from 1797 to 1860

 

An index to death notices of 6,893 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 6,893 Death Records
Appearing in Troy Newspapers

1797 to 1860