New York County Guide

New York County (Manhattan) is an island located at the mouth of the Hudson River in New York Harbor. It is one of the five boroughs of the City of New York. The total area is 22.96 square miles.​

County Formed: 1683

Borough Formed: 1898

Parent County: Original County

Daughter Counties: Bronx 1914

New York (Manhattan) County Ma
Map of New York County

Contents

 

 

History 

Before European contact, New York County (Manhattan) was settled by the Algonquian people. In 1624, the Dutch founded the settlement of New Amsterdam in lower Manhattan. Many settlers of New Amsterdam were fur traders; however the Dutch also established farms and orchards in the settlement. In 1664, the English took control of New Amsterdam, renaming the area New York. In 1683, New York County was officially founded. During the American Revolution, Manhattan was captured by British forces and the city was left in ruins. By 1830, New York City was the largest port city in America.

Throughout the 19th century, waves of immigrants arrived in New York and provided cheap labor for Manhattan’s booming industrial economy. In the 20th century, the city continued to expand. New immigrants arrived to New York, Manhattan’s skyline grew taller, and the New York City subway line was opened.

 

Repositories, Resources, and Societies – County

 

New York County Clerk 

Website: New York County Clerk

Address: New York County Courthouse, 60 Center Street, Room 161 New York, NY 10007

Phone: (646) 386-5955

Address: Division of Old Records, 31 Chambers Street, Room 703, New York, NY 10007

Phone: (646) 386-5395

 

New York County Surrogate’s Court

Website: New York County Surrogate’s Court

Address: 31 Chambers Street, New York, NY 10007

Phone: (646) 386-5000

Email: probate_general@courts.state.ny.us (Probate Department)

 

New York City Clerk: Manhattan Office

Website: New York City Clerk: Manhattan Office

Address: 141 Worth Street, New York, NY 10013

Phone: (212) 639-9675

 

New York City Register: Borough of Manhattan

Address: Manhattan Business Center, 66 John Street, 13th Floor, New York, NY 10038

 

Board of Elections, New York County

Address: 200 Varick Street, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10014

Phone: (212) 886-2100

 

Manhattan Borough Historian and Community Historians

Address: Municipal Building, One Centre Street, 19th Floor, New York, NY 10007

Phone: (212) 669-8089

 

New York Public Library

Website: New York Public Library (NYPL)

Address: 476 5th Ave, New York, NY 10018

Phone: (917) 275-6975

 

African Burial Ground National Monument

Website: African Burial Ground National Monument

Address: 290 Broadway, 1st Floor, New York, NY 10007  

Phone: (212) 637-2019

 

Dyckman Farmhouse Museum

Website: Dyckman Farmhouse Museum

Address: 4881 Broadway at 204th Street, New York, NY 10034

Phone: (212) 304-9422

Email: info@dyckmanfarmhouse.org

 

Fraunces Tavern Museum

Website: Fraunces Tavern Museum

Address: 54 Pearl Street, New York, NY 10004

Phone: (212) 509-3467

Email: curator@frauncestavernmuseum.org

 

Lower East Side Tenement Museum

Website: Lower East Side Tenement Museum

Address: 97 Orchard Street, New York, NY

Phone: (212) 982-8420

Email: lestm@tenement.org

 

National Park Service, Manhattan Historic Sites Archive

Website: National Park Service (NPS), Manhattan Historic Sites Archive

Phone: 212-668-2321

Email:  mhsarchive@nyharborparks.org

 

Rose Museum at Carnegie Hall

Website: Rose Museum at Carnegie Hall

Address: 154 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019

Phone: (212) 903-9600

 

South Street Seaport Museum

Address: 12 Fulton Street, New York, NY 10038

Phone: (212) 748-8600

 

 

Repositories, Resources, and Societies – Local

 

Alphabetized by location

 

New York City Department of Records and Information Services 

Website: New York City Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS)​

 

Municipal Archives of New York City

Website: Municipal Archives of New York City (MUNI)

Address: 31 Chambers Street, Room 103, New York, NY 10007

Phone (Outside NYC): (212) 639-9675

Phone (Inside NYC): 311 

 

Office of the City Clerk, Marriage Bureau

Website: Office of the City Clerk, Marriage Bureau

Address: Executive Office, 141 Worth Street, New York, NY 10013

Phone (Outside NYC): (212) 639-9675

Phone (Inside NYC): 311 

 

New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Website: New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYCDH)

Address: 125 Worth Street, CN-4, Room 133; New York, NY 10013

Phone (Outside NYC): (212) 639-9675

Phone (Inside NYC): 311 

Email: nycdohvr@health.nyc.gov 

 

