Indices: Explore all Options

It's one o'clock in the morning. Do you know who else has indexed your data set?

Record collections are coming online with astonishing frequency. Many times we sigh with resignation as company B follows company A, which published the same collection a year or so previously. Later, company C provides the same  online collection. Aside from competition for customers, what's the point? The point is, researchers can benefit from independently indexed collections.

from Wikimediacommons

There are several reasons for searching the same or similar collections on more than one website. Different companies may have:

• their own proprietary image enhancement technology that may significantly improve viewing of otherwise identical images (compare, for example, enhanced 1940 U.S. census images on a variety of websites);
• advanced search options and tools allowing one to focus one's search energies;
• a variety of methods for moving within datasets to browse for images of interest (for example, I much prefer to browse manifests on sites that allow me to jump around among the images, not force me to advance only one image at a time; I also like to be able to rotate census images so I can read through the street names quickly when I am searching through an enumeration district); 

But none of this is important if you cannot find the image or have no idea where to look within the collection. 

Indexers often get a bad rap. Yes, indexing is a prime area where errors may be introduced. Ancestry has been criticized for using foreign indexers. FamilySearch has been criticized for not allowing input for corrections to their indices. A common complaint from researchers whose ancestors came from Eastern Europe is that Ellis Island manifests have been indexed by researchers who have no familiarity with those surnames and places. Because of that, some of the indexing errors seem bizarre to those of us who have some familiarity.

The truth is, despite these issues, indexing is the heart and soul of genealogy research. Yes the computer has revolutionized research. But, if not for indexing, much of that would not have been possible.

We all have our favorite websites and search tools, but when all else fails in your search, bail and go to another site that has the same collection, indexed via a different set of indexers.[1]

I will admit, that I have been an ardent follower of the freely accessible Italian Genealogy Group and German Genealogy Group indices of New York City vital records. These entities partnered in a volunteer effort to index records available through the New York City Municipal Archives. I would sometimes use the Steve Morse One-Step search forms to access them. But, even after Ancestry put indices of these same records online, I still saw most benefit in staying with the ItalianGen/GermanGen indices.

Unfortunately, one thing we do not see often enough with complex record sets is independently derived indices that include different/additional information. I have lamented previously that I did not see much value added when FamilySearch decided to initiate their own indexing project for New York manifests. I wanted to see additional information indexed, such place of birth, closest relative in the old country and address and/or name of the person the immigrant planned to meet at their destination.

New York City vital records? Enter FamilySearch. 

On 20 March 2015 they added [2]:

• New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949

• New York, New York City Births, 1846-1909

• New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1866-1938

As I usually do, I immediately tested the new indices with one of my unusual family surnames: Liebross. I figured after all these years I'd pretty much exhausted the Liebross vital records collections in New York City. But, FamilySearch added an element to their indexing of death records that had not been included by previous indexers: parents' names (parents' names are also included in birth and marriage record searches).

ItalianGen/GermanGen and Ancestry indices have coded first name, age at death, date, certificate number and county. Results in the marriage index also provide easy access to spouse names.

Using the Steve Morse search form one can also get results that include the FHL microfilm number. One would not see parents' names until one had acquired the original record. Where there were several people indexed with the same or similar names, this created a bit of a crap shoot. Many of us have ordered records we thought might be correct only to discover that the parents names were not. 

The new FamilySearch index not only adds a bit more certainty to the process of record acquisition, but also to the hope of finding new records.

Results of my recent Liebross search surprised me. Early in my family history research I'd found that my great aunt Rose who, I thought, had never married, had indeed married (in 1926) and later divorced (in 1931) a dentist named Nathan J. Bernstein. I'd located the marriage certificate indexed on ItalianGen.[3]

In FamilySearch's new NYC Municipal Deaths index database, I waded through the expected indexed records and then, towards the end, noted records where Liebross was the deceased's mother's surname.

Oh, my! Rose Liebross Bernstein had a baby who had died: Ira Howard Bernstein.

 

He was born and died between census enumerations. It is unlikely I ever would have found him. While I have since found him in the same cemetery (Mt. Lebanon) as the rest of the family, he and his parents were not buried in the same plots.  

[It is interesting to note that when I searched on Liebross in the FamilySearch marriage index I received no hits. Several Liebross family members are identified in the ItalianGen marriage index search results. This is another example of why one should use more than one index in one's searches.]

