Official birth, marriage, and death records—also called vital records—are crucial family history sources that every researcher should seek.
These deep and rich sources can provide names, relationships, locations, dates of events, and other essential details about your family.
Many states in the U.S. have well-organized and complete collections of vital records—but not New York!
For many reasons, finding vital records in New York State can be confusing and challenging. The purpose of this guide is to help clarify:
There are a couple of crucial facts all researchers should know about locating vital records in New York State.
Fact #1: New York State did not require local governments to report births, marriages, and deaths until 1880.
The history of New York State vital record-keeping is complex and convoluted. For the most part, New York State did not force local governments to track birth, marriage, and death events until the 1880s—even after that, many smaller municipalities were not stellar in their compliance.
If you're looking for a birth, marriage, or death record prior to 1880, you should check with local records offices first, but you may need to ultimately seek a vital record substitute.
Fact #2: Where you look for a vital record will change depending on the year and location of the event you're investigating.
New York vital records are not all stored in the same location or by the same authority. You will need to investigate sets of vital records in Albany, New York City, or other locations depending on the time period of the event you're investigating.
This guide includes the following sections:
For an even more comprehensive overview of New York State vital records, see the NYG&B Guide to Birth, Marriage & Death Records available in print in our online store.
Finding a New York City birth, marriage, or death record can be complicated due to the different territorial and record-keeping histories of each of the five boroughs, which are the Bronx (Bronx County), Brooklyn (Kings County), Manhattan (New York County), Queens (Queens County), and Staten Island (Richmond County). The New York City Municipal Archives (operated by the Department of Records and Information Services, or DORIS) houses the largest collection of birth, marriage, and death records for New York City, but other collections exist.
Where to look and what methods to use can vary depending on the county or borough you're looking in, as well as the exact year. If you're looking for a birth, marriage, or death certificate from the early 1800s or before, a good place to start is Harry Macy's detailed New York Knowledge Base guide to New York City vital records. This guide provides comprehensive information on locating vital records in New Netherland, colonial New York, and in the five boroughs of New York City. His suggested repositories and record sets also include many vital record substitutes for periods and locations when official city copies are unavailable.
A more detailed listing of availability can be found in the Municipal Archives List of Holdings on the DORIS website.
Coverage dates don't necessarily apply to all pre-consolidation municipalities (towns or cities located in Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens & Staten Island that weren't part of New York City until 1898). For significantly greater detail by town and village pre-consolidation, see the New York City Municipal Archives: An Authorized Guide for Family Historians.
To retrieve a copy of a certificate, the most important piece of information a researcher should have is the certificate number. Certificate numbers can be found by locating the name of the individual in a vital records index.
Most indexes contain little more than basic details about the event and the certificate number, with the notable exception of Ancestry's new indexes, which debuted in February 2020.
Records in these new collections are really far more than just indexes–a lot of valuable information has been extracted from each certificate and is available to view online. Read our blog about Ancestry's new New York City vital records for more information.
See the list below for some of the most useful online indexes to New York City birth, marriage, and death records.
MyHeritage continues to add new New York collections, including a new indexing of New York City’s public vital records. Sample tests of records show different names recorded in the index as compared to the long-standing indexes from the Genealogical Federation of Long Island (on the German Genealogy Group website), the FamilySearch indexes, and the Ancestry indexes from 2020.
Additionally, the MyHeritage indexes link to digitized images hosted on the MyHeritage site.
More than 20 million marriage records from the New York City Health Department and from the New York City Clerk’s Marriage Bureau form this collection. Importantly, some records that are unindexed on the New York City Historical Vital Records site are indexed in the collection, allowing swift access to the image.
Nearly 9 million records from the New York City Health Department are contained in this collection.
Nearly 7.5 million records from the New York City Health Department are contained in this collection.
Once the certificate number has been found, there are a number of ways to obtain a birth, marriage, or death certificate. It is easy to order a New York City birth, marriage, or death certificate online—staff at the Municipal Archives will search through their holdings based on the information supplied (certificate numbers are not officially required, but we recommend providing one to ensure the right record is retrieved), and send what they're able to locate.