New York City Office of the City Register

Website: New York City Office of the City Register

 

New York County Clerk, State Supreme Court, Division of Old Records

Website: New York County Clerk, State Supreme Court, Division of Old Records

Address: 31 Chambers Street, Room 703, New York, NY 10007

Phone: (646) 386-5395

 

National Archives at New York City

Website: National Archives at New York City (NARA-NYC)

Address: Alexander Hamilton U.S. Customs House; One Bowling Green, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10004

Phone: (866) 840-1752

Email: newyork.archives@nara.gov

 

 

Civil, Public, and Vital Records 

Civil Records are those created, recorded and/or maintained by a governmental body and include births, marriages, deaths, censuses, property, and probate. NB: The New York State government began collecting vital record data in 1880. Birth, marriage, and death records from New York State (excluding the five boroughs of New York City) after 1880 on can be obtained from the New York State Department of Health.

For vital records previous to 1880, consult the municipality in which the event took place.

For an in-depth guide to finding vital records (births, marriages, and deaths) in New York City, please consult Harry Macy Jr.'s article in the NYG&B Knowledgebase New York City Vital Records.

Learn more about New York's vital records in our online guide.

 

 

Federal Census Records

Population schedules: 1790-1940 (except 1890).

Online at Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, and Findmypast.com (free to NYG&B members).

Access on Findmypast:

1790

1800

1810

1820

1830

1840

1850

1860

1870

1880

1900

1910

1920

1930

1940

 

 

 

State Census Records

 

  • County originals at New York County Clerk’s Office: 1855, 1905, 1915, 1925 (1825, 1835, 1845, 1865, 1875, and 1892 are lost)
  • Ward 17 of the 1855 New York state census was not microfilmed.
  • A digitized version is available only in the NYG&B’s eLibrary.
  • State originals at the NYSA: 1915, 1925
  • Microfilm at the FHL, NYPL, and NYSL
  • Many years are online at FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com.

 

 

Online Resources

General Resources

Ancestry.com

There are vast numbers of records on Ancestry.com that pertain to people who have lived in New York State. A search of the online card catalog by county may reveal lesser known resources that pertain to a locality, such as town records, abstracts, transcriptions, city directories, and local histories.

FamilySearch.org

FamilySearch has extensive collections of New York records, including religious records, which are searchable by name and location, but not by county.

Brooklyn Genealogy Information Place

The website also contains information relating to other parts of New York City and Long Island, including general links and tips for genealogy research. Particulars records relating to Manhattan include: medical, city, business, and house of worship directories; 1703 census; historic maps (1600s-1900a); ward boundary maps; marriage indexes; military information; and information on schools.  

 

Deaths and Burials

 

Immigration and Naturalization Records

 

Military Records

 

Religious Records

In the years before the city began keeping vital records, religious records are the primary source that genealogists use for births, marriages, and deaths.

Overviews

Other Sources

 

Other Records

 

Ethnic Groups and Organizations

African

American Indian

Chinese

Dutch

Filipino

French

German

Greek

Hispanic

Hungarian

Irish

Italian

Japanese

Jewish

Polish

Puerto Rican

Lithuanian

Romanian

Scandinavian

Scottish

Ukrainian

 

Maps

Forgotten New York

The website/blog posts articles and images about New York City history that illuminate vestiges of a forgotten past, as well as streets, buildings, and other places that no longer exist; it includes street necrology for some Manhattan neighborhoods.

 

Transportation

 

 