Of course indexers always make choices. While FamilySearch has included much more information that previous indexers, cause of death is not indexed; nor identification of the informant, the doctor, funeral home, etc. I have no particular criticism of that.  

The results provide more information than may be searched from FamilySearch's search box. It would be nice if the search box allowed for searching on particular dates (or even months) of death and birth. Right now one may only search on a range of years. Why not allow searches on particular addresses (the smallest geographical unit one may now search on is city)?

Regardless, this new index is huge. I have already found my great aunt's previously unknown child. By searching on family surnames, one may be able to find death records for women whose married names were previously unknown. 

If FamilySearch allowed more specific time or area searches, one one might be able to conduct research into community deaths in one small area of the city. Think of the context one might develop for understanding one's family and their lives at particular times and places.

I now await delivery of a copy of the original death record for Ira Howard Bernstein from the New York City Municipal Archives.

Let's hope new indices keep coming from a variety of sources. As researchers we must try new indices to expand our opportunities for success. 

Notes:
1. It would be nice if companies were up-front about how their collections were indexed? In addition to collection descriptions on websites, they should include how indices were derived. That way one might be able to tell if indices on different websites were independently developed or copied from another (also accessible) source.
2. The data sets do not actually contain death records from 1949 or marriage records from 1938. The records end the year before those designations. It would be good if FamilySearch corrected that so researchers do not think they might find death records from 1949 and marriage certificates from 1938.
3. Queens County, New York, marriage certificate no. 3319 (1926), Nathan Judas Bernstein and Rose Liebross, 14 November 1926; Municipal Archives, New York.

ItalianGen and Ancestry make a match

New agreements and partnerships between commercial and non-profit genealogy organizations seem to be coming to light weekly. The latest popped up on Ancestry.com yesterday. Ancestry has placed ItalianGen.org's New York City vital record indices on Ancestry's website.

Last September I extolled the virtues of improvements ItalianGen had made in their search functions and look. Now, however, Ancestry has placed the same index online and one may search it with their tools. This is a good thing.

Back in the dark ages of my research when I was searching for my grandparents' marriage certificate, I had trouble finding it. Turns out, my grandfather's name, Joseph Wilson, had been written on the certificate and indexed for Italiangen as "Jos Wilson." When I searched on Joseph, those with the first name Jos did not appear in the results. When I searched on J Wilson, there were too many results.

Enter Ancestry whose search engine recognizes that if one enters "Joseph," it should also consider results for "Jos." It also allows one to search on both spouses names in the same query. Italiangen does not provide that option.

Ancestry's search form for NYC marriage certificates

Being able to match spouses would have saved me a great deal of effort. On Italiangen I had to going through results, clicking each spouse button to see if an indexed record was from my Joseph Wilson.

ItalianGen's search results for NYC marriage certificates

Ancestry's results include a well-placed link to the New York City Department of Records to order a copy of the certificate.

Of course, those who are familiar with Steve Morse's plethora of search options know that one may also search the ItalianGen indices via his site. While Morse does not provide a tool to search on both spouses at the same time and does not provide a link to the NYC Department of Records, he does provide a link to FamilySearch.org microfilm numbers. And, armed with that information, names of the couple, date of marriage and certificate number, one may choose to order a copy of the record via the FamilySearch Photoduplication Department.

ItalianGen Launches a New Look

For those immersed in New York City genealogy there is no greater website than ItalianGen.org (IGG) and its sister site the German Genealogy Group (GGG).[1] While there are some differences in the databases they host, for the most part they share the glory as the go-to places for indices of NYC vital and naturalization records. A few days ago I noticed some changes on the GGG. But, I use the IGG most often. So, I didn't linger on the GGG changes. This morning, however, I noticed that IGG has also changed (they must be using the same web designer) for the better. Change can be difficult, but in this case, I'm already smitten.

The redesign is clean and clear and not too far removed from the previous version (we are, after all creatures of habit). Click on Database Searches and options drop down to reveal record sets. 

When one selects a record set, one is presented with some of the same search choices available previously as well as some improvements that address (for me) some previous annoyances. 

For example, previously with naturalization records, one could only select one court at a time.[2]  Now, one may search all the naturalization indices at once, if one chooses.

