and they had no objection to me taking pictures of the documents.  (I assume you could do it with any cell phone camera too --- but you **cannot** take a camera digital or otherwise into the court house. Go figure but that is how security works.) At the court house (I will be showing examples in my presentation in Boston) there is a card index to all the files both probate and administration. It helps if you know the year the person died (especially if it is a

common name) because the index mostly just has names and dates. Only a few cards have addresses and that's all you get to identify the person in the index.  Some records are on the computers as well but that is only newer material.

YIVO

Yivo-Vilna Document Folder

The Vilna Collection

Items associated with Rohatyn in The Vilna Collection

Over 1.3 million documents and books are already available for search online https://vilnacollections.yivo.org/ through the Vilna Collections web portal. This major project is one of combined effort between the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the Lithuanian Central State Archives LCVA, the Martynas Mazvydas National Library of Lithuania, and the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Science. The past, once through to have been lost to the world of scholars and learned, is now becoming alive and enabling us to access it. The article, A Trove of Yiddish Artifacts, detailing the chilling past of protecting and discovering this rich collection appeared in the New York Times in January 2018 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/18/arts/a-trove-of-yiddish-artifacts-rescued-from-the-nazis-and-oblivion.html?_r=0.

Remote Reference Sessions 

In April 2021, after a long year-plus with little to no outside access to the YIVO Archives, we launched a new pilot program. With the building closed to the public for the foreseeable future, we wanted to find a way to allow patrons to access materials remotely. Enter remote reference sessions.

Researchers can book appointments to meet with a YIVO archivist to view materials and discuss their needs. This way, no matter where you are in the world, you can have access to our collections.

The Sessions

We offer a few types of remote reference sessions. The most popular are document sessions, where researchers request materials. We use an overhead document camera to share archival materials and photograph whatever the researcher desires. These synchronous sessions allow us to discuss the patron’s needs in-depth, and allows the patron to ensure that the materials at hand are suitable for their needs. We can also explore different avenues together in real time, which is a much quicker and more productive process than doing so by email. All of these benefits are difficult to replicate by simply fulfilling digitization requests.  After each session, we share a PDF of the photographs taken, any other materials that came up during the session, and a recording of the session, if the researcher opts to have one.

Types of Materials

About half of patrons are conducting family history research, so landsmanshaftn collections and yizkor book requests are common. Some are academics and PhD candidates doing research on anything from the history of the Yiddish PEN Club to Jewish herbalism to Holocaust photography to the fabulous hats of the Jewish literati of the Bronx. Some are artists, teachers, and writers using archival research to share history through various projects.

Book a session.


https://sites.google.com/site/rohatynshtetl/home/research/united-states-archives/new-york

Medical Examiner Records

For 1945 -

NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner

520 First Avenue, 

New York, NY (10016)

212-447-2030

New York Public Library

http://catalog.nypl.org/

1.  Photograph of Jewish Cemetery, Rohatyn  Acquired

    http://catalog.nypl.org/record=b15830207~S1

2. Zikhron Zemer: Songs and Melodies of Rohatyn  Acquired

    http://catalog.nypl.org/record=b13295592~S1

Center for Jewish History in New York

http://www.cjh.org/  Click on any database within the 'Search the Collections' and search on 'Rohatyn'

including YIVO:

1. Rohatyner Young Men's Society (constitution, minutes, memorial book, photograph on RG 1016)

2. Independent Rohatyner Young Men's Benevolent Society (minutes, announcements, program in RG 1082)

3. Rohatyn Yizkor Book (call # 0000065794)

4. Announcement of Maariv Service by L Fajerman on 12/8/1937 (RG 28/P/786)

5. Zikhron Zemer (songs and melodies on call # 000120902)

including the Leo Blaek Institute:

1. Berta Freud Collection (microfilm MF708)

    Berta Freud nee Scheiner was born in Rohatyn in 1913.

including the New York Court Records (collection I-154):

1. Independent Rohatyner Sick and Benevolent Society (incorporation papers on microfilm 18 document number 1157)

2. The First United Rohatyner and Sokolover Society (incorporation papers on microfilm 19 document number 449)