New York State Death Index on Internet Archive; Ancestry.com Adds "New York, Death Index, 1880-1956" Collection Today

Last year, the group Reclaim the Records won its petition to access the New York City Death Index and made digitized images of the microfilm/microfiche index available for free via the Internet Archive website < www.archive.org > which is a free website. Earlier this year, the Reclaim the Records received access to the New York State Death Index and immediately set to work adding those images to Internet Archive as well.

All of the Reclaim the Records digitized records from a variety of states can be found under the group's name here at Internet Archive. At this time the New York State Death Index collection is still empty showing 0 items. BUT if you search the Internet Archive (not the WayBackMachine) using "New York State Death Index" you will find the individual PDFs for each year are already on the website. Add a year to your search to find the PDF file quickly for that year.

There is a basic search with these PDFs but note it will show the specific characters you search anywhere in the document. So searching Smith will bring up not only Smith surnames but also Smithtown. The other option is to manually browse the images (click thru via entering a specific page/image number to jump ahead or back) in the PDF until you come to the surname you are seeking.

But today, it appears Ancestry.com has created and added an electronic index to images of the New York State Death Index. The collection at Ancestry is called New York, Death Index, 1880-1956, and it is not free. Ancestry's electronic index allows one to limit a search to surnames and craft searches with a variety of search filters. Search a first and last name; search just a last name and a year or range of years; search just a location without a surname and add a year or year range if needed ... the search filter options/combinations are endless.

It is not clear if Ancestry obtained the index microfilm from New York directly and created its own digital images downloadable as individual jpg files, or if it is using the same images created by Reclaim the Records viewable and downloadable as PDF "books." The image quality appears very similar but if you are having trouble reading an entry at one site check the other just in case.

For those without home access, remember many local libraries have Ancestry Library Edition available for patron use while in the library usually on the library's computers or your own via the library's wireless access. Of course, the Internet Archive is available for free to anyone as long as you have internet access from somewhere.

Have a safe holiday weekend and for those who are local we will see you soon at our first meeting of the Fall 2017.

See you soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE