Articles & Databases

Databases of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Highlights include full-text access to the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (1847-1994), and New England state vital records and index resources, including New York.  To access these resources, select Search→Databases or Browse→Databases from the main menu.  

Searchable full-text and page images of newspapers from across the country including early newspapers, 1690-1922; America's Urban Centers Newspaper Collection, 1807-1880; African American Newspapers, 1827-1998; Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection, 1799-1971; Caribbean Newspapers, 1718-1876; and Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980; Early American Newspapers, Series 15, 1822-1879: Immigrant Communities. 

Access to this resource has been temporarily expanded to NYPL cardholders working from home, courtesy of Readex/Newsbank.

Access billions of names in thousands of genealogical databases including Census and Vital Records, birth, marriage and death notices, the Social Security Death Index, Passenger lists and naturalizations, Military and Holocaust Records, City Directories, New York Emigrant Savings Bank records, and African American and Native American Records. Library version of Ancestry.com.  

***PLEASE NOTE THAT TEMPORARY REMOTE ACCESS TO THIS DATABASE HAS BEEN TERMINATED.***

Indexes biographical listings in print dictionaries and encyclopedias covering millions of individuals, both living and deceased, from every field of activity and from all areas of the world. A good resource for researching those who are less well-known or famous. 

Provides biographical information on 650,000+ people from throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines. For more in-depth biographies of figures from American history, consult American National Biography. 

Operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), this free website offers a variety of genealogical databases, access to unindexed images of genealogical records, the Social Security Death Index, wiki entries describing various types of genealogical research, and access to the Family History Library's catalog. Free access to the 1940 United States Federal Census.

Find My Past includes genealogicial records from the United States, along with England, Ireland, New Zealand, and other smaller record sets from around the globe. Keep in mind that the 1939 registers and the newspaper packages on FMP are not included in library subscriptions. For access to newspapers, please browse NYPL's collection of historical titles. 

Historical primary documents featuring U.S. city directories, naturalization records, and Revolutionary War Pensions. Collections include: History and Genealogy Archives, African American Archives, Native American Archives, Revolutionary War Archives, US Bureau of Investigation Case File Archives, and World War II Archives. Formerly known as Footnote.com.

This genealogical database allows researchers to search U.S. Federal Census records, digitized family and local history books, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files and the Freedman's Bank Records (1865-1874), maps, and a wealth of other historical collections and research guides. 

Newspapers.com is the largest online newspaper archive consisting of 300+ million pages of historical newspapers from 11,100+ newspapers from around the United States and beyond, with a special focus on full runs and portions of runs of well-known, regional and state titles in addition to small local newspapers. The collection includes a broad range of dates, mostly covering the 19th and 20th centuries. 

Access to this resource has been temporarily expanded to NYPL cardholders working from home, courtesy of ProQuest and its partner Newspapers.com.

Searchable full-text and page images from The New York Times archive with the option to search by subject headings (index covers 1851-1993).