ANNOUNCING NEW DATABASE VOL. IV & VOL. V - MARRIAGE INDEX RENSSELAER COUNTY, NEW YORK APRIL 1920 - JANUARY 1924 In addition to the Troy Irish Genealogy Society mailing list, this message is also being sent to the following genealogy mailing lists: MAILING LIST COVERS Rensselaer County List - Research in Rensselaer County. Albany County List - Research in Albany County. Schenectady County List - Research in Schenectady County. Saratoga County List - Research in Saratoga County. Genealogy NYS List - Research in New York State. NY-Hudson River List - Research in counties bordering Hudson River; (Rockland, Orange, Ulster, Greene, Albany, Rensselaer, Columbia, Dutchess, Putnam Westchester) & Schenectady County. NY-RollCall List - Research on New York State kin. NY-Mohawk Valley List - Research in Mohawk Valley Region of NYS, covers Albany, Fulton, Herkimer, Madison, Montgomery, Oneida, Otsego, Schenectady & Schoharie Counties. NY-WarWashSar List - Research in Warren, Washington and Saratoga Counties. New York List - Research in New York State where County is unknown. Irish-NY-Troy List - Research of Irish Ancestry in City of Troy, Rensselaer County, New York. NY-Irish List - Research on Irish immigrants who landed, lived in or passed through New York State. NY-Southern List - Research in Southern counties of New York, covers Broome, Bronx, Columbia, Delaware, Dutchess, Greene, Kings, Nassau, New York, Orange, Queens, Putnam, Richmond, Rockland, Suffolk, Sullivan, Tioga, Ulster & Westchester Columbia County List - Research in Columbia County. Westchester County List - Research in Westchester County. Dutchess County List - Research in Dutchess County. Schoharie County List - Research in Schoharie County. Ulster County List - Research in Ulster County. A. The message can be forwarded to other lists where you feel it would be appropriate. If posted to any other lists, please copy: seamus@nycap.rr.com B. Volume IV and Volume V (April 1920-January 1924) of the Rensselaer County Marriage Index has just been added to the TIGS website with another 4,000 marriages and 8,000 names. The Marriage Index Project is the largest project the Troy Irish Genealogy Society has undertaken. This 10 Volume Marriage Index of Rensselaer County marriages, from 1908 to 1935, has over 60,000 names. Volume I (January 1908-April 1913) with its 5,000 marriages and 10,000 names, was added to the TIGS website on June 13, 2006. Volume II, (April 1913-May 1918) with 5,000 marriages and 10,000 names was added to the TIGS website on January 12, 2007 and Volume III (May 1918-April 1920) with 2,000 marriages and 4,000 names was added to the TIGS website on July 23, 2007. C. You can view these marriage records by going to the Troy Irish Genealogy website at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~nytigs/ and click on TIGS PROJECTS. It should be noted that these records, like most of the TIGS data series, cover the general population in the area and are NOT restricted to Irish surnames. D. If you are researching relatives with a RENSSELAER COUNTY, NY area connection, you will be interested in these on-line, name searchable, records of 32,000 names of local residents who were married in Rensselaer County, New York. If you live in a nearby county or even further away, you might want to check out the data base. Take a look at the data base, you never know what you will find. You may even find an earlier marriage for your relative that you never knew about. E. In order to appreciate the marriage index on the TIGS website, you need an understanding of the set up of the Marriage Index book at the County Clerk's Office. All marriages, along with complete detailed information on the bride and groom and their parents, were first entered into the Record of Marriages Book. Brides and Grooms names were then posted to the Marriage INDEX Book which served as a locating device to find the complete record in the Record of Marriages Book itself. Without the Marriage Index, you could not easily locate a name in the Record of Marriages Book. The Marriage Index Book has SEPARATE pages of data for Brides and SEPARATE pages of data for Grooms. For example, for the letter "A", there is a page of Brides names beginning with "A" and ANOTHER page of Grooms names beginning with the letter "A". The data on each page is limited to the first and last name, a page reference number, a marriage license number and the date of the marriage. Names of SPOUSES are NOT linked together in the index. The only linkage to the spouse in the Marriage Index is the marriage number. F. The TIGS data base has greatly improved the usefulness of the Marriage Index as follows: 1. By using the marriage number, the TIGS Marriage Index now links the names of the brides AND the grooms on ONE LINE of data, thus providing a much more useful research tool. 2. Some entries in the Record of Marriages Book were never posted to the Marriage Index Book. These missing records were identified by TIGS workers and added to the TIGS Marriage Index. 