Organize at the Scene

While researching on the recent trip to Albany, New York, I photographed lots of indexes of births, marriages, and deaths from the microfiche reader.  The top of each page listed the event type (birth, marriage, or death) and the year, but not the state.  If the desired information was near the bottom of the page, the heading was not visible.

New York State Death Index for the year 1926
on microfiche at the New York State Archives in Albany

New York State Death Index for the year 1911

A simple organizational trick eliminated confusion later.  I hand-wrote the year, type of event, and state on a piece of paper and included the information in each snapshot.  You do not want to have a great entry but no idea of its source.

Albany Research Day 1

Today was the introduction to the New York State Archives and Library by the helpful staff.

I concentrated on vital records indexes.  New York City records are kept in New York City.  Beginning in 1881, the rest of the counties were supposed to report births, marriages, and deaths to the State.  Compliance was spotty at first, so I did not find a lot of records.  At least I was able to look for myself to make sure.

Indexes to New York State vital records.  Microfiche.

Each calendar year contains an alphabetical listing of names.
Counties are combined.
These are deaths for the year 1900 reported to the State of New York.
The number in the right column is the certificate number.

Once you have located a potential record of interest in the index, you cannot readily obtain the corresponding record.  You need to submit a completed application and $22 to the New York State Department of Health and wait for the certificate to come in the mail.  This costs time, money, and effectively prohibits you from exploring common names.  As an alternative, you can try the registrar of the county or the town where the event took place and see if they can provide the record faster or at a lower cost. 

If you cannot find a record at the state level, you will want to try the local registrar anyway.  Not all counties and cities reported events to the state in any particular year.

This is a nifty paper I saw hanging.
The genealogy of New York Counties.  Great resource.

Researching in Morris County, New Jersey

On Friday I did some research in Morris County, New Jersey on the Cook family.  So far, my tree for these Cooks reaches back to the couple Stephen Cook and Eliza Vandroof, both born around 1800.  I am hoping to find more children of this couple and to find out how they relate to the other Cooks of Morris County for this time period.

I visited the Morris County Courthouse, Surrogate's Office.  I was allowed to search the computer and retrieve the microfiche myself, which I think is great.  (If you aren't too computer savvy, or can't read the little microfiche labels, you may not find this conducive.)  I was told that the computer index starts around 1804.  The index is available online here, which is fantastic.  If you search for Stephen Cook, you will find the entry for his probate case in 1845.  This search will not turn up the will of his son, Stephen B. Cook, in 1843, unless you type in the B.  You can also just search for a last name and wade through the results, which is a more thorough way of searching.

These two men were not the Stephen Cook that I was looking for.  That's okay.  The wills provide me with names and relations, which I need to distinguish these Stephen Cooks from the Stephen Cook that I am looking for.



Will of Stephen Cook, probated in Morris County, 18 March 1845, Book F, page 42



The computer index is not necessarily accurate for the records of the 1800s.  The original index is at the beginning of the microfiche set for the older libers, or books.  The nominal fee for photocopies decreases after twenty copies, so you are encouraged to gather as much info as you can.  At least that was my interpretation.

Next I headed over to the Morris County Library in Whippany to explore their genealogical resources.  They have files on some families.  The Tuttle/Tuthill file contained dozens of hand-typed notes about the history of the Tuttle family, painstakingly assembled by someone before the computer age.  They are worth a look.  I don't know if they have been preserved elsewhere, but I hope so.

It's great to just be able to look around and see what you can find.  I came across a microfilm of Morris County Marriages.  This is a collection of marriages starting around 1795, or Book A, with a hand-written index.

Here is the marriage of Stephen Cook to Eliza Vandroof:



Morris County Marriages, Book B, page 83


Difficult to read and no parents listed, but this is what you need to find and copy for your records when researching.  You can find this marriage listed at pilot.familysearch.org.  That's nice, but it's not a reliable source.  The info on this website looks clean cut, all typed and everything, but without additional legwork on your part, the info is not worth much.  Who typed it?  From what?  Each time info crosses hands, it can be modified.  Don't rely on non-original records for your research.



pilot.familysearch.org search results for Eliza Vandroof