The indexes for the vital records of the NYS Dept of Health, which do not include New York City boroughs, are available only at a few sites and must be read in person in a secure facility.  I read them at the NYS Archives in Albany.  Cliff Lamere's website about research will doubtless have the complete list of locations. Be ready with a photo ID the first time to you go to the location.   If you are far from any of these repositories and you prefer not to visit the locations in person, your best bet may be to hire a professional for the search.   The index listing will tell the name, for which  you will read for variant spellings as well, the date of the event, the place of the event and the all-important NYS registration number.  Reading the index is free.   If all  you want is the exact date and place, say for searching for a newspaper obituary listing survivors, that might be all you want.   For a death record, if you want the decedent's date and place of birth, residence address, date and place of death, marital status, length of time in the community of residence, occupation, names and places of birth of parents, cause of death, length of illness, contributing causes of death, name of physician, name of funeral home, place of burial and name of the informant, then you will want to order the certificate, which is a photocopy of the original from the NYS files.   From a birth record you will learn the full name of the infant, unless it is identified as only m for male or f for female, the date and place of birth, the names, addresseds and occupations of the parents, and the number of children the mother has already had.   From a marriage record you will learn for each party the full name, address, age, place of birth, occupation and names of parents.   If  you decide to order, the cost of each record is $22.  The wait may be six months.  There is a speedier way.   New York State began its reporting of vital records in 1880.  Birth records are public up to 75 years ago, marriages and deaths up to 50 years ago.  Albany, Buffalo and Yonkers declined to participate until 1914, so those records would be in those cities.  I have been told that the indexes, like the records, will never be posted on line or made available in any manner except that I've described above.   Feel free to contact me off list for more explanation.   Nancy Johnsen Curran http://pages.prodigy.net/nancycurran Genealogy research and photography in the capital region of New York State