New York Marraige Records 1950's

hjr

Probably a long shot, but any idea if its possible to search online for a marriage which took place in New York around the 1950's or so?

Thanks in advance!

shanew

think it depends on which part of NY - i.e. the city, or the state.

For the city try : http://www.italiangen.org/

sorry - just spotted that their data doesn't cover your timeframe - only up to the 30s and 40s. 50s is probably a little too recent for privacy laws etc

Coolnabacky1873

They are publicly available for both the city and the state, but there is no online index or set of records for that time period. The Familysearch NY marriages records go nowhere near 1980.

For New York City (the five boroughs only) marriages from 1938 to the year 50 years from 2013 (hope that makes sense, 1963) are at the City Clerks Office.

You can get the certificate and the marriage license. You have to know the year, and ideally the borough, as they'll only let you search one year at a time. There is a 'back door' set of indexes that run up to 1951 but you need to be in NYC to access it (I don't think there is a LDS microfilm).
I don't know what the story is with out of state/out of country applications as I've always gone in person.

For New York State, excluding New York City, there is a 50 year rule AND both parties have to be deceased.

For NY State records it is much quicker to apply to the town where the event happened. If you apply to the New York State Dept. of Heath it can take months.

Can you post the details of what you know and I might be able to give you a more accurate answer?

hjr

Coolnabacky1873 wrote: »

Can you post the details of what you know and I might be able to give you a more accurate answer?

Thanks Coolnabacky1873,

What I know is that my relation, Martin Higgins, was born in 1932, and I think got married in the 1950's, in New York. It seems he married a lady called Catherine Cuff, who died in 2005. Ideally rather than a marraige cert, I'd love to trace a birth cert for children, presumably born around the 50's or early 60's...but I understand that thats very recent to be tracing....

On a side note, is it possible to trace this relation at present? He would be about 80, but I'm not sure the best way to track him down. His wife is buried in Flushing, Queens, NY, but I've no idea where he lives and would love to track him down.

Any advice you could give in regard to this would be brilliant...

Thanks so much for your help!

Coolnabacky1873

I had a look at the Social Security Death Index for 2005 and this seems to be the entry for Catherine Higgins.

EDIT: I was thinking it's probably not right to be putting peoples potential addresses on the net, and all that extra info. I'll PM you what I had posted. Maybe you should do the same in the reply comment?

As an aside, it is kind of scary how you can track people down in the US if you know the right websites!!

Yeah, any births for that era are at the NYC Dept. of Heath. No chance of getting them unless you are close family. There are notoriously hard to get anything off.

If you are really determined to find them maybe try calling that Catholic parish in Queens. A lot of the staff now are Hispanic as the Catholic demographics in NYC are changing, so maybe try taking to someone who might know of the older Irish worshipers. There is usually some cranky old Irish person knocking around who can help:)

hjr

Thanks so much for that, its certainly created a few new leads to chase, which is all part of the game I guess...!

As a further aside to the same people, I can't seem to find death records for Martins parents, Thomas Patrick Higgins (B.1902) and his wife Nora (B. 1905, nee bradford). I'm certain it would be in New York, but the only Thomas I can find that is close in terms of age etc, is in Texas, which I'm inclined to discount. I should have been able to find SSDI records for him and his wife though surely, or even a newspaper memorial to give me some direction...

Also, family knowledge seems to suggest that Martin or his brothers were in the NYPD police force. Is there somewhere specific I could search for them based on this?

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!

hblock21

Coolnabacky1873 wrote: »

As an aside, it is kind of scary how you can track people down in the US if you know the right websites!!

That's the one reason why I love tracing people in the USA!!

Coolnabacky1873

hjr wrote: »

Thanks so much for that, its certainly created a few new leads to chase, which is all part of the game I guess...!

As a further aside to the same people, I can't seem to find death records for Martins parents, Thomas Patrick Higgins (B.1902) and his wife Nora (B. 1905, nee bradford). I'm certain it would be in New York, but the only Thomas I can find that is close in terms of age etc, is in Texas, which I'm inclined to discount. I should have been able to find SSDI records for him and his wife though surely, or even a newspaper memorial to give me some direction...

Also, family knowledge seems to suggest that Martin or his brothers were in the NYPD police force. Is there somewhere specific I could search for them based on this?

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!

They might not necessarily be in the SSDI. Social Security was only introduced in the 1930s after the Depression but not everyone took part in the early decades. A social security number is mandatory now, but people born well before its introduction might have slipped through
OR
don't discount that many people from northern states retire in the south due to a lower cost of living and sunnier weather. Therefore, they die there too.

For the NYPD, there are the Civil Lists for all government employees
http://www.nyc.gov/html/records/html/archives/collections_civillist.shtml
They might be on Familysearch microfilm but I'm not sure. There is also an NYPD musuem, currently closed due to Sandy.
http://www.nycpolicemuseum.org/

tanoralover

This is their oldest child Thomas:

Name: Thomas J. Higgins
SSN: 113-22-2615
Last Residence:91010 Duarte, Los Angeles, California, USA
Born: 26 Feb 1931
Died: 16 Feb 1997
State (Year) SSN issued: New York (Before 1951)

California, Death Index, 1940-1997 about Thomas J Higgins
Name: Thomas J Higgins
Social Security #: 113222615
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 26 Feb 1931
Birth Place: New York
Death Date: 16 Feb 1997
Death Place: Los Angeles
Mother's Maiden Name: Bradford

hjr

Coolnabacky1873 wrote: »

They might not necessarily be in the SSDI. Social Security was only introduced in the 1930s after the Depression but not everyone took part in the early decades. A social security number is mandatory now, but people born well before its introduction might have slipped through
OR
don't discount that many people from northern states retire in the south due to a lower cost of living and sunnier weather. Therefore, they die there too.

For the NYPD, there are the Civil Lists for all government employees
http://www.nyc.gov/html/records/html/archives/collections_civillist.shtml
They might be on Familysearch microfilm but I'm not sure. There is also an NYPD musuem, currently closed due to Sandy.
http://www.nycpolicemuseum.org/

tanoralover wrote: »

This is their oldest child Thomas:

Name: Thomas J. Higgins
SSN: 113-22-2615
Last Residence:91010 Duarte, Los Angeles, California, USA
Born: 26 Feb 1931
Died: 16 Feb 1997
State (Year) SSN issued: New York (Before 1951)

California, Death Index, 1940-1997 about Thomas J Higgins
Name: Thomas J Higgins
Social Security #: 113222615
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 26 Feb 1931
Birth Place: New York
Death Date: 16 Feb 1997
Death Place: Los Angeles
Mother's Maiden Name: Bradford

Thanks for the info guys...Thats really helpful about the SSDI not being fully accurate...its means I'm not losing my marbles!

Regarding the other record, thanks for that, I had found that, but just frustrating not to find his fathers record!

Thanks again for the help!