from book: New York Genealogical Research by George Schweitzer, 1988 Shortly after the midpoint of the 19th century, some larger NY cities began keeping birth records: NY City (1847-52 some, then 1853-), Brooklyn (some 1866-), Albany (1870-), Syracuse (1873-), Utica (1873-), Rochester (1875-), Yonkers (1875-), Buffalo (1878-). Then in 1880 a state law mandating registration was passed, and compliance gradually increased to 50% by about 1900 and 90% by about 1915, when a more stringent law came into effect. The records are available as follows. For NY County (1847-), Kings County (some 1866-, 1880-), Queens County (1847-9, 1880-), Kings County (some 1866-, 1880-), Queens County (1847-9, 1880-), Richmond County (some 1847-52, 1880-), Bronx County (1914-), Albany (1870-1914), Syracuse (1873-80), Utica (1873-80), Rochester (1875-80), Yonkers (1875-1914), and Buffalo (1878-1914), records should be sought in the county or city offices for the dates indicated. For Albany (1915-), Yonkers (1915-), Buffalo (1915-), and all the rest of the state (1880-) except the 5 counties of NY City, write or visit: --NY State Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Records, Corning Tower Building, Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY 12237. Records indexed. Public access to birth records prior to 1913 is available, but those after are restricted. (my two-cents--this was written in 1988 so more records may be available after 1913) Since NY is so short on Official birth records before 1880 (1853 for NYC), other types of records often have to be consulted. Among the better ones are Bible, biography, cemetery, census, church, death, genealogical periodicals, manuscripts, marriage, military, mortuary, naturalization, newspaper, and published genealogies. All of these are treated in other sections of this chapter (my two cents-future postings). Numerous non-offical sources of this sort are listed in the two books by Stemmons and Eakle cited in the first paragraph (my two cents-see the first post I sent) of this section. When you are seeking birth date and place information in archives and libraries, be certain to explore all the above mentioned sources, and do not fail to look under the county listings and following heading in library catalogs: Registers of births, etc. -- Pat Connors, Sacramento CA http://www.connorsgenealogy.com All outgoing mail virus free, scanned by Norton 2002