School districts in the state were required to collect vital records starting in 1847. The law was not in effect very long. I know some districts collected the records until 1851, but for other districts the records that still exist stop in 1848 or 1849. Many city, village and town clerks do not know about these records. During the Great Depression in this country, the locations of old records in each county around New York State were recorded. Some counties still had the 1847 vital records. For the city of Albany, the City Clerk had them. Today, however, that office does not know where they are. In localities where those records still exist, I suspect that they have been turned over to a local historical society or archive. Or, they may be stored somplace where people seldom look. Some have been put on the internet. For Westchester County: http://www.westchestergov.com/wcarchives/vital_records.htm "Town clerk returns for births, marriages and deaths for 1847 have recently been discovered. They are currently being processed and will be available to the public in early 2005." For Rensselaer County (this is one of many webpages): http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyrensse/deaths1.htm Cliff Lamere ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If this helps someone, I have both my parents' birth certificates obtained from the towns in which they were born. Printed on my mother's Birth Return, For Gen. Research Only, and Note: Birth Returns and all ___ are to be procured of Town and Village Clerks and Boards of Health, for the Registry of Births, Marriages and Deaths. She was b/1893 Peekskill. My father's (b/1889) was obtained from either the clerk in Eastchester or Mt. Vernon -I don't remember which at this late date. However, consists of a copy of pages from a large ledger: Register of Births in the Village of Mt Vernon, Town of Eastchester.County of Westchester, State of NY. Interestingly, someone pulled Book 1 Pg 69 out and annotated his death (11/4/51) but only the date of birth as 1889. At any rate, I'd try the city clerks in the town in which the person was born or died. And yes, they were all born at home To: <nywestch@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2007 10:14 AM Subject: [NYWESTCH] NYS Vital Records 1847-1851 > School districts in the state were required to collect vital records > starting in 1847. The law was not in effect very long. I know some > districts collected the records until 1851, but for other districts the > records that still exist stop in 1848 or 1849. Many city, village and > town clerks do not know about these records. > > During the Great Depression in this country, the locations of old > records in each county around New York State were recorded. Some > counties still had the 1847 vital records. For the city of Albany, the > City Clerk had them. Today, however, that office does not know where > they are. > > In localities where those records still exist, I suspect that they have > been turned over to a local historical society or archive. Or, they may > be stored somplace where people seldom look. > > Some have been put on the internet. > > For Westchester County: > http://www.westchestergov.com/wcarchives/vital_records.htm > > "Town clerk returns for births, marriages and deaths for 1847 have > recently been discovered. They are currently being processed and will > be available to the public in early 2005." > > For Rensselaer County (this is one of many webpages): > http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyrensse/deaths1.htm > > Cliff Lamere > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > > > *************************************** > Have you checked out the Westchester County GenWeb site yet? > http://www.rootsweb.com/~nywestch/ > *************************************** > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > NYWESTCH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message