The results pages provide improvements for determining the correct record and for acquiring it:

• Results may be sorted by clicking data in columns. One may sort results by year, first name, last name, volume, etc. This is very helpful when trying to ford though many records for people with a common name. I did notice; however, that in the naturalization index there were some format variations with dates (see example below) that would make sorting by date problematic.
• When results are many, one may now scroll through rather than click though pages. A huge improvement.
• Links to forms for ordering records, which have been broken for some time, are now fixed. Now one may relatively painlessly order New York naturalization records from the National Archives branch in New York City or vital records from the Municipal Archives.
• Hundreds of diligent volunteers (including me) have worked to prepare these indices and mistakes (and fuzzy copies of the original) happen. Now, one may click one button to send in corrections to the IGG.

One thing to note: the conventions for wild card searches have changed. Now instead of the more standard * or ?, one must use % or _ .

Wild Card - With this option you can replace part of the surname with a % to match any number of letters, or _ to match a single letter. So for example, Sch% will return all names starting with Sch. Similarly, Schl_tz might return results such as Schlitz or Schlotz.

Congratulations to John Martino and the group at ItalianGen.org for some improvements that will be greatly appreciated by users. Now we just need to continue to provide our donations of time and money so they can continue putting new and expanded indices online.

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Notes:
1. OK, maybe Steve Morse's One-Step website, but I'm talking here about the sites that actually host the databases.

2. As of this morning (14 Sep 2013), Steve Morse's access to this site has not yet caught up with this change and still requires selection of specific court of naturalization. Of course his also includes one index not included on the IGG, "Kings County (Brooklyn) Supreme Court 1907-1924" which is hosted by the Jewish Genealogical Society of New York.

New York City Vital Record Indices, 1949-1965

So my previous discussion of accessibility of New York City death record information left out a critical resource that I knew about, but flaked on while writing the post. There are printed registers (indices) for New York City Deaths and Births through 1965. These registers have been microfilmed (although not digitized nor online yet) and are available to rent from the Family History Library via FamilySearch.org. Armed with date of death and certificate number from these registers, one may order New York City death certificates from the Department of Health and minimize search time and fees.

I have actually used microfilm rolls resident at my closest FamilySeach Library (Mesa, AZ) of birth certificate indices for New York City that carry one through 1965 births. The Family History Library also has film for NYC deaths through 1965 and NYC marriages through 1937 (although ItalianGen already has a marriage index through 1937 online).

FamilySearch.org has filmed three documents they produced in 2005 and 2006 on New York City vital record registers:

Register of New York City Death Records
Register of New York City Birth Records
Register if New York City Marriage Records

These books may be read online or downloaded from FamilySearch. They explain the records that exist and the organization of the data. They also identify the Family History Library microfilm rolls on which one may access the filmed register pages.

For New York City death records, for example, one would access the following microfilms to see Register pages for 1947 through 1965 (indexed records for 1949-1965 are not currently online at ItalianGen, although I know they're working on it):

1947-1951        Film 1,324,925
1952-1956       Film 1,324,926
1957-1960       Film 1,324,927
1961-1962       Film 1,324,928
1963                 Film 1,324,929
1964                 Film 1,324,930
1965                 Film 1,324,931

I have used pages from these films to help index records that already appear in ItalianGen online indices and will appear in future indices. This is what a portion of a page from the death record microfilmed index looks like.

The data of genealogical interest on the register pages for the years 1947-1965: 

• Surnames - each year includes individuals listed alphabetically by surname; 
• First name - alphabetically following surname.  Newborns may only show "male" or "female");
• Age - generally in years, however, children may be shown with an M for months or D for days old;
• Date of death - month, day, and year. The year is indicated only by its last digit. However, the full year is identified on the bottom of each page.
• Borough of the City of New York - Bronx (X), Brooklyn (K), Manhattan (M), Queens (Q), and Richmond (R). Y indicates that the person died outside New York City.  
• Certificate number. If a number appears in this column following a Y in the Boro. column, it represents the State in which the person died. The FamilySearch book includes a key to these numbers. 

Death records are typically filed by county. If someone died outside New York City, don't expect to get a death certificate at the New York City Municipal Archives or at the Department of Health. But, if one doesn't know where the person died, this last column with the state key could be a great clue on where to look next.

But don't forget, no matter how well-armed with information you are (and no matter how sweet you and your mother think you are), you will not be able to acquire a death record less than 50 years old in New York State unless you can prove you are the deceased person's parent, spouse, sibling or direct descendant.

Top Ten Tips for Searching for the Right NYC Cemetery

It's Spring and our thoughts turn to . . . cemeteries.

