Members can take advantage of the extraordinary wealth of genealogical information that has been digitized and entered into our E-Library, found in the Members' Area of this website. These records have been gleaned from our Manuscript Collection and are, almost invariably, unique to the G&B. A sampling of the collection includes:
Church Records:
New York City:
St. Mark's in the Bowery
Christ Episcopal Church
Madison Ave Reformed Church
South Reformed Dutch Church
Canal Street Presbyterian Church
Reformed Dutch Church at Greenwich
First Presbyterian Church of Elmhurst
Outside New York City:
St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church (Berne, Albany Co.)
Canaan Four Corners Congregational Church (Canaan, Columbia Co.)
First Lutheran Church (Albany, Albany Co.)
First Presbyterian Church (Lansingburch, Troy Co.)
First Presbyterian Church (Stamford, Delaware Co.)
First Presbyterian Church (West Galway, Fulton Co.)
First Presbyterian Church (Whitestown, Oneida Co.)
First Reformed Dutch Church (Glen, Montgomery Co.)
Paris Religious Society (Paris, Oneida Co.)
Park Presbyterian Church (Troy, Rensselaer Co.)
First Presbyterian Church (Cooperstown, Otsego Co.)
Presbyterian Church (Harpersfield, Delaware Co.)
Cambridge United Presbyterian Church (Cambridge, Washington Co.)
Reformed Church of Leeds (Leeds, Greene Co.)
Reformed Church, formerly the Reformed Dutch Church in Dyse's Manor (Gilboa, Schoharie Co.)
Reformed Dutch Church (Blenheim, Schoharie Co.)
Reformed Dutch Church in Oak Hill (Durham, Greene Co.)
Reformed Dutch Church of Kinderhook (Kinderhook, Columbia Co.)
Reformed Church of Kiskatom (Catskill, Greene Co.)
Outside New York State
Clove Dutch Reformed Church (Wantage, Sussex Co., NJ)
First Presbyterian Church (Wantage, Sussex Co., NJ)
Reformed Dutch Church (Smithfield, Monroe Co., PA)
Presbyterian Church (Smithfield, Monroe Co., PA)
Cemetery Records
Another extremely valuable section of the E-library contains cemetery records from several dozen burial places large and small. The collection encompasses inscriptions from New York City, Long Island, and no fewer than twenty-one upstate counties.
The NYG&B Record
Members have access to the complete versions of The NYG&B Record from its inception in 1870 through the present, and its predecessor, The Bulletin, which was published in 1869. These periodicals are every-word searchable and contain articles concerning the earliest families in New York. Early issues often provided information on family coats of arms in addition to compiled genealogies. Source materials which were transcribed or abstracted from original New York records may include church registers; tax rolls, censuses, or other lists of inhabitants; muster rolls; newspaper extracts; wills; deeds; or naturalization records are a large part of the entries. Many family records, such as those found in Bibles and diaries can also be found in The Record.
Early American Newspapers
Early American Newspapers, Series 1, which is part of the Readex Digital Collection from Newsbank, Inc., is a collection of 718 newspaper titles from twenty-three states and the District of Columbia. Publication years span 1690 through 1876, with the greatest number of entries from the mid to late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
The collection contains over 1.5 million pages and is every-word searchable.
Although many of the newspapers included are represented by short runs of a few years, or even just an issue or two, others cover several years, although not every issue is necessarily available. The New York Weekly Journal covers a span of sixty years: from 1733 through 1793, although the 674 issues provided indicates that only about 20% of the weekly issues may have survived to be included.
New York has perhaps the largest number of newspaper titles available in the collection, with thirteen published in Albany and eighty from New York City. The New England states also have extensive representation.
If you have not yet investigated whether your ancestors show up in this database you may be very pleasantly surprised at what you uncover.
NYG&B Member Biographies
In the first half of the twentieth century NYG&B members were asked to supply their personal and family information on four-page blanks. All 550 of these "member biographies" will be posted to the E-Library.
This collection is an extraordinarily valuable addition for historians and researchers, especially for those whose family members may have belonged to the Society before World War II.
Several notables, including Sarah Delano Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, and Louise Carnegie, wife of Andrew, were members of the Society during this era and their worksheets are cheek to jowl with those of less illustrious members. This is a fascinating collection whether you find a familial connection or not.
Research Aids
Online access to Research Aids, which includes more than one hundred useful articles on New York genealogical research originally published in the New York Researcher, as well as bibliographies and research tips, is available exclusively to members of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society.
Copyright © by The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society All Rights Reserved.
