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.