Older New York City births, marriages, and deaths with images are on Ancestry ("New York, New York, U.S., Vital Records, Births 1847-1897, Marriages 1847-1903, Deaths 1798-1900"). The earliest year is 1795- people who died from yellow fever in Manhattan. These are ledger books- not individual certificates.
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| Caroline Duryea, age 27. Died May 14, 1851 in Manhattan. Dropsy of brain. Interment in Dutch Reformed, Harlem. |
The links on Ancestry may not bring you to the exact page of the record. Search a few pages earlier and later if you do not see the target entry.
Based on the years contained in the title of this collection, you might think that there is overlap with the collection located on the website of the New York City Department of Records and Information Services ("DORIS"). The difference appears to be that the collection at Ancestry contains the collective ledger books, while the collection at DORIS contains the individual records, which started around 1866.
It may be possible that some events appear in a ledger book and an individual record. If anyone finds examples, please comment below.
Not all people and events made it into these ledger books. For example, I cannot find a record of death for John Evenshirer. He probably died sometime between 1842, when he married Rene Brewer, and 1847, when she remarried.
These images with indexes have been available at FamilySearch, but at a Family History Center and not at home. Now they can be found and viewed from home via Ancestry. The images at FamilySearch are probably from microfilm and in black and white. The images at Ancestry are high-resolution, color images of the originals.
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| Index of New York City Municipal Deaths FamilySearch.org |
John H Duryea died in 1836, leaving behind his pregnant wife, Sarah Moffat (1815-1896), and their daughter, Catherine Jane (1834-1906). I had his will, but his entry in the ledger of deaths is great to also have. His cause of death was consumption, now known as tuberculosis.
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| John H Duryea, age 29 years, 3 months, 26 days. Died May 6, 1836 in Manhattan. |
I think I found a surprise baby of John and Sarah. Garret S Duryea died November 9, 1832 in Manhattan on Spring Street. His age was one year and six months. He was likely the first child of this couple. John's father was also named Garret S Duryea.
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| Garret S Duryea, age 1 year, 6 months. Died November 9, 1832 in Manhattan. |
The next topic to tackle in these records of death is the places of burial- now gone from the crowded landscape of modern-day Manhattan.
John and baby Garret were buried in First Baptist. They lived at 326 Spring Street in between Greenwich and Washington Streets, on the west side of the island.
I did not find much about First Baptist. The cemetery is on Find A Grave. New York City Cemetery Project featured an article with some details. On the lower east side, on North Street (now called Houston), was the First Baptist Church with adjoining land used as a graveyard. The bodies were reinterred at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn. The website of Cypress Hills Cemetery has a Find a Loved One search, but I did not find any entries that could match John or Garret.
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| Randel Map Number 1 from New York City Cemetery Project |
Notice the angle of the adjoining church property to the cemetery. A condominium building, 14 Second Avenue Condominium, now sits atop this strip of land at the same angle.
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| 2025 aerial view of Houston Street, location of First Baptist Cemetery |
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| 2025 map of Houston Street, Manhattan, New York showing location of First Baptist Church and burial area |
Randel maps were created over 200 years ago, showing the layout of streets and properties in Manhattan. This website beautifully lays out the corresponding geographical location of the smaller maps.
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| Website to access Randel Maps of Manhattan circa 1820 thegreatestgrid.mcny.org/greatest-grid/randel-map-gallery |
Caroline Duryea, a later death in 1851, was buried much further north in Harlem Dutch Reformed. This cemetery is also gone. The physical church structure moved around the neighborhood over the centuries. In 1851, in the New York City directory, the church's address was Third Avenue and 122nd Street. There is still a church there, renamed Elmendorf Reformed. The burying ground predates the moves of the physical church buildings. As of this writing, I have not found a definitive map of the perimeter of the burying ground, but it was in the area of First Avenue and 125th and 126th Streets.
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| 1851 New York City directory Harlem Dutch Reformed Church Minister Jeremiah S Lord 122d (Street), corner Avenue 3 |
A portion of the burying ground became dedicated to the burial of people of African descent, but fell out of use and was forgotten over time. In 2008 the graveyard was discovered when Metropolitan Transportation Authority dug to build a bus depot.
Beginning in 1869 some of the bodies were moved to Woodlawn Cemetery. The images are housed at FindMyPast. There are only 35 pages. I viewed all of them and did not see an entry for Caroline. There are several entries for unnamed people.
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| Images of records books of Disinterments Harlem Dutch Reformed Church Cemetery 1869-1875 |
On March 12, 2025 I sent an inquiry of Caroline's reinterment to Woodlawn Cemetery.
