National Archives and Records Administration,
National Archives, Northeast Region
1 Bowling Green
New York, NY 10004
(entrance on West Houston Street between Varick and Hudson streets; entrance is marked "West Houston Street Entrance to 201 Varick Street")
(212) 401-1620; (866) 840-1752 (toll-free)
Fax: (212) 401-1638
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Tuesday, Thursday, 8:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m. (only microfilm research after 4:30 p.m.); first Saturday of each month, 8:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m. (only microfilm research).
U.S. censuses, all states, all years; immigrant and passenger arrivals; Hamburg passenger lists direct index; Russian Consular records for the New York Consulate; naturalizations; city directories; indexes to New York State vital records; records of concentration camps, the Public Health Service, military service, the Veterans Administration, and the Internal Revenue Service.
ID Requirements: Photo ID required to enter building. A non-photo researcher identification card will be issued in NARA upon showing a photo ID from an official source, such as a driver's license, passport or school or employment ID. If the address on the photo ID is no longer correct, proof of address from another official source must be provided, such as a voter registration card or motor vehicle registration.
Agudath Israel of America Orthodox Jewish Archives
42 Broadway, 14th Floor
New York 10004-1617
(between Exchange Place and Morris Street)
(212) 797-8179
Fax: (212) 269-2843
Appointment suggested.
Jewish immigration from the turn of the century to the present. Work of the Vaad Hatzala (Orthodox Jewish Rescue Committee) in providing relief and rescue to Jews trapped in Nazi Europe; Jewish educational activities; children's camps; employment; social welfare programs.
American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors
122 West 30th Street, Suite 205
New York, NY 10001
(212) 239-4230; (212) 564-1065
Fax: (212) 279-2926
Mail requests only.
Registry of Jewish Holocaust Survivors worldwide and their children.
American Jewish Historical Society
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
(between 5th and 6th avenues)
(212) 294-6160
Fax: (212) 294-6161
Mon - Thurs 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.; Fri 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
The AJHS is located within the Center for Jewish History.
Jewish contributions to religious, economic, cultural, and political life in the Americas, 1590 to the present. Personal and family papers; immigration organizations; Jewish organizations; orphanage, military, court, and community records.
Click on this Plan Your visit link for current health and safety requirements. Call in advance for ID requirements. To make an appointment visit the CJH website.
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Archives
711 Third Avenue, 10th Floor
(between East 44th and East 45th streets)
New York, NY 10017-3898
(212) 687-6200
Fax: (212) 370-5467; (212) 682-7262
By appointment only after a Research Application and Statement of Compliance has been approved. Specific limited queries made by phone, mail, or e-mail will be responded to, but in-depth research assistance cannot be provided.
Operations and activities, 1914-1964, including distribution of food, clothing, and medical supplies, reconstruction of decimated areas, rescue of Jews from Nazi-occupied lands, administration of displaced persons camps, relocation of refugees, migration to Israel.
ID Requirements: Photo ID and pre-notification of arrival required to enter building and archives in Manhattan and warehouse in Queens.
---OR---
Do your research on-line on the JDC Archives website at https://archives.jdc.org/search-the-archives/. Here you can search for relatives, friends, ancestors; anyone who has received JDC aid, financial or otherwise. Currently indexed material includes lists of people helped from 1914 to 1973.
American Sephardi Federation Library and Archives
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
(between 5th and 6th avenues)
(212) 294-8350
Fax: (212) 294-8348
Online catalog: https://asf.cjh.org/asfquery.htm
Access to Center for Jewish History is by appointment only. A research account is required to make appointments and request materials. Consult the Introduction to the Reading Room for information on rules, policies, hours and instructions on setting up a research account.
History and culture of Jews from the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans, and the Orient. Vital records; local histories; newspapers; family histories.
ID Requirements: A positive valid photo ID must be surrendered to Security personnel in the Center's 16th Street lobby when entering the building. Security will issue visitors an identifying badge, to be worn at all times. The photo ID will be returned upon turning the badge in to Security and leaving the Center.
Board of Education
Office of Community Relations
52 Chambers Street, Room 320
New York, NY 10007
(212) 374-5159
Fax: (718) 935-5796
To request student records and transcrips go to Student Records and Transcripts
Note: Required retention period is fifty years.
