New York City Municipal Archives

I recently saw a few posts on Facebook from different genealogy groups, that the New York City Municipal Archives is digitizing their birth, marriage, and death records, from 1855 - 1949, to put their website.  The collection is searchable and FREE!  Yes, you read it right, free.

The thing that you need for now is the certificate number.  When you search on Ancestry or Family Search and find the record, you will find a certificate number for the birth, marriage, or death.  You will need to put the type of event (BMD), the year, and the certificate number to search to enter into the search.  You will get a good digitized (and downloadable) copy of the certificate.  The documents are in PDF format.  According to their website, the digitizing process is 70% complete as of this date.

So in the last few days, I have downloaded sixteen documents.  Most are on my mom’s side, because they stayed in Brooklyn after sailing across the pond.  I’ve found some interesting things too.  I found out that my great grandfather, Edward McConville and his sister, Mary Emma, were both married in the same church, by the same Priest, in Brooklyn about three years apart.  I was also able to get Edward’s father, Peter’s death certificate from 1874, which has his parents listed (with his mother’s maiden name).  This told me that my research was good, because these are the same names I had gotten by tracking the family back through British census records.

The last thing I’ll mention is that my great grandfather, Edward McConville died 30 Dec 1941 in Brooklyn, although he lived in Jersey City.  My mom told me that he he had some senility issues and he would always try to leave the house, but he wouldn’t go out without his hat.  So her grandmother would get her to hide his hat so that he would not wander off.  Apparently he found his hat and wandered off one night.  Mom said he would try to get back “home” to Brooklyn, and this time he made his escape and made it to his old neighborhood in Brooklyn.  I was told by Aunt Florence that he was found on the street by the church where he and Hanna were married.  The death certificate is not specific about whether he was found on the street or inside a building, or what time he was found, but it mentions 371 Union Ave and it is described as “Bar and Grill”.  I’m not sure what was at that location at the time, but looking at Google Earth for the location of the church where he was married, it looks to be within a few blocks of where the church was located.  So I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

More about my Bradley family from Minersville

 I recently received a message through Newspapers.com from a second cousin in my Bradley line.  She let me know that I had a photo posted in my blog, who was not who I thought it was.  After messaging back and forth several times, I finally got it right.  Then we kept messaging back and forth, and I learned more about my family - not dates and places, but stories.  They make you feel like part of the family.

James Bradley was my great great grandfather, married Ann Pepper and together they had 8 children, including my great grandmother Madge (Marcella).  Most news clippings that I found about him say that he was “of the Delaware” near Minersville.  I never knew what that meant, was it the Delaware River? The Delaware Indians? I had no idea, until I asked my new found cousin.  Apparently it is a little area near Minersville, where the Irish lived. Probably an unincorporated area, possibly in Cass Township.

I found an obit for James that I had never seen before and it illustrates the whole “of the Delaware” thing:

now I know what they are talking about.  But this little article tells me that he was a pioneer of the area, and that he died in Pottsville Hospital.  The other thing about his death is the cross on his grave.  I had posted a picture of it before.  

Here it is again,  just metal pipes with a small plaque with J Bradley on it.  I now know that James’ two sons, Joseph and James, were both blacksmiths and they made this cross for their father’s grave.

One more thing and I’ll call it a night.  I also found a small snippet in the Pottsville Republican”, it tells me that James became a U.S. citizen in December 1889:

I thought this was great.  Next time I go through Pottsville, I’m going to stop at the courthouse and see if I can get his citizenship papers.