After about ten days of strong attachment to my computer, I finished my three backlog cemetery documentation projects (that had been staring at me longingly) and submitted them to JewishGen's Jewish Online Worldwide Burial Registry.[1] Interestingly, while my attention was diverted to my onerous tasks, the Jewish genealogy forums sponsored by JewishGen included discussions about cemetery research.

One question of interest was: How does one find where someone was buried in New York City?

Here's how I would handle it.

1. Check the online death certificate indices at ItalianGen or the German Genealogy Group.

In this case, the researcher had already tried searching the online database for New York City death certificates on ItalianGen to no avail. If one does find a death certificate, head to FamilySearch.org to locate the microfilm and acquire the record. Death certificates list the cemetery where the body was to be interred.

[UPDATE (24 April 2017): Since this post was published, FamilySearch has added their own indices of NYC vital recoreds. They indexed a great number of data items than the German or Italian Genealogy Groups. FamilySearch's death record index often includes the name of the cemetery.]

If one doesn't find a death certificate listed in the index, there are a number of possibilities including:

• the indexers missed the record
• the surname was spelled differently than expected (due to all the usual possibilities)
• the person did not die in one of the boroughs of New York City

2. Check existing cemetery websites that have online grave locator indices. 

Right now, for New York area, the following cemeteries offer this service online:

• Montefiore Cemeteries (includes both Old Montefiore in Queens and New Montefiore on Long Island)

• Mount Ararat

• Mount Carmel (index includes Knollwood Park and Hungarian Union Field)

• Mount Hebron

• Mount Judah

• Mount Lebanon

• Mount Moriah in Fairview, New Jersey

• Mount Zion

• Riverside Cemetery in Saddle Brook, New Jersey (check under Our Services an, then, Genealogy Search) [update, 22 May 2014: it looks like Riverside Cemetery has removed their search function. One may now request up to five look-ups via email.]

One may see a nice summary of the existing inventory of New York area Jewish cemeteries at the Museum of Family History. Check out the Cemetery Project Directory.  

3. Check online grave recording services such as Find A Grave, Internment.net and Billion Graves.

4. Query in the JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry.

5. Check the fee-based service JewishData.com.

JewishData has online images of many tombstones from Jewish cemeteries throughout the United States and elsewhere. It's a little pricey at about $18 for three months. However, one of the perks of membership in the Jewish Genealogical Society of New York is free access to Jewish Data.  

6. Conduct a broad general search within the Birth, Marriage and Death databases on Ancestry.

When I first started working on the Malzmann/Molthman portion of my family I was surprised to see death records for likely family members show up in Georgia and North Carolina. I never would have done specific checks for records in those locations. A general search in Ancestry's vital records databases was the key.  Of course, it helped that I was dealing with a rare surname.

7. Haul out the dead!

OK, so your deceased family member is not in the likely places. Expand your world. Where are their other relatives buried? Develop a list of your family's cemeteries. Riverside Memorial Chapel's website provides a nice listing of contact information for and directions to all Jewish Cemeteries in the New York metropolitan area. 

8. Network!

In my post a few days ago about Myer Myers, I talked about finding death certificates from outside New York City by contacting the known cemetery. Death certificates are issued based on where people died - not where they lived. They could have been visiting somewhere else or, they could have moved elsewhere.

If we accept that they might have died outside the City, where might they have been? People move later in life for a variety of reasons. Some move to get out of urban areas. Some move to be near their children. At least three of my immigrant relatives (my great grandparents' generation) retired to small farms outside the City: Myer to Sullivan County, New York; Benjamin Molthman to Renssalaer County, New York; and my great grandparents, Sarah and Isidore Morris, to Monmouth County, New Jersey. The couple I located in North Carolina and Georgia had moved to follow one of their children.

Search out the children and siblings of the deceased. Where did they live? Could the person you are seeking have died while living near a relative who'd moved away from home? Use census records, if available, or city directories to trace a network of other relatives.

9. Look for probate records.

A death certificate could be found within the file. Or, one might find other hints about payments for funeral arrangements from the estate. Cases are filed by county (for New York City, by borough). Family Search has digitized many of the borough probate file index cards. To see the actual case files, one may have to visit in person or be prepared to pay someone to copy possibly voluminous files.

10. Check the Social Security Death Index.

If the person died since about 1960, see if they are located in the Social Security Death Index (available at FamilySearch.og). Look for the location of the last payment made. This could be a hint for where the person died and where one might locate a death certificate.

