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Archiver > APG > 2004-04 > 1081132449


From: "Eileen Polakoff" <>
Subject: RE: [APG] New York City Death Index database now available to all
Date: Sun, 4 Apr 2004 22:34:09 -0400
In-Reply-To: <200404042007.i34K7H1A021568@mail.rootsweb.com>


Elizabeth Mills wrote:
> The preface to the database states that the database "was accomplished by
> scanning the original index books and required no typing." The time period
> is 1891-1911, a period for which "original indexes" in most places are
> handwritten rather than typed. If the project was done from a typed index,
> then presumably it was a master index created at a later date by someone
> interpreting the original handwriting, right? Then this index was OCR'd,
> for conversion into fields in the database?
>
I can explain a little about New York City vital records indexes for the
time period. The indexes available are printed -- typeset -- not
handwritten. Due to the size of the city and number of records produced at
any time in New York City it was necessary to use the most modern technology
available at the time (wish it was the same today). Not being around in the
1890s and not a topic I've tried to research I can only give an educated
guess on how these indexes were created. My guess is that handwritten
records of some sort existed but I don't know if it was a temporary listing
or use of the original records. What I do know is that annually the City of
New York published books of indexes to the births, marriages and deaths in
the city for the previous year. Those "early" years of the 1890s before the
city was consolidated into the five boroughs New York City meant Manhattan
and part of the Bronx. In 1898 New York City became the city it is today
when Brooklyn (then the third largest city in America I believe), Queens,
Staten Island, and the rest of the Bronx joined Manhattan to become New
York City.

The difficulty in using the printed indexes for this time period (1891-1911;
especially pre-1900 or so) is they are arranged by borough by month by
letter of the alphabet. If you thought someone died in 1892 it meant looking
at 12 lists (January to December) for the initial letter of the surname in
each borough. All of the "S" names would be together but not in alphabetical
order. For all of those problem letters like "S", "L", and other problems
such as did the name begin with an "s" or a "z" or maybe a "c"... it meant
looking at a number of letters of the alphabet. And keeping track of which
borough you looked at, which months you had looked at, which letters of the
alphabet you had looked at. It is possible the printed indexes were first
compiled by looking at the original records and one-by-one transcribing the
information onto a new list and later that list was given to a typographer
to set into type. It was a later date but not by much...maybe a few months.
And yes, many human hands were probably involved. I think a plus is that the
people creating the indexes were the same clerks who created the original
documents.

Because the confusion of how to spell a name or reading penmanship for some
time periods the City of New York created additional indexes to the same set
of records. There are Soundex indexes and location indexes (21 Murray St.,
22 Murray St., 23 Murray St.) because people were born at home and knew
where they lived when daughter Fanny was born. See _Genealogical Resources
in the New York Metropolitan Area_ (published by the Jewish Genealogical
Society) for details.

June can confirm this next part but I believe the scanned images were sent
to volunteers who created a data base rather than trusting OCR. June??

I know this explanation is incomplete and not necessarily as neat as I would
like... but maybe it will help explain our records. And will give everyone
some clue as to why we are all overjoyed that the Italian Genealogical
Society and especially John Martino, are doing this project and others. Wait
until you see the "Old Mens World War II Draft Registration" cards that this
group organized into a usable collection! (if you want to learn more about
this give me a day or two to look up the article written by APG member
Lucille Gudis about this collection).


[I hope this helps Elizabeth and that I haven't confused the issue too much
with my weak explanation June :-) ]

Eileen Polakoff
New York City

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