More recent collections of birth and death certificates in New York City are maintained by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH).
After a certain period of time, these records are transferred from DOHMH to the DORIS and stored at the Municipal Archives, where they can be accessed by any member of the public.
Currently, records are transferred to DORIS and made fully public on the following schedule:
Researchers should note that this is a new rule that was passed relatively recently and took effect in 2019—if you’re interested, read more about our efforts to fight against it, and how we were able to secure an amendment to the rule.
Vital certificates that are still at the Department of Health can be accessed, but not by everyone.
Individuals with one of the following relationships to the subject of the certificate can obtain copies of birth records from DOHMH (with proof of death):
Individuals with one of the following relationships to the subject of the certificate can obtain copies of death records from DOHMH:
COVID-19 Update: DOHMH is not accepting in-person requests for birth or death certificates at this time, and recommends researchers order a certificate online or mail a copy of the certificate application.
We recommend visiting the following pages, which contain FAQs and useful links related to vital certificates from DOHMH:
New York State has created indexes to births, marriages, and deaths occurring after 1880 for locations outside of New York City.
State coverage for Albany, Buffalo, and Yonkers does not begin until 1914. If you're seeking a birth, marriage, or death record for an ancestor in one of those locations before 1914, click the name of each municipality for tips on finding records before 1914.
Researchers with ancestors anywhere else in New York State can get their ancestor's vital record in two steps:
These records are only available to the public after a certain period of time, which varies depending on the record and the researcher's relation to the person of interest. Read on for a general overview of each type of record and where to find the indexes you need to get started.
Those seeking New York birth certificates should begin with the state's index to all birth certificates from 1881. Birth indexes are made available after 75 years, but not all indexes are entirely up to date, and may only go up to the mid-1930s. Another limitation to keep in mind is that not all births were reported in the earlier years of the index - compliance grew over time, and before 1913 was often incomplete in many areas.
The vital records chapter of our New York Family History Research Guide and Gazetteer goes into detail on when compliance started in every area of New York State, and how researchers should handle research in all areas and time periods.
Fortunately, the New York State Birth Index from 1880 - 1942 was recently added as a searchable database on Ancestry.com. Images are also available to browse (but not search) for free on Internet Archive.
Again, these indexes do not cover several notable locations. New York City birth certificates have always been kept completely separate from vital records of other locations in New York State. See the New York City section of this guide for more information.
Additionally, New York State does not have birth records for Albany, Buffalo, or Yonkers before 1914. Click the name of each municipality to find out about obtaining vital records for your ancestors in these cities.
Once you have found the birth certificate number, you're ready to request a copy.
Researchers should begin by searching New York State's index to all marriage records from 1881. Marriage indexes are available online at Internet Archive for 1881 to 1964. As with other vital records, compliance increased as time went on, and records between 1881 and 1913 may be incomplete.
Also, many counties hold marriage license files, some of which may be found in FamilySearch’s New York, County Marriages, 1847-1848; 1908-1936 database.
In many cases, marriage records can be located at the county level. For detailed information on marriage and other records available in each county, see our New York State County Guides for Genealogists for your county of interest.
Findmypast has a growing collection of county marriage records for New York State - this includes a searchable index of brides and grooms, along with images of marriage records in many cases. NYG&B members can access these records for free as a benefit of membership.
Again, these indexes do not cover several notable locations. New York City marriage records have always been kept completely separate from vital records of other locations in New York State. See the New York City section of this guide for more information.
Additionally, New York State does not have marriage records for Albany, Buffalo, or Yonkers before 1914. Click the name of each municipality to find out about obtaining vital records for your ancestors in these cities.
Once you have found the marriage certificate number, you're ready to request a copy.
To find a death certificate, researchers should begin by searching New York State's index to all deaths beginning in 1880. Death indexes are made available after 50 years.
The NYG&B eLibrary contains images of the New York State Death Index, and images can also be found at Internet Archive.
The images in these collections are not searchable, but they are easy to browse by year, though the image quality of some years makes it difficult to read certain images.
Ancestry.com has a searchable database that also contains the same images as the collections above.
