I believe what you are speaking about here in New York it is call Office of vital records at 125 Worth street New York, NY 10013-4089 And another call the Municipal Archives.
I have followed all of their rules in order to get the
Documents i needed. I also had to put money with said documents. The money orders here are good for a year. Twice my money orders expired and now i'm doing it again hoping this time it will be different. When you complain about it, It just gets worst. And some times they take your money orders after only two weeks of searching. When the search part is good for one year.. I don't know what else to do. With all the documents that i submitted i always got a white papers from the archives or vital records and i kept them as proof of harassment just in case.I also kept the return address envelopes.