USA ordering

spurious

Has anyone had any luck/success getting American death certs, specifically New York State?

I have a couple of deaths (late 19th century) that I have all the information for, but when I go to try order them, there is all this mallarkey about proving your family connection, sending copies of passport etc. and they said there is a 22 month wait(!).

p15574

I got one for Manhattan from around 1916 a couple of years ago. I think it only took a month or two. I don’t recall there being the requirement for the passport, but there was a family connection alright, although I don’t remember exactly what I had to state to ‘prove’ it. I’ll see if I can find details of what I sent, but if it was an online form I probably won’t have an exact record. Perhaps NYC is different to NY state too.

spurious

They seem to be very disorganised. First of all, there doesn't appear to be one body who deals with them. I have been sent from a local office, to a second local office, to the State archives in Albany.

I know the date and place of death and have some certificate numbers, but they don't seem to agree where the records are. The deaths happened in Pelham Manor (Westchester County) just north of the Bronx.

We really don't know how good we have it with irishgenealogy.ie.

kanadams123

I had just ordered immigration records from the Hudson County clerk in New Jersey before this pandemonium kicked in. Search fee was only 3$. However you can only pay by cheque/bank draft. I got help from a relative of mine in the states. I paypalled her money for the fee,postage etc. And sent her my filled out request form. She printed it and sent it by post to the clerk's office. She will receive the documents in the post and scan them to me.

I emailed the clerk last week and understandably the office is closed until further notice, so my request has been put on hold.

Each state has there own rules regarding records. Sometimes these rules can vary big time from State to state [I think Illinois can be difficult due to what they classify as genealogical records]. I've never dealt with requesting anything from New York State so im not much help there.
However in Illinois and New Jersey, proof of relation is only required if you are ordering a certified copy of the records.

Usually the county clerk where the event took place would have the records. Again though, I never dealt with trying to get New York records.

Also, New Jersey has the New Jersey state archives which is run very similar to the gro in Dublin. It's great if you visit in person and get a photopcopy. I've never been, for ovious reasons, but I am part of a number of NJ genealogy groups on Facebook and many genealogists in the NJ area are always willing to look up certain deaths etc. for you. Perhaps there is some similar groups for new York?

p15574

p15574 wrote: »

I got one for Manhattan from around 1916 a couple of years ago. I think it only took a month or two. I don’t recall there being the requirement for the passport, but there was a family connection alright, although I don’t remember exactly what I had to state to ‘prove’ it. I’ll see if I can find details of what I sent, but if it was an online form I probably won’t have an exact record. Perhaps NYC is different to NY state too.

I can't find any record in email of it, I think it was all offline, apart from the original application on the website. The only record I have - apart from the hard-copy death cert I received in the post - is that I made the application here:
http://www.nyc.gov/dorforms/deathcert.jsp
However, that doesn't seem to be working any more. It does show, though, that it was specific to NYC, not the state.Browsing the NYC.gov website brings me to this page, where you can order a historic cert:
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/records/historical-records/order.page
Going into the death cert option, I don't see any requirement for proof of family connection. Not much use to you for Westchester, I know, but just illustrating that it's easier for NYC.

spurious

Thanks for all the help and suggestions.

It's one of my back burner projects.

VirginiaB

New York City records are held by New York City--Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island. The rest of New York State is held separately, sorry I'm not sure of that process. For NYC records, you just order online thru the city for the full cert--not cheap--but you can get a lot of the info on FamilySearch for free. Transcription only with all the usual errors but still a lot of info.

Deja Boo

New York is being hard hit with Covid atm, may be some time before non-essential services settle.

VirginiaB

Good point. My home town....