For more recent deaths, researchers should use New York State's Interactive Ancestry/Genealogical Research Death Index, which begins with 1957 and contains deaths up to the current legal limit (1970 as of 2020).
Again, these indexes do not cover several notable locations. New York City death records have always been kept completely separate from vital records of other locations in New York State. See the New York City section of this guide for more information.
Additionally, New York State does not have death records for Albany, Buffalo, or Yonkers before 1914. Click the name of each municipality to find out about obtaining vital records for your ancestors in these cities.
Once you have found the death certificate number, you're ready to request a copy.
Once you have retrieved information about the record you are seeking, you can obtain a copy of the vital record certificate by contacting either:
What's the difference?
**Note: As of early 2020, researchers are experiencing very long wait times for genealogical records requests from the NYS Department of Health. We advise seeking records from local authorities or seeking vital record substitutes.**
The New York State Department of Health will provide uncertified copies (for genealogical research) in the following instances:
If you are a direct-line descendant (child, grandchild, great-grandchild, etc), then these time periods are waived, but all researchers will need to provide:
Requests can take eight months or longer to complete.
The fee for a genealogy copy is $22.00, which includes a copy of the certificate and a three-year search of the index. Additional fees apply to search more years of the index - see the Department of Health's website for the full list of prices.
To submit your request, fill out the online form and send a completed copy by mail to:
New York State Department of Health
Vital Records Section
Genealogy Unit
P.O. Box 2602
Albany, NY 12220-2602
To avoid long wait times, you should try requesting a copy from the local registrar or municipal clerk in the location the event occurred. Exact instructions will vary, but getting in touch with the local office is the best first step.
The NYG&B has a collection of online genealogy guides to New York State counties in our New York Knowledge Base - these guides contain contact information and web links to local registrars, clerks, historical societies and more.
We also have a series of printed county guides that go into even more detail than our online guides - these guides will tell you exactly what records are available in every single repository in the county, along with the years covered. Contact information is also included.
The New York State Department of Health, located in Albany, is the agency that maintains certificates for births, marriages, and deaths that occur outside of New York City. However, some of New York State's most significant cities maintained their own collections of vital records before 1914.
The New York State Department of Health does not hold records for births, marriages, and deaths before January 1, 1914.
Birth and death records (before January 1, 1914) for Albany can be obtained by contacting the Local Registrar:
Local Registrar
City of Albany
Room 254M
City Hall
Albany, NY 12207
Marriage records (before January 1, 1914) for Albany can be obtained by contacting the City Clerk:
City Clerk
City of Albany
Room 202
City Hall
Albany, NY 12207
Our print Albany County Guide for Genealogists contains more detailed information on these records and all other records found at the local and county level for Albany.
The New York State Department of Health does not hold records for births, marriages, and deaths before January 1, 1914.
Birth and death records (before January 1, 1914) for Buffalo can be obtained by contacting the Local Registrar:
Local Registrar
City of Buffalo
Room 1308
65 Niagara Square
Buffalo, NY 14202
Marriage records (before January 1, 1914) for Buffalo can be obtained by contacting the City Clerk:
City Clerk
City of Buffalo
Room 1308
65 Niagara Square
Buffalo, NY 14202
Our print Erie County Guide for Genealogists contains additional information on these records and all other Buffalo records located in Erie county.
The New York State Department of Health does not hold records for births, marriages, and deaths before January 1, 1914.
Birth and death records (before January 1, 1914) for Yonkers can be obtained by contacting the Local Registrar:
City Clerk
City of Yonkers
Room 107
City Hall
Yonkers, NY 10701
Marriage records (before January 1, 1914) for Yonkers can be obtained by contacting the City Clerk:
City Clerk
City of Yonkers
Room 107
City Hall
Yonkers, NY 10701
Our print Westchester County Guide for Genealogists contains more detailed information on these records and all other Yonkers records located in Westchester.
For Vital Records that were produced after the dates provided by the New York State Vital Records Index or the New York Municipal Archives, contact the Board of Health or the City Clerk’s (City Registrar’s) Office of the city in which the event took place.
Due to privacy restrictions, inquiries may need to be accompanied by identification and proof of relationship to the individual(s) in question.