Board of Elections, Manhattan Borough Office
200 Varick Street, 10th Floor (between West Houston and King streets)
New York, NY 10014
(212) 886-2100
Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Arrive by 4:00 p.m.
Manhattan voter registrations, 1916-1920 (with gaps) and 1923 to the present.
Bund Archives of the Jewish Labor Movement
(Now a division of YIVO Institute for Jewish Research Archives. See YIVO below.)
Center for Jewish History, Lillian Goldman Main Reading Room
15 West 16th Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10011
(between 5th and 6th avenues)
212-294-8301 ext. 5101
Access to Center for Jewish History is by appointment only. A research account is required to make appointments and request materials. This site will provide all the information on rules, policies, hours and instructions on setting up a research account.
The Reading Room houses the collections of the CJH partner organizations: American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
Collections of the constituent partners: American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
ID Requirements: A positive valid photo ID must be surrendered to Security personnel in the Center's 16th Street lobby when entering the building. Security will issue visitors an identifying badge, to be worn at all times. The photo ID will be returned upon turning the badge in to Security and leaving the Center.
Center for Jewish History, Ackman & Ziff Genealogy Institute
15 West 16th Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10011
(between 5th and 6th avenues)
917-606-8217
Includes an LDS Family History Center.
Genealogy reference works; electronic resources.
Access to Center for Jewish History is by appointment only. A research account is required to make appointments and request materials. Consult the Introduction to the Reading Room for information on rules, policies, hours and instructions on setting up a research account.
ID Requirements: A positive valid photo ID must be surrendered to Security personnel in the Center's 16th Street lobby when entering the building. Security will issue visitors an identifying badge, to be worn at all times. The photo ID will be returned upon turning the badge in to Security and leaving the Center.
City Clerk's Office, Marriage License Bureau (All Boroughs)
Municipal Building
1 Centre Street, Room 252 South
New York, NY 10007
(Cross streets: Chambers Street and Brooklyn Bridge)
Write "Attention: Marriage Record Unit" in lower left corner of the envelope.
(212) 669-8898
(212) 669-2400 (recorded information)
(212) 669-8090 (to request form for ordering marriage license by mail)
Fax: (212) 669-3300
Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
New York City (five boroughs) marriage license indexes, 1908 to the present; marriage applications and licenses, 1930 to the present. For restrictions, see https://nycmarriagebureau.com/about/requestinperson.html.
ID Requirements: Photo ID required to enter building.
Department of Records and Information Services
Surrogate's Court Building
31 Chambers Street
New York NY 10007
(212) 361-7550 (City Register's Office)
(212) 361-7660 (Real Property Assessment Bureau)
Fax: (212) 361-7699
Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Deeds, mortgages, maps, 1654 to the present.
Civil Court of the City of New York, Manhattan (New York County)
111 Centre Street (also known as 75 Lafayette Street), Room 118
New York, NY 10013
(between Franklin, White and Lafayette streets)
(212) 374-7915 (General Clerk's Office)
Name changes, May 1887 to the present.
County Clerk's Office - State Supreme Court, New York County, Civil Branch, Record Room (New York County)
60 Centre Street, Room 103B
New York, NY 10007
(cross streets: Worth Street and Foley Square)
(646) 386-5942
Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
Filed records and court cases up to 1989. Name changes; business names; divorce, annulment, military discharge, and incompetency records; conservatorships; surrenders of children.
ID Requirements: Photo ID required to request records.
County Clerk's Office - State Supreme Court, New York County, Division of Old Records
31 Chambers Street, Room 703
New York, NY 10007
(Between Centre and Elk streets)
Mail address: New York County Clerk's Office, 60 Centre Street, Room 161, New York, NY 10007
646-386-5395
Fax: 212-608-7543
Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM. Filed records and court cases, 1990-1997. Name changes; business names; maps; city directories; naturalization, divorce, separation, annulment, military, and incompetency records; conservatorships; adoptions.
ID Requirements: Photo ID required to enter building.
Ellis Island Immigration Museum, American Family Immigration History Center
Ellis Island
Mail address: The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.
P.O. Box ELLISbr
New York, NY 10163
(212) 561-4588; Battery Park Ferry Ticket Office: (212) 269-5755
Fax: (212) 779-1990
See also https://www.ellisisland.org/Eiinfo/Press_FACT.asp?
