Vital records are managed by the individual states in which the event occurred. There is no centralized location of birth, marriage, and death (BMD) records for all of the United States. Therefore it is critical for you to know where the event occurred.
Frequently the state in which an individual dies is also the state in which they were born but this is certainly not always the case. Often we also assume that the individual died close to home but that is also not always the case. I have several ancestors who were away from home when they died. You might know where the family lived for decades but you may come to find out your relative died in say an accident that occurred far from home. I offer the example of my 3rd great grandfather, John Joyce.
The Joyce family owns a huge plot in Calvary Cemetery in Queens County, New York; one of the largest cemeteries in the United States. I was certain John had to be interred in that plot. Unlike so many of my family gravesites, their plot had a huge headstone. John’s name does not appear on that stone. Sometimes a family doesn’t keep up with the engraving on a headstone; maybe they can’t afford to. For whatever reason I have discovered many interments not listed on a headstone but recorded in the cemetery’s records.
Calvary Cemetery charges an exorbitant amount of money to tell you the names of all the individuals buried in one plot. I paid them only to find out John Joyce is not buried in the Calvary plot he paid for.
For years I combed through the NYC Death Indexes available through several databases looking for John; convinced he had to have died in NY. Then last year a little shaky leaf appeared on John’s name in my family tree suggesting records from the U.S. National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1866-1938. I sincerely doubted these could be records for my John Joyce; a man with a very common name. Upon careful review of the image of the document I saw the name of his wife listed; also a very common name, Mary Ann Joyce.
What was not common about the record though was the family’s address. Listed right there was the address I knew to be that of my Joyce family in New York City in 1910. So as it turns out John Joyce died in a Soldier’s Home in Dayton Ohio. His death certificate will therefore be in Ohio.
Be careful to recognize what you know AND what you think you know.
For this exercise we are going to compare the New York City Death Index as recorded in a variety of databases.
For the first part you will need to use the website: https://www.germangenealogygroup.com/
They provide free access to the New York City Municipal Archives Death Records Index as they were one of the groups who originally volunteered to index the New York City Municipal Archives Death Records.
Why are we using New York City records, you might ask, as opposed to looking at records for your specific ancestors located wherever they may have died. Well, because it is estimated that approximately 40 percent of all Americans are descended from people who immigrated through Ellis Island during its years of operation; 1892 to 1954. Although not all of those immigrants ultimately settled in NYC, potentially a good percentage of you will have some relative who experienced some life event in NYC.
Go to https://www.germangenealogygroup.com/
On the left navigation bar, click Database Searches. That will expand the list and several boxes down you will see a button for Death Records. Click on the link for Death Records. That will expand again and several boxes down you will click on the link to NYC Municipal Archives. That link will open a search page for you.
Note that it will show you want date ranges are available for each county of New York City. Scroll down a bit and you will see a green button that reads “Continue to Database Search Form.” Click on that button.
Search for Gertrude Sheridan. She is my 3rd great aunt; the daughter of the aforementioned John Joyce. Therefore her maiden name was Joyce. She appears in the 1930 U.S. Census but I can’t find her in the 1940 census. I am assuming she died in the 1930s. According to census records she was born in about 1964 or 1965.
Can you find a death record in the German Genealogy Group’s index of NYC Death Records for Gertrude?
If so, record all the given details provided in the index.
Last Name, Given Name, Age, Date, Year, Certificate Number, and County.
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