Country of Arrival Records - Vital Records Twentieth-century vital records are much more detailed than their ninteenth-century counterparts, especially marriage and death certificates. Death certificates may simply ask for the country of birth, but can give clues to an ancestor's immigration by stating the number of years the person resided, not only in the city, but in the country. While marriage certificates may simply state country of birth, the marriage license may be more detailed. It may have asked for the county or even the town where the prospective bride and/or groom resided. Don't be too surprised to find that on Great-aunt Bridget's marriage license, she wrote in 'Down, Ireland' under country of birth! A marriage license also asks for the date of birth. What better person to get the information from, then Great-aunt Bridget herself! Hopefully, she didn't fudge her age to appear younger. Death certificates, on the other hand, are notoriously inaccurate. The information is taken at the worst possible time. The family is grief-stricken. Dates of birth are off, parents' names are wrong, etc. The information is best used as a guideline, rather than as an absolute. There are two types of birth certificates that you will encounter for those born in the latter 19th century. The regular ones, issued at the time of birth. And 'delayed registration' birth certificates. Delayed registration birth certificates were issued years after the birth occurred. This was due to the Social Security Act of 1936. Everyone was required to register. In order to register, a person had to provide a birth certificate. So the city would issue a birth certificate to an adult. This *doesn't* affect how the birth certificates are filed. They are still filed chronologically by certificate number for each year of birth. It's just an interesting tidbit to know that Uncle Paddy got his birth certificate at 42. The LDS has an impressive collection of indexes for birth, marriage and death certificates for New York City and the boroughs.