Interactive database of twenty-two million passenger records, 1892-1924.
Ellis Island Immigration Museum, National Park Service Archives and Library
Ellis Island
Mail address: Statue of Liberty National Monument
Liberty Island
New York, NY 10004
Attention: Library
(212) 363-3206, Ext. 158 (Library)
Fax: (212) 363-6304
Monday-Friday, 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Appointment recommended.
Books; unpublished manuscripts; photographs; archival materials; oral histories; collection relates to both Ellis and Liberty islands.
125 Columbus Avenue
First Floor
New York, NY 10023
(212) 799 - 2414
Space at this center, which is across from Lincoln Center is limited, but it provides access to many commercial and LDS databases and offers volunteers to help with research.
Hadassah Archives at the American Jewish Historical Society
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011-6301
(between 5th and 6th avenues)
(917) 606-8259
Fax: (212) 294-6161
Monday-Thursday, 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Closed 1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m. Researchers must be approved based on research topic.
History of Hadassah, its projects in Israel, its programs in Jewish Education, Zionist Education, and Health Education developed for Hadassah members in the United States; papers of Youth Aliyah and Young Judea.
ID Requirements: A positive valid photo ID must be surrendered to Security personnel in the Center's 16th Street lobby when entering the building. Security will issue visitors an identifying badge, to be worn at all times. The photo ID will be returned upon turning the badge in to Security and leaving the Center.
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Klau Library
Brookdale Center
One West Fourth Street
New York, NY 10012-1186
(corner Mercer Street)
(212) 674-5300
Monday-Thursday, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.; Friday, 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
Communal histories and yizkor books, pre- and post-World War II; portions of the holdings of the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati.
ID Requirements: Photo ID (driver's license, passport, or ID from an academic institution) required to enter building.
HIAS (The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), Location Department
333 Seventh Avenue, 17th Floor
New York, NY 10001-5004
(212) 613-1409
Fax: (212) 967-4356
Mail, e-mail, fax, or telephone inquiries only.
Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Case files, 1960 to the present; arrival index cards, 1909-1985; master card index to central files cases, c. 1938-1979; photo archives.
Jewish Theological Seminary of America Library
3080 Broadway
New York, NY 10027-4649
(corner 122nd Street)
(212) 678-8081 (Reference Desk, 2nd floor)
(212) 678-8077 (Special Collections, 5th floor)
Archives: https://www.jtsa.edu/library/archives
Sunday, 9:30 a.m.-9:00 p.m., Monday-Thursday, 8:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m., Friday, 8:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. or Seminary closing time (Library); Monday-Thursday, 12:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m., Friday, 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. (Special Collections)
Yizkor (memorial) books; rabbinic biographies; histories of Jewish communities throughout the world; 19th and 20th century local Jewish newspapers from communities in Europe, the Americas, North Africa, and the Near East; genealogical charts of European and American families; ketubot; 16th-20th century pinkasim (communal record books); 17th-19th century mohel books (records of circumcisions) of mainly European communities.
ID Requirements: Photo ID required to use library. Special collections (Manuscripts, Rare Printed Books, Archives, Broadsides, and Jewish Art Collection) available by appointment only.
John Jay College of Criminal Justice Lloyd Sealy Library
899 Tenth Avenue
New York, NY 10019
(Between West 58th and West 59th Streets)
(212) 237-8256 (Public Services)
(212) 237-8238 (Appointments for Special Collections)
Fax: (212) 237-8221
Hours vary throughout the school year. Consult the calendar at https://www.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/info/calendar.
Manhattan Police Department blotters, 1916-1935; transcripts of the Court of General Sessions, 1883-1927.
Leo Baeck Institute
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
(between 5th and 6th avenues)
(212) 744-6400
Fax: (212) 988-1305
Access to Center for Jewish History is by appointment only. A research account is required to make appointments and request materials. Consult the Introduction to the Reading Room (www.cjh.org/research/lillian-goldman-reading-room) for information on rules, policies, hours and instructions on setting up a research account.
History and culture of German-speaking Jewry. Communal histories; newspapers; circumcision, birth, marriage, and death registers; deportation and concentration camp lists; photographs; collections of records of regions in Alsace, Lorraine, Bavaria, Germany.
