Obtaining vital record information in upstate New York is difficult. There is
no kinder way to state it. You will not find them published in books to be found
on shelves of public libraries and they are not available on the Internet. Using
form DOH-1562 one may submit a request to the vital records section of New York
State Department of Health (Corning Tower Bldg/ESP, Albany, N.Y. 12237-0023, Ph:
[518] 474-3077) for an uncertified copy of a birth, marriage, or death record.
You can download this form from their website. If an exact date for the event is not known, a search
may be performed, but the researcher could pay dearly for this service. The
minimum fee of $11 covers a search of one to three years. The maximum fee listed
is $81 to search sixty-one to seventy years. The fee is retained whether or not
the record is found. In Albany, a single person processes all requests for
certificates. I am told that this person is currently about two years behind.
Until recently, the index to the vital records of upstate New York was only
available at the New York State Archives in Albany and the National Archives
Northeast Region in New York City. However, the job just got easier. A third
copy of the index became available to the public in October 2000 at the main
public library in Rochester, N.Y. While the information remains the same, the
setting is much different. The index in Rochester is administered by friendly
people dedicated to helping genealogists.
The index, which consists of thousands of microfiche, contains entries of
births, marriages, and deaths for the entire state outside New York City or
Brooklyn. It includes information from towns in Kings County before annexation
by Brooklyn, and also portions of the counties of Westchester, Richmond, and
Queens before they were annexed by New York City. It does not include births and
deaths in Albany, Buffalo, and Yonkers before 1914 or marriages before 1908.
These earlier records may be available through the local registrar of each
county. While adopted babies are not included in the birth index, there is
information about babies born in state facilities. New York State Archives
information leaflet #2 contains more complete information. Statewide
registration of vital records began in 1880-81. Marriage and death records are
restricted after 1950; birth records after 1925. These restrictions can be
waived for direct descendents, but the index entries are not available after
these dates. Data on living persons is restricted regardless.
The index is arranged by year. Within each year entries are arranged by
surname or, in later years, by Soundex code. Each index entry contains name,
date, place, and certificate number (an identifier assigned by the State
Department of Health). For example, the first entry in the index of birth
records reads:
1881, Abbott, Georgianna, 22 Sept., Unionville, #4045
This serves as an official statement by the State of New York that this event
took place. Finding the entry in the index assures the researcher that the
certificate exists, decreasing the probability of a "false negative." Searching
for a record that is not found costs just as much as a copy of the certificate.
The information available for marriages varies with the time frame, as the
following example shows. The first marriage entry listed for the year 1881 is
for Julia D. Abbey. The entry contains the date and place, but no information
about the groom. Without the groom's surname, there is no way to move from here
to a death record, or the birth records of children. Clearly the information on
the original certificate is required. There is an alternative to waiting for two
years for a reply from Albany, however. Help comes in the form of a
gazetteer/directory combination. This index entry lists Arkwright as the
location where Julia Abbey's marriage was recorded. The gazetteer places
Arkwright in Chautauqua County. The directory gives the address and phone number
of the current Registrar of Vital Statistics in the town of Arkwright. It is
likely that this person will be able to process a request significantly faster
than that poor, overworked soul in Albany.
Later marriage records can yield more information,
since there is a link to the spouse. These records also use the Soundex system,
so the research methodology is slightly different. My example is the last
marriage record publicly available - the last entry under "Z" in 1951. The entry
reads:
624, Zerkle, Joan M., Buffalo, Stee, 6 30, 24778
The three-digit number represents the Soundex code for the surname Zerkle
(6-R, 2-K, 4-L). The location, Buffalo, is where the license was issued, but not
necessarily where the marriage was performed. The next entry, Stee, is the first
four letters of the spouse's surname, and following that is the month and day on
which the marriage occurred. The final entry is the certificate number. With
this information it is possible to find the groom. The first four letters give a
partial Soundex number of S3xx, but we do not know what other consonants might
be in the full surname. The index is arranged by year, and then by Soundex code,
so we start with the S300 entries for 1951 and search for "Zerk" in the spouse
column. The image quality is good; the information is typewritten. This is not
difficult. Here he is on the second fiche I try.
"340, Steele, Richard E,
Buffalo, Zerk, 6 30, 24778"
Place, date and, most importantly, certificate number match. Joan Zerkle
became Mrs. Richard Steele.