This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/lRB.2ACE/882.3 Message Board Post: Hi Janet My mom and I had the best luck when we planned a trip to Albany to the State Archives. They have indexes there for New York except the 5 boroughs. I just went to their website to attach the information and read that the indexes are now also available in the National Archives, New York City. Maybe someone on the New York City message board can confirm. Mom and I took our list of family and looked up everyone we could find. We were very surprised to find Nassau Co people in Suffolk Co. A lot were not in the indexes, leading us to search the boroughs at our LDS library. Found alot in the boroughs. So even though my people are lived thier whole lives and are buried in Nassau Co we have found their vital records in other counties. The best way is to try and get to the indexes and avoid the Town Hall. Once you find your people in the index write to Albany for the record, cost the same, but be willing to wait up to a year. If you find them in the boroughs that is a different addr! ess. Some of the Town Hall's in Nassau Co we found disorganized and I would not trust them with my money, (having left plenty there with nothing to show, and eventually getting the records from Albany). The following is from this website, you might want to check it out. http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/genealogy/vitrec.htm "Indexes to the Vital Records of New York State (except New York City) Microfiche copies of the Indexes to the vital records that are currently available to the public contain the following information: name, place, date, and certificate number. The Indexes are currently available upstate only at the New York State Archives, 11th Floor, Cultural Education Center, Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY 12230, 518-474-8955; and Rochester Public Library, 115 South Avenue, Rochester, NY 14604, 716-428-8440. Indexes at the State Archives in Albany can be used from 9:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. The Department of Health's Bureau of Vital Records no longer provides access to the microfiche Indexes by appointment. The National Archives and Records Administration's Northeast Region office in New York City (201 Varick Street, New York, NY 10014-4811, 212-401-1620) also has the Indexes. " Good luck with your research. Kathleen