ID Requirements: A positive valid photo ID must be surrendered to Security personnel in the Center's 16th Street lobby when entering the building. Security will issue visitors an identifying badge, to be worn at all times. The photo ID will be returned upon turning the badge in to Security and leaving the Center.
Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, Library & Archive
36 Battery Place
Battery Park City
New York, NY 10280
(212) 437-4200 (General Information)
Monday-Friday. By appointment only.
Materials from the former Center for Holocaust Studies, Documentation and Research in Brooklyn; yizkor books; correspondence concerning assistance of refugees; audio tapes and written histories of Holocaust survivors, American soldiers, and liberators, including letters, diaries, memoirs.
New York Academy of Medicine Library
1216 Fifth Avenue, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10029
(corner 5th Avenue)
(212) 822-7200 (Reference); (212)822-7310/7313 (Rare Book Room & Historical Collections)
Fax: (212) 423-0266 (Reference); (212) 423-0273 (Rare Book Room & Historical Collections)
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.; Wednesday, 9:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. (Main Reading Room)
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m., 1:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m.; Wednesday, 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m., 1:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.; Friday, 9:00 a.m. -5:00 p.m. (Reference)
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.; Wednesday, 10:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. By appointment only. (Rare Book Room & Historical Collections)
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 4:30p.m., Wednesday, 9:00 a.m.-6:30 p.m. (Stack Retrieval)
National medical directories; international biographical directories; biography and obituary file; portraits catalog.
New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Office of Vital Records
125 Worth Street, CN-4, Room 133
New York, NY 10013-4090
(between Centre and Lafayette streets)
(212) 788-4500
(212) 788-4520 (recorded message)
Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Lines are shortest from 9:00 a.m.-10:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
New York City (five boroughs) birth certificates and indexes, 1910 to the present; death certificates and indexes, 1949 to the present.
ID Requirements: A photo ID with the bearer's signature is required. The ID must be issued by an officially recognized organization or agency and includes a driver's license, an employment ID, a government ID, a Social Services ID, and a passport. The ID must show an expiration date that has not passed; an ID without an expiration date must have been issued within the past twelve months.
New York City Department of Records and Information Services, City Hall Library
31 Chambers Street, Room 112
New York, NY 10007
(between Centre and Elk streets)
(212) 788-8590
Fax (212) 788-8589
Monday-Friday, 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
New York City (five boroughs) neighborhood files; street name historical file; Assembly and Election District maps; civil service lists; list of enrolled voters; registry of voters.
ID Requirements: Photo ID required to enter building.
New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, Library
36 West 44th Street, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10036
(between Fifth and Sixth avenues)
(212) 755-8532
Fax: (212) 754-4218
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, 9:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.; Thursday, 12:30 p.m.-8:00 p.m.
Published books on New York families, especially colonial; genealogy magazines.
New York Historical Society Library
2 West 77th Street, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10024
(170 Central Park West at Richard Gilder Way)
(212) 873-3400, ext. 225, 226 (General Collections); ext. 265 (Manuscripts Department); ext. 227 (Department of Prints, Photographs and Architecture)
Fax: (212) 875-1591 (General Collections; Manuscripts); (212) 787-9474 (Prints, Photographs and Architecture)
Wednesday - Friday, 10:00 am - 4:30 pm, by appointment only
Before requesting collections, please contact us at mailto:LibraryAppts@nyhistory.org to discuss your research project and to set up an appointment. Only those with appointments will be admitted to the library's reading room.
New York City (five boroughs) birth, marriage, and death indexes; city directories; New York City newspapers; maps; insurance atlases; genealogies; military records; photographs of New York City streets, buildings, and houses of worship.
ID Requirements: You will be asked to provide a current photo ID when using manuscripts and other rare materials in the reading room.
DeWitt Wallace Periodical Room
phone: (212) 930-0971
Dorot Jewish Division
phone (only available during open hours): (212) 930-0601
email: dorotjewish@nypl.org
European and American newspapers, 19th and 20th century; yizkor books; published gravestone inscriptions; individual and collective biographies; genealogies; name indexes; American Jewish Committee Oral History Library; guides to archives and libraries.
General Research Division
email: generalresearch@nypl.org
phone: (917) 275-6975
Individual and collective biographies; biographical dictionaries; U.S. and non-U.S. telephone directories; city directories for other countries; occupational directories.
