Your ancestors may be hiding . . . did you know that not all records on FamilySearch are indexed and therefore will not appear when you search for a name?
Recently FamilySearch has created an easier way to find non-indexed records by location.
Here are instructions on how to get to the New York page:
Go to familysearch.org and click on “Search.” Directly below the main menu is their updated section “Research by Location.” Click on the United States in the map. Then, in the pop-up menu, scroll to click on New York. You’ll see that New York has 125 collections, covering the years 1500-2014, 294+ million indexed records and 143+ Record Images (non-indexed).
Here is a the direct link to the New York page: https://familysearch.org/search/collection/location/22?region=United+States+of+America&englishRegion=United+States+of+America
Once you click on New York page, you’ll see that the page is broken into two sections, “New York Indexed Historical Records” and “New York Image Only Historical Records.”
It is important to note that only the first section, “New York Indexed Historical Records,” is indexed. Therefore, you will only be able to search for your ancestors by name in this section.
The second section, “New York Image Only Historical Records,” contains collections that have NOT been indexed yet. Your ancestors could very well be in those records, you’ll just have to dig a little deeper and spend more time browsing the images.
Good luck with your research and happy hunting!