1797-1860
An
index to death notices of 6,198 names that were published
in five different Troy, New York newspapers from 1797
to 1860 was created by staff at the Troy Public Library,
with the assistance of two Works Project Administration
workers – WPA, in 1938. A one Volume book of
these death records is in the Troy Room at the Troy
Library.
The five different Troy newspapers mentioned in the
introduction to the index were:
Troy Budget
Troy Gazette
Troy Sentinel
Troy Times (See Note)
Troy Whig
Note: There were no records for the Troy Times in
the index but there were some records for the Troy
Post.
The Troy Budget, being the oldest Troy newspaper covering
the longest period of years, was selected as the newspaper
to be indexed. In instances where the newspaper records
were incomplete, other local newspapers were substituted
for the particular years missing.
The
Troy Irish Genealogy Society (TIGS) was allowed to
scan this book so the records could be made available
on-line for genealogy researchers. A two Volume set
of marriage records from the same five newspapers
and for the same time period was also indexed. Those
marriage records also have been scanned and will be
added to the TIGS website.
With
these 63 years of marriage and death records you will
be able to follow the family surnames and the major
events in their lives, with the marriages, followed
by deaths and in many cases a subsequent remarriage.
For many of the deceased married woman, the husband’s
first name is shown in parenthesis. The data base
also shows 123 alternative spellings of certain surnames.
Many of the middle names listed for individuals in
this data base are more than likely to be “family
surnames” and a married woman’s maiden
name. These 571 likely “family surnames”
have been included in the index as a cross reference.
This
indexing project was inspired by the previous work
done by the Philip Schuyler Chapter of the Daughters
of the American Revolution (DAR) in 1935 under a Works
Project Administration grant.
Transcriptions
from that project, The Troy Newspaper Project, can
also be found on the TIGS website www.troyirish.com
under PROJECTS. Under “RESOURCES” on the
TIGS website, www.troyirish.com
you will also find an informative article, “Newspapering
in Rensselaer County”, which identifies which
of the above newspapers are available, on microfilm
or hard copy, at the Troy Library.
These
historical records are extremely important to genealogy
researchers as they predate New York’s 1880
law that required reporting of deaths. Outside of
church records or the newspaper account of these deaths,
you will most likely not find these records anywhere
else.
In
addition to the name of the deceased, most entries
show the age, date of death, names of newspapers that
reported the death along with the newspaper date,
page and column number where you will find the notice
in the appropriate newspaper.
Also of great historical interest, deceased Revolutionary
War soldiers are identified by an * in the listing.
These
90 names are also listed in a separate file below
and also on the website under PROJECTS: Military Records.
There were many other names listed with a military
rank that were not specifically identified as Revolutionary
War soldiers. A separate file for these 97 names is
also included in the data series below and on the
website with the other military records.
It
is important to note that the residence for the deceased
is not just Troy, but may cover all area of New York
State, other States and even foreign countries.
An
Index of 6,198 Death Records
Appearing in Troy Newspapers
1797
to 1860