Irma & Paul Milstein Division of U.S. History, Local History and Genealogy
email: history@nypl.org
(212) 930-0828
U.S. census; New York state census; New York City 1890 police census; New York City birth, marriage, and death records and indexes; city directories; published books of marriage announcements, obituaries, and cemeteries; abstracts and indexes of wills and administrations; naturalization indexes; passport application indexes; passenger records and indexes; genealogical publications and indexes.
Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division
email: maps@nypl.org
phone: (212) 930-0587
Gazetteers, U.S. and non-U.S. maps; computer-mapping workstations
The guide's organization defaults to "By Subject". Find "Genealogy" and click on the link to see specific genealogical guides.
Manuscripts and Archives Division
Room 328
(212) 930-0801
Fax: (212) 302-4815
American Committee for the Guidance of Professional Personnel (applications of refugee law personnel seeking retraining assistance); Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Foreign Scholars; Jewish Foundation for Education of Women; Sol Bloom papers (include case files of Jewish refugees and displaced persons in Europe seeking permission to emigrate to the U.S.); personal and family papers.
Note: A card of admission for this division is available at the Office of Special Collections, Room 316.
Microforms Room
Room 100
(212) 642-0139
Fax: (212) 930-0838
U.S. city directories, including New York City, New York State, New Jersey, and Connecticut; U.S. and New York City and suburban area telephone directories; U.S. and some international occupational directories; U.S., New York City, and non-U.S. newspapers; catalog of copyright entries; periodicals.
Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs
Art & Architecture Collection, Room 300, (212) 930-0835; artref@nypl.org
Photography Collection* Room 308, (212) 930-0837; phgref@nypl.org
Print Collection,* Room 308, (212) 930-0817; prnref@nypl.org
Artist files; scrapbooks on artists and architects; pictures of European and American buildings; portraits file; I.N. Phelps Stokes Collection of American Historical Prints (historical events, cities, maps); Eno Collection of New York City Views.
*Note: A card of admission for these collections is available at the Office of Special Collections, Room 316.
Slavic and Baltic Division
Rooms 216 and 217
(212) 930-0714 (recording)
(212) 642-0136 (Reference Room)
Fax: (212) 930-0693
Guides to non-U.S. archives and libraries; gazetteers; biographical dictionaries; newspapers and periodicals; encyclopedias; non-U.S. city and telephone directories.
ID Requirements: Researchers must get an ACCESS card (with their photo on it) to request materials from the stacks. An application form for the ACCESS card can be completed online and brought to one of the libraries or completed in person at one of the libraries. Instructions for obtaining an ACCESS card are given at https://www.nypl.org/research/general/apply.html.)
General Research and Reference Division
- (212) 491-2200
- Tuesday, Wednesday, 12:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.; Thursday-Saturday, 12:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.
- U.S. census, 1790-1900, all states; 1910 and 1920, Soundexed states; American Negro Historical Society Collection of vital records; genealogy guides; military records; cemetery records; biographies; Freedman's Savings and Trust Company records.
Manuscripts, Archives & Rare Books Division
(212) 491-2224
Wednesday, Thursday, 12:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.; Friday, Saturday, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Ethiopian Hebrew congregations; oral histories; records of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
ID Requirements: The Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division requires registration to use the materials. Researchers must fill out a registration form and show traceable identification. An admission card will be issued for long-term research use.
New York University, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, Tamiment Institute Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012
(corner LaGuardia Place)
(212) 998-2630
Fax: (212) 995-4070
Monday-Friday, 10:00 a.m.-5:45 p.m.; most Saturdays, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. during the spring and fall semesters; Monday-Thursday, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Friday by appointment only.
Organizational and personal papers, 1865 to the present, covering labor history, socialism, communism, anarchism, utopian experiments, women's movement.
ID Requirements: Photo ID required to enter building.
Research Foundation for Jewish Immigration Archives
LOCATED AT THE LEO BAECK INSTITUTE
Biographical material on émigrés from Germany, Austria, and German-speaking Czechoslovakia, 1933-1945. Also available at Leo Baeck Institute Archives-Library.
Seymour B. Durst Old York Library
Avery Architecture and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University
1172 Amsterdam Avenue
New York, NY 10027
(212) 854-6199
online catalog: https://dlc.library.columbia.edu/durst
Archival material on New York City history, geography, architecture, culture and politics, including more than 25,000 postcards, illustrations, photographs, maps, pamphlets and newspapers. Much of the collection has been digitized and links are provided. Special arrangements would be needed to access other materials by non-Columbia-related researchers.
