The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society (NYG&B or NYGBS) is a non-profit institution located at 36 West 44th Street in New York City. Founded in 1869, it is the second-oldest genealogical society in the United States, and the only statewide genealogical society in New York state. Its purpose is to collect and make available information on genealogy, biography, and history, particularly in relation to New Yorkers. The Society also publishes periodicals and books, conducts educational programs, maintains a Committee on Heraldry, and offers other services.
History
Creation
The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society was organized on the evening of February 27, 1869, by seven gentlemen meeting at the home of Dr. David Parsons Holton in New York City. On March 26 a certificate of incorporation was filed in the office of the Secretary of State of New York, stating that "the particular business and objects of the Society are to discover, procure, preserve and perpetuate whatever may relate to Genealogy and Biography, and more particularly to the genealogies and biographies of families, persons and citizens associated and identified with the State of New York." In April the By-Laws were adopted and officers elected, the first president being the historian Dr. Henry R. Stiles. The seal of the Society was adopted on May 8, 1869.
The founders were inspired by the example of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. While the New England society did not admit female members for many years, the New York society admitted its first female member on May 1, 1869, a few months after its creation.
The Society immediately established a library, and in December 1869 published an eight-page Bulletin. The reception of this publication encouraged the Trustees to launch a quarterly journal, The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, the first issue of which was dated January 1870. The Record became the second-oldest genealogical periodical in continuous publication in the English-speaking world.
The Society's first permanent home was at Mott Memorial Hall, a house at 64 Madison Avenue near Madison Square Park. In 1888 the Society obtained space in the Berkeley Lyceum Building at 19 West 41st Street, and two years later moved to the new Berkeley Lyceum building at 23 West 44th Street. In 1891 Mrs. Elizabeth Underhill Coles died, leaving the Society a bequest of $20,000. With this money the Society was able to purchase a four-story brownstone at 226 West 58th Street, between Broadway and Seventh Avenue, in 1896. This became Genealogical Hall, the home of the Society for the next 33 years.
New facility
By 1912, the library had become too large to fit inside Genealogical Hall, and the Trustees decided to try to raise $65,000 to acquire the adjacent building lot for expansion. J. Pierpont Morgan contributed $10,000 on the condition that the Society raise the remainder, and this was accomplished by the end of 1913, mainly through the efforts of president Clarence Winthrop Bowen.
The expansion was ultimately precluded, and Bowen was still president when the Society moved building at 122-126 East 58th Street in 1928. The new facility, erected at a cost of $300,000, replaced three brownstone houses on the site. It was designed by La Farge, Warren and Clark. The formal dedication on December 11, 1929, was attended by former President of the United States Calvin Coolidge and former New York Governor (and future Chief Justice of the United States) Charles Evans Hughes. The new building provided ample space for the growth of the library.
Over the years the Society had also expanded its publications program. By 1929 each issue of the Record ran over 100 pages, and it had become recognized as one of the leading scholarly journals of genealogy. The Society had also published several volumes of its Collections from 1890. However, the Great Depression and World War II slowed the Society's progress; for instance, the Record became greatly reduced in size. In the years after the war, interest in genealogy declined.
Change
The Society formerly catered mostly to the well-to-do, but by the 1970s, there was increasing interest in 19th-century records, which were also now becoming more accessible. This was fueled by interest by descendants of 19th-century immigrants as well as African Americans, which in turn had resulted from 1977 telecast of Alex Haley's book Roots and the 1976 U.S. Bicentennial. The increased mobility of the population and increases in leisure time were other factors in the expansion of genealogical interest.