Old (and Not So Old) New York

If a picture is worth a thousand words, than a collection of a million pictures is worth...well, you do the math. But the New York City Department of Records new photo gallery includes about 900,000 online images, which is pretty close to a million (and the numbers are growing steadily as they add new content).

John Conlan, Coney Island Lifeguard and 50-yd Dash Winner (1922)

These are mostly photos, but the collection also includes maps, films and audio files. The material looks to be mostly 20th century, though some 19th century images from as far back as the 1850's are included.

Since so many immigrants passed through NYC, the collection is definitely worth a visit to search for your family history. With luck, you may even come across a photo of your ancestor's house from old NYC tax records.

A simple search on a surname will quickly show you if anything of interest is available. Used the Advanced Search to fine tune your search results. Click the Add to Workspace button to open the highest resolution picture available at the site, or the Buy Print button to purchase a hi-rez copy.

You can read more about the collection in this NYC Department of Records announcement.


Don't forget to also check for your family history at Ancestry.com and  NewspaperArchive. These are subscription databases, but they are among the most powerful research tools available for looking into family roots. Also worth a read: What's the Most Common Phrase in English?