Surrogate's Court, New York County, Record Room
31 Chambers Street, Room 402 (between Centre and Elk streets)
New York, NY 10007
(212) 374-8287
Record Room 402, open Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 pm.
Liber Room 405, open Monday to Friday, 9:00 am. to 3:30 .pm. (closed for lunch 1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m.)
Wills and indexes, 1662 to the present; probates, letters of administration, and estate taxes, 1830 to the present; guardianships, 1808 to the present; adoptions and commitments, 1924 to the present. Includes parts of the Bronx, 1874-1897, and all of the Bronx, 1898-1914.
ID Requirements: Photo ID required to enter building.
U.S. District Court - Southern District of New York, Naturalization Division
(Naturalization records transferred. See National Archives, Northeast Region)
Yeshiva University Library Archives
500 West 185th Street, Room 602
New York, NY 10033
(at Amsterdam Avenue)
(212) 960-5451
Online finding aids: https://archives.yu.edu/xtf/search
By appointment only.
Orthodox Jewish institutions and individuals, 1605 to the present. Central Relief Committee Collection, 1914-1959; National Council of Jewish Women, Service to the Foreign Born, (New York, 1939-1968; Brooklyn, 1942-1955); Rescue Children, Inc., 1946-1985; Vaad Hatzala, 1939-1963 (rescue efforts of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the U.S. and Canada); affidavits and visa applications of European Jews, 1938-1953.
Yeshiva University Museum
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
(between 5th and 6th avenues)
(212) 294-8330, ext. 8815 (Monday-Thursday, 9:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Friday, 9:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.)
(212) 294-8335
Mail or e-mail requests only.
Artifacts of Jewish cultural, intellectual, and artistic achievements worldwide. Photographs; oral histories; ketubot; circumcision record books; diaries; artist files.
ID Requirements: A positive valid photo ID must be surrendered to Security personnel in the Center's 16th Street lobby when entering the building. Security will issue visitors an identifying badge, to be worn at all times. The photo ID will be returned upon turning the badge in to Security and leaving the Center.
Yeshiva University, Mendel Gottesman Library of Hebraica-Judaica
2520 Amsterdam Avenue, 5th Floor
New York, NY
(corner W. 185th Street)
Mail Address: 500 West 185th Street, New York, NY 10033
(212) 960-5382
Fax: (212) 960-0066
Hours: https://library.yu.edu/LibraryHours.
Non-U.S. vital records; names and their origins; cemeteries; Holocaust victims and survivors; rabbis; synagogues; guides to archival collections; biographical dictionaries. Non-U.S. newspapers and periodicals; Hebrew manuscripts from the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem, the Vatican Library, and the Guenzberg collection in St. Petersburg.
ID Requirements: To gain one-time access to the library, present a photo ID to the University Office of Security and Safety, 110 Belfer Hall, and request a pass. Passes may be issued Monday through Thursday, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Friday, 9:00 a.m.-2:30 p.m., and Sunday, 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. Access after 9:00 p.m., Sunday-Thursday, and Saturday nights is restricted to current YU ID cardholders and YU alumni.
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
(between 5th and 6th avenues)
(212) 246-6080
Fax (212) 292-1892
Online catalog
Access to the Center for Jewish History is by appointment only. A research account is required to make appointments and request materials. Visit the Introduction to the Reading Room (www.cjh.org/research/lillian-goldman-reading-room) for information on rules, policies, and visiting the center and to set an account.
Eastern European Jewry (most records are not in English and most are not digitized). Landsmanshaftn (immigrant mutual aid societies); the Holocaust; immigration and refugees; biographies and autobiographies; communities; the labor movement; schools. Photographs; genealogies; yizkor books; maps and atlases; name indexes; newspapers and periodicals.
Guide to YIVO archives www.Yivoarchives.org
YIVO’s Landsmanshaftn collection at www.jgsny.org (under databases)
ID Requirements: A positive valid photo ID must be surrendered to Security personnel in the Center's 16th Street lobby when entering the building. Security will issue visitors an identifying badge, to be worn at all times. The photo ID will be returned upon turning the badge in to Security and leaving the Center.