Joseph Gavit’s American Deaths and Marriages

by Cynthia Theusch

Researching in the early 1800s, we often experience difficulty in locating important vital records to document events in our ancestors’ lives. The two reel microfilm collection of Joseph Gavit’s “American Deaths and Marriages” may help you to locate those elusive dates.

Joseph Gavit, a librarian at the New York State Library, spent approximately ten years abstracting marriage and death notices from sixty-five newspapers onto index cards. The end result contained about 40,000 marriage and death notices that were published principally between 1784 and 1829, although some later dates are included. Notices are concentrated on events in the state of New York, but Mr. Gavit also included those mentioning marriages and deaths in other states, Canada, and a few other countries. The complete set of death index cards are on one reel of microfilm and those indexing marriages are on the other. The cards are arranged in alphabetical order by the name of the decedent, for deaths, and by the names of both bride and groom, for marriages.

Each index card contains the event, newspaper, date, surname, first name, and place of event. In addition, entries may mention related persons (parents, spouse, children, and siblings), occupation, residence, and military, patriotic or governmental service. There is also a possibility of learning whether the individual’s spouse or parent was deceased at the time.

A typical death notice abstract reads: “Died Argus 20 Oct 1829. Holmes. At his residence in Sampson Co., N.C., on Tuesday, 26th ult., Gen. Gabriel Holmes, in his 61st year; educated at Cambridge, and for many years a public officer, in 1821 elected Governor of North Carolina. Representative Elect from the District of Wilmington to US Congress.” A typical marriage entry reads: “Married. Albany Gazette 13 June 1811. Abbott-Wolford. At Schenectady, on Sunday, 9th inst., by Rev. Mr. Bogardus, Miss Eliza Abbott, dau. of Major Asa Abbott, to Mr. John Wolford, Jr., both of Berne.”

There is a published index compiled by Kenneth Scott entitled “Joseph Gavit’s American Deaths and Marriages, 1784-1829: Index to Non-Principals in Microfilm Copies of Abstracts in the New York State Library, Albany, New York” [974.7 Sco8j]. Two separate indexes in this volume contain the names of other individuals mentioned in death notices and wedding announcements, such as ministers and/or parents. It does not contain names of the deceased, or of grooms and brides. Page numbers given refer to the microfilm pages.

Genealogy Gems[1]: News from the Fort Wayne Library
No. 64, June 30, 2009