New York City vital records are kept separately from the rest of the state; NYC's are at the Municipal Archives in Manhattan (being indexed online at ItalianGen.org and GermanGenealogyGroup.com -- years vary by county, but there are at least some covering 1885 online). New York State (excluding NYC) vital records are kept at the NYS Department of Health -- see http://www.health.state.ny.us/ vital_records/ for information. Their yearly index is available at NARA NY, and possibly elsewhere. Neither of these sources keep Catholic records separately from any other religion / noon-religious service. For Catholic church records of the marriage, you need to know first in what parish the marriage took place -- and no, the Archdiocese does not have a central index. Your best bet is to start with the civil records. BTW, I have both Farrells and Carolans in my family, but on different lines, and not in NY. My Farrells are in Philadelphia and Co. Waterford, and my Carolans are in Philladelphia and Co. Tyrone. Still, it gave me a jolt to see both names in your post. Claire K seekay@comcast.net On Oct 14, 2009, at 8:33 AM, shortfilmer@gmail.com wrote: > I know that my grandparents, John Joseph Farrell and Margaret > Carolan, were > married around 1885 in either New York City or on Long Island > (Suffolk or > Nassau). Does anyone know if there's a central registry of Roman > Catholic > marriages in New York State anywhere? I'm flying blind on this one. > > Thanks.