11. (a bonus tip) Check old newspapers.

The New York Times might be a long-shot, but there may also be smaller circulation papers that noted the death. One's first stop should be Old Fulton New York Historical Newspapers for good access to old New York City papers.

If after all this one still has not succeeded in finding one's relative, at least one has completed a reasonably exhaustive (or exhausting!) search. If any readers have any other suggested resources or techniques, I'd love to hear about them.

Notes:
1. I submitted spreadsheets and photos to JOWBR for three burial plots:

• First Lubiner Progessive Benevolent Association (FLPBA) plots in Montefiore Cemetery, Queens, NY (including corrections to Hebrew name transliterations and typos and additional graves stones and photos acquired during my last trip to NY last summer).

• FLPBA plot at Beth Moses Cemetery, Pinelawn, NY. I documented this plot during the summer of 2011. This one was definitely backlog and it feels good to get this completed and submitted.

• United Old Konstantin Benevolent Society, Inc. plot in Montefiore Cemetery. I only have one relative (that I know of) in this plot (Abraham Sotskess, husband of Rebecca Myers Sotskess, my great great aunt), but I had a few moments and thought I'd record the whole shebang.

They will likely be online by early summer 2013.

It's snowing in Mecca

I overcame the usual stress of getting ready for a trip: doing the basics to get things tucked away at work, anticipating clothing needs in a foreign climate (all places where there is actually winter weather are foreign), and packing (I acknowledged to myself and to my husband my embarrassment at being a technology dinosaur – why, I don’t even have an iPad or a smart phone! The closest I come is my iPod Touch. I still have favorite pens and pencils – maybe I shouldn’t go to RootsTech…) And then, I put the finishing touches on my plans for searching at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.  There is never enough time to prepare, but finally, at about 9 P.M. the night before my flight, I sang que sera, sera and resisted the urge to stay up till the wee hours searching through online indices for previously unsecured remnants of great great uncle whatshisname.

On Wednesday, I arrived about 11 A.M., shuttled to the hotel and when they told me it was too early to check in, I knew just what to do: out the back door, down the alley and around the corner to the Family History Library (FHL).  As I’ve come to expect of any LDS-sponsored genealogical venture, the FHL is fantastically organized and was ready for the onslaught of more than 4200 eager (read rabid) RootsTech genealogists. The place seems filled with books about and microfilm from every corner of the earth.  For many, including me, this was our first foray in the FHL – although I now know that my time spent in the Mesa Regional Family History Center was good preparation for this place, albeit on a smaller scale.

It’s a thrill to be able to locate an appropriate microfilm number and immediately get ones hands on the film.  Truth be told, for Jewish genealogy the FHL is a mixed bag.  They do have some things from Galicia in the areas where my mother’s mother’s family was located.  I found the one Liebross record from Okopy I’d identified in Gesher Galicia's All Galicia Database.  I do not yet know if or how this Mene might be related to my Liebross family, but it’s nice to acquire a record without having to wait months for the Polish Archives to locate and send it.  Beyond that, for me at least, the relevant Eastern European records are scant.  But that is not because the FHL hasn’t tried.  A couple of years ago at the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) conference in Los Angeles, CA I heard Kahlile Mehr, the Manager of the Slavic Collection Management & Cataloging Dept at the FHL, say that he’d been trying for more than ten years to get an agreement with the Zhytomyr archives in Ukraine.  Ach!  He also didn’t have access to Khmelnytskyy or Zalishchyky archives in Ukraine (triple ach!) – all places I need.

Anyway, the FHL is great for New York City records.  And I decided to do a vacuum-like search (look at everything in sight) for one of my hiding relatives: Moses/Morris Epstein (my great grandmother Hoda Wilson Epstein’s brother). Before I left home I queried Italian Genealogical Group Vital Records index of NYC death records for all Moses and Morris Epsteins and, list in hand, used Steve Morse’s One-Step tool for finding FHL film numbers for NYC vital records (why hadn’t I found that before).  After one day of maniacal searching at the FHL, I’ve gone through about ¾ of my list of likely films.  Haven’t found him yet.

Thursday I was busy with the conference.  I’ll get back to my research Friday night when the FHL stays open for RootsTech until midnight.  Then I'll probably get into their considerable collection of books.  For now, out through the snow and across the street to the Convention Center.