Forbidden New York State Records

We aren't going to be seeing vital records from the State of New York any time soon.

The New York State Senate and Assembly passed bills (2025-S7782A and 2025-A8314A) to allow digitization and publication of births, marriages, deaths, and dissolutions of marriage. Governor Kathleen Hochul vetoed the bill in October 2025.

There remains no path to obtaining a vital record from the New York Department of Health if it falls under a genealogical time frame: 75 years for births and 50 years for marriages and deaths.

I await fulfillment of four records ordered from the New York State Department of Health. Three were ordered 21 months ago and the other almost four years ago- after the Department failed to find the certificate the first time around.

Although the Department will not copy and mail the documents, it is able to open the envelopes, remove the form of payment, and deposit same into the State's coffers.

The Department's website has not been updated since January 2023 and still falsely promises:
    1- orders of genealogical records will be fulfilled
    2- orders of genealogical records may take eight months or longer

Website of the New York State Department of Health
falsely offering genealogical copies of vital records

In contrast, New York City was able to digitize and place online a self-reported 75% of its vital records. Ancestry has digitized images of older New York City records.

Preserving abandoned stories

Someone shared with me records from a locally abandoned prison complex, Essex County Penitentiary, later used as the Annex, in North Caldwell, New Jersey.  After people ceased to use the buildings, they fell into disrepair and people took unofficial tours of the historical grounds.  Records were left behind and sometimes people find them at garage sales in the area.  Great pictures of the buildings before demolition can be found on Abandoned But Not Forgotten; about halfway down are pictures of records left behind.  These lost records tell personal stories of local history.

The records are files of two inmates who arrived at the penitentiary on the same day, March 6, 1931.  These would be wonderful for their families to see.

Elizabeth Jackson, age 22, of 42 Shipman Street in Newark, was sentenced to four months for the crime of fornication.  (Can you imagine a time when this was a crime punishable by jail time?  This woman's jail records paint a personal picture of this prosecution.)

Sarah Steward, also known by other names, including Watkins and Douglas, age 25, of 274 Prince Street in Newark, was sentenced to three months for the crime of adultery.  (Makes you want to know who the married man was and how this act was discovered.)

Sarah Steward's troubles continued after her release.
In this letter from a nurse in New York City, we are provided with a more specific birth location:  Chrisfield, Maryland.

The staple in the upper left corner of the letters caused rust to stain the other documents in the file.

In researching both women, I found only one other record for Sarah Steward.  In the 1930 federal census, she was also in this jail, as per the warden's letter, and is enumerated on that schedule.