Can someone explain to me how exactly to get access to the NY State Census records for New York County?

As is my understanding, the 1905 census is the only one available online. But what if you want to view the other ones? I know a lot of them were destroyed in a fire, and at least the 1855, 1915, and 1925 survive somewhere.

So what's available to view, and where can I view them? The New York County Clerk's office had no information on this. Do I have to go to Albany? And am I able to search by name? My family moved around a lot and I doubt I'll be able to find them in the same places as the federal census.

Any info would be appreciated!

1915 and 1925 NY State Census is available on microfilm at the Family History Library so you can probably order them for viewing at your local FHC. The grid in the middle of this page gives links to the microfilm numbers. I don't know if they're indexed but I imagine they are not.

https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/New_York_%28Manha...


BTW, I have a great great aunt whose name was Elizabeth Lackey :)

You might try the online family search site. I know they have state census for the city. Since I have had no occasion to need ones outside the city I do not know if they are there also.

The New York Public Library has the extant censuses available for public viewing at their 42nd and 5th Ave branch. They are not indexed so you will need to know the neighborhood, at the very least. If you have a street address there are finding aids to direct you to the right pages to look at. And if you don't know the address, the NYC city directories are conveniently located in the same microfilm room.

Lynn

The New York County, Division of Old Records at 31 Chambers Street, 7th Floor has them - or at least some of them - on film. I looked at some of them there a few years ago. However, it is not the best place for viewing the films. You have to take the films down to the first floor library really for viewing and printing copies. So, if you are local to the city, I think that Lynn's suggestion to go to the NYPL would be better.

The FHL in Salt Lake has the NY State census for NY County for 1855, 1905, 1915, and 1925 on film. They also have the 1890 Police census for Manhattan/parts of the Bronx. You can rent the films and view them at your local family history center.

As others have stated, they are not name indexed and you need an address or neighborhood/area to really start looking. If you have an address (or several addresses to explore), you can use the Stevemorse site (those wonderful folks!) to determine which AD/ED your target address would be in. It will also give you the FHL film number.

Here is the link to the NY State AD/ED finder at Stevemorse

http://stevemorse.org/nyc/nyc.php

For the 1855 NY State census for NY County, you should find a map with the Ward boundaries. I probably have one somewhere - just not sure where at the moment. You can also use this Ward boundary description. It should help.

http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Ward/1855.St.ward.html

Thanks everyone for your help! It's disappointing that it's not indexed by name, and the names I'm looking up are so common that it'll be hard to determine which ones are related to me, but it's a start!