This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: dvredenburgh1 Surnames: Vredenburgh Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/topics.researchresources.brick-20-walls/458/mb.ashx Message Board Post: I'm researching the Vredenburgh family from Manhattan in each 1800's and have gotten a ton of information from the databases on ancestry.com. I have used the new search, the old search, soundex and many different misspellings in order to locate most census and other records. So far so good. But know I am completely stuck because I can't find the parents of several Vredenburgh's born around 1810-1820. The census isn't ever going to tell me that. Through the internet, I've been able to locate the death records for most of people I'm interested in. Unfortunately, not a single one of those records says who their parents were!!! Although I am new at this, it seems that baptism or marriage records are a good, if not the best, source of information about parents in the pre-1850 era. Is this correct? Is there a better source? Finally, how do I go about locating baptism or marriage records from 1780-1850 for various wards in NYC? The Vredenburgh's were Dutch, so I am guessing they probably were members of the Dutch Reformed Church, but who knows? And where are those church records now? Do I need to physically make a trip to NYC to find these? I feel like I have really slammed into the brick wall...could be time to get up off the couch....sigh. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.