Selected Bibliography

Abstracts, Indexes & Transcriptions

  • Barber, Gertrude A. “Index of the Letters of Administration Filed in New York County, New York from 1743–1875.” Typescript, 1950– 1951. NYPL, New York.
  • Barck, Dorothy C. List of 500 Inhabitants of New York City in 1775 with Their Occupations and Addresses. New York: New-York Historical Society, 1939.
  • Beach, Moses Yale. The Wealth and Biography of the Wealthy Citizens of New York City . . . Persons Estimated to be Worth $100,000 and upwards . . . . New York: The Sun Office, 1844.
  • Bloch, Dr. Julius M., Leo Hershkowitz, and Kenneth Scott. “New York City Assessment Rolls, February 1730.” NYG&B Record, vol. 95 (1964) no. 1: 27–32; no. 3: 166–84; no. 4: 197–202. [NYG&B eLibrary ] See also Research Aid “New York City Assessment Rolls 1699–1734,” originally published in the NYG&B Newsletter (now New York Researcher), Fall 1996. Updated June 2011 and published on NewYorkFamilyHistory.org.
  • Brown, Anne Wright. New York Marble Cemetery Interments, 1830– 1937: With Additional Biographical Information Gathered from Descendants, Family Genealogies, Newspapers, and City Directories. Rhinebeck, NY: Kinship, 1999.
  • The Burghers of New Amsterdam and the Freemen of New York, 1675–1866. Collections of The New-York Historical Society, vol. 18, 1885. Includes pre–1675 lists of New Amsterdam burghers, followed by roll of freemen with occupations and dates registered. In English colonial period only a Freeman could conduct a business or practice a trade; it also qualified them to vote.
  • Darling, William A. List of Persons, Co-partnerships and Corporations Who Were Taxed on Seventeen Thousand Five Hundred Dollars and Upwards in the City of New York: In the Year 1850. New York, 1851. [Ancestry.com]
  • Farrell, Charles. “Index to Matrimonial Actions [Divorces, Annulments, Legal Separations] 1784–1840, at the New York County Clerk’s Office.” NYG&B Record, vol. 129, no. 2 (1998): 81–88. [NYG&B eLibrary] Fernow, Berthold, trans. and ed. The Records of New Amsterdam from 1653 to 1674. 7 vols. New York, 1897. Reprint, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1976.
  • Grim, Charles F. An Essay towards an Improved Register of Deeds, City and County of New-York to Dec. 31, 1799, Inclusive. New York: Gould, Banks, and Co, 1832. Index to New York County deeds recorded in Manhattan and Albany. References some deeds not in official Index of Conveyances, below.
  • New York (NY). Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York [1675–1776]. 8 vols. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1905. [vols. 1–7, HathiTrust.org; vol. 8, books.google.com]
  • New York (NY), and Arthur E. Peterson. Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York [1784–1831]. 19 vols. New York: City of New York, 1917.
  • New York County (NY). Index of Conveyances Recorded in the Office of the Register of the City and County of New York. 51 vols. Vol. 21, New York, 1857–1864: deeds and other land records indexed by grantors and grantees, and one volume of corporate grantors including masters in chancery and sheriffs.
  • New York (NY) Board of Assessors. “Tax Lists of the City of New York, December, 1695–July 15th, 1699.” Collections of the New-York Historical Society, vol. 43 (1910): 1–208; vol. 44 (1911): 209–315. See also Bloch, above.
  • O’Callaghan, Edmund B. Documentary History of the State of New York. Vol. 1. Albany: Weed, Parsons, 1849. See pp. 611–624 for the transcript of the 1703 census.
  • Pelletreau, William S. Abstracts of Wills on File in the Surrogate’s Office, City of New York [1665–1800]. 17 vols. Collections of The New- York Historical Society, vols. 25–41, 1892–1908. Abstracts wills and administrations filed at the New York County Surrogate’s Court. Vols. 16–17 contain corrections. [books.FamilySearch.org]
  • Pool, David de Sola. Portraits Etched in Stone: Early Jewish Settlers 1682–1831. New York: Columbia University Press, 1952. Gravestone inscriptions from Manhattan’s three oldest Jewish cemeteries.
  • Riker, James Jr. “The James Riker Papers.” Collection W94-a231. NYPL Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York. Finding aid available online. Includes original records of the Town of Harlem 1662–after 1800.
  • Sawyer, Ray C. “Gravestone Inscriptions of Trinity Cemetery, New York City, New York.” Typescript, 1931. NYPL, New York. [Ancestry.com] Trinity Cemetery at Broadway and 155th Street, successor to Trinity’s cemeteries downtown.
  • Sawyer, Ray C. “Index of Wills for New York County (New York City) from 1662–[1875].” Typescript, 1930, 1950–1951. NYPL, New York.
  • Sawyer, Ray C., and Gertrude A. Barber. “Abstracts of Wills for New York County, New York [1801–1856].” 20 vols. Typescript, 1934– 1960. NYPL, New York.
  • White, Mrs. William R. “Records of the Reformed Dutch Church of Harlem.” NYG&B Record, vol. 117 (1986) no. 4: 228–233; vol. 118 (1987): no. 1: 31–38; no. 2: 95; no. 3: 161–164; no. 4: 217–222; vol. 119 (1988): no. 1: 16–17. [NYG&B eLibrary]

 

The materials above are a compilation of resources available, with an emphasis on online resources, which might be useful to someone doing research within this county.  The inclusion of a link does not constitute an endorsement of its content or accuracy.  Please send any additions or corrections to webmaster@nygbs.org.