3. A number of records in the Marriage Index showed only INITIALS for either the bride or the groom. In many cases TIGS workers were able to determine the ACTUAL names from the original source documents and added them to the TIGS data base. 4. Several records for grooms names were originally posted to the brides pages of the Marriage Index Book and a number of brides names were posted to the grooms pages of the Marriage Index Book. TIGS workers corrected these errors in developing the TIGS index. 5. A number of transcribing errors when the Marriage Index Book was created were discovered by TIGS workers and corrected. 6. Last but not least, the TIGS Marriage Index is in strict alphabetical order unlike the original index. For example, on the original index, you may have four or more lengthy pages of Grooms names ALL beginning with the first two letters "Ma" and in no order whatsoever. G. In using the TIGS Marriage Index data base, keep in mind the following: 1. Handwriting in some cases was very difficult to read and there could be some problems with spelling. 2. It appears that all of the postings to the Vol. IV and Vol. V Marriage Index Book show a office filing date instead of the date of the marriage. In many cases different posting dates are shown for the bride and the groom. The entry in the Marriage Book itself, however, will show the correct date of the marriage. 3. Remember, the TIGS index is a transcription of the Marriage Index Book and NOT the Record of Marriages Book itself. It is always possible that the original source documents, the Affidavit For License To Marry, the Certificate And Record of Marriage and the Certificate of Consent, (for minors), were not posted correctly to the Record of Marriages Book, or that entries in the Record of Marriages Book were not posted correctly to the Marriage Index Book, or that TIGS transcribers misread the handwriting. If there is a question on any entry, the actual source documents at the County Clerk's Office, if available, would have to be referenced. H. In working on Volume IV & V of the Marriage Index it was discovered that none of the original records could be located. Extensive searching has yet to locate these records. Photocopies of the original Volume IV & V marriage documents, therefore, are not available. For marriage numbers from 12001 to 15998 in Volumes IV and V, the only item available will be a photocopy of the full detailed record that was posted to the Marriage Record Book FROM the original documents. The County Clerk's Office has agreed to provide a photocopy of the Marriage Record Book entry for those names where the original documents are not available. This photocopy WILL show the correct date of marriage. In order to copy the record, this very heavy and large book (13 x 19) has to be moved from the basement vault and taken to a photocopier on the first floor I. The TIGS website has a PRINTABLE FORM that can be used to request copies from the Rensselaer County Clerk's Office. Mailing instructions and fees (only $5.00) are on the request form. Volumes 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3 each have their own SEPARATE request forms and the request form for Volumes 4 and 5 is combined. J. The original pages of the Marriage Index Book were scanned by TIGS members. The resulting pdf files were then sent to the volunteers working on the project as an attachment to an email, along with an Excel spreadsheet for data entry. This extensive data base was made possible by 26 volunteers from all over the United States. Volunteer names are shown on the TIGS website. K. The next step in the Marriage Index Project will be Volume 6 & 7 which, again, is one combined index. These 2 volumes cover another 4,000 records and 8,000 names. If you want to be added to the list of volunteer transcribers, send an email off list to: seamus@nycap.rr.com with your name, address and telephone number. You will be contacted when work on Volume 6 & 7 begins. L. TIGS would like to hear from you if this marriage index was helpful in your family research. Regards, Bill McGrath TIGS Project Coordinator Clifton Park, NY