Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Genealogy Lesson #20: Vital Records: A Different Death Index

In the last lesson, posted on Friday, April 24, 2020, we investigated the NYC Municipal Death Records Index as provided by the German Genealogy Group (GGG).

Looking for my 3rd great aunt, Gertrude Joyce-Sheridan (born circa 1865) who died sometime between 1930 and 1940. Using just her name in the GGG’s New York City Municipal Archives Death Records Index should have resulted in 5 hits.



Using Gertrude’s estimated date of birth, 1865, which I derived from census records we can do some simple math to compare the ages of the individuals listed in our search results.
  • Gertrude #1 born in 1919 - died at age 4 = born in about 1915
  • Gertrude #2 born in 1925 - died at age 40 = born in about 1885
  • Gertrude #3 born in 1934 - died at age 70 = born in about 1864
  • Gertrude #4 born in 1945 - died at age 54 = born in about 1890
  • Gertrude #5 born in 1945 - died at age 45 = born in about 1900
It is Gertrude #3 that is likely our Gertrude Sheridan. However, there isn’t enough information in this index to really know for use.

Ordering this document from the New York City Municipal Archives would cost you about $20. I think that is a very expensive good guess. Before taking that step, let’s look at the New York City Municipal Archives Death Record Index through another source.

Sign into your FamilySearch.org account.

Click on Search. This is usually located in the top navigation bar.

Choose Records. This is usually accessible by hovering on the work “Search” in the top navigation bar.

Go to the “Find A Collection” section of the search page. This section is usually on the bottom right.

Type into the search box “New York, New York” and you will see a drop down menu appear for the New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949.

Do a search again for Gertrude Sheridan with the date of death range 1934 to 1934.

Can you find her death record in the index? If so, what other details have you learned from the data listed? 

I will share with you what I have found in my next post.

No comments:

Post a Comment