Digital Vital Records
Digitization of New York City's historical vital records is an on-going project. The charts below show full-page certificates in our collection and their digitization status. Registers* for years prior to 1898 are viewable via microfilm in our reference room at 31 Chambers Street, New York, NY. Schedule your visit.
*Registers, or ledger books, preceded individual certificates, and contain minimal vital record information.
To purchase a certified copy of a vital record that is not available on this website, please fill out the Vital Records Order Form.
Digitized Birth Records
Bronx: 1872 to 1873, 1876, 1888 to 1891, 1895 to 1909
Kings (Brooklyn): 1866 to 1909
Manhattan: 1855, 1857 to 1861, 1863 to 1865, 1866 to 1909
Queens: 1866, 1876, 1883, 1886, 1888 to 1909
Richmond (Staten Island): 1898 to 1909
Digitized Death Records
Bronx: 1898 to 1948
Kings (Brooklyn): 1862 to 1948
Manhattan: 1866 to 1867, 1871 to 1875, 1920 to 1948
Queens: 1881-1892, 1898 to 1948
Richmond (Staten Island): 1898 to 1948
Marriage Records
The New York City Health Department issued marriage certificates through 1907. Beginning in 1908, in compliance with N.Y. State Law, couples planning to marry obtained a license from the City Clerk. The City Clerk marriage licenses typically include an “affidavit” filled out by the couple, the “license” issued by the Clerk, and a “certificate” completed by the person performing the ceremony.
Since the Health Department continued to record marriages until 1937, there are potentially two separate records of a marriage for the period from 1908 through 1937—the Health Department Certificate and the City Clerk License. The recorded information is duplicative, however, the City Clerk licenses include additional information about the couple’s parents and occupations.
How to Research the City Clerk Marriage License Record
Step 1. Search the index at Ancestry.com. Search results on the Ancestry site may include both the Health Department marriage record (for marriages reported from 1866 to 1937) and the City Clerk license record (for marriages reported from 1908 to 1949). The record number in each series is different. Make sure the correct number for the City Clerk license has been identified. On the Ancestry site, the source for the City Clerk license number will indicate: “New York, New York, U.S., Marriage License Indexes, 1907-2018.”
Step 2. After obtaining the City Clerk license number from the index, return to Historical Vital Records to view the record, or to order a copy. Note that digitization of the license records is on-going. See the chart below to determine whether the record has been digitized. If not, the record can be viewed on microfilm at the Municipal Archives, or order a copy.
Digitized Marriage Certificates
Bronx: 1898 to 1937
Kings (Brooklyn): 1866 to 1937
Manhattan: 1866 to 1937
Queens: 1898 to 1937
Richmond (Staten Island): 1898 to 1937
Digitized Marriage Licenses
Bronx: Not yet digitized
Kings (Brooklyn): 1938 to 1949
Manhattan: 1908 to 1910, 1938 to 1949
Queens: 1938 to 1949
Richmond (Staten Island): 1908 to 1949
