Jason have you trawled through the NYC municipal archives at all? I lost a week this winter to searching the birth/marriage/death records. I found out that both my great-grandfathers lived within a few blocks of my apartment, and learned that my roots in the city go back to the 1800's, so now I really feel like an OG, more than I did even before. Anyway, if you have any names of NYC ancestors and some time, I recommend it: https://a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov/
I will add that if you go to the archives check out the 1938/40 WPA files for a project called “feeding the city”. Writers in the project wrote these amazing stories showcasing various immigrant groups living in nyc, some going through massive culture change, like the end of pushcarts on the lower east side.
This is lovely, and thank you so much for introducing me to Stephanie Shih! What evocative work! (Also, I live in Jackson, just down the road from Bentonia, where Skip James was born).
Jason have you trawled through the NYC municipal archives at all? I lost a week this winter to searching the birth/marriage/death records. I found out that both my great-grandfathers lived within a few blocks of my apartment, and learned that my roots in the city go back to the 1800's, so now I really feel like an OG, more than I did even before. Anyway, if you have any names of NYC ancestors and some time, I recommend it: https://a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov/
I will add that if you go to the archives check out the 1938/40 WPA files for a project called “feeding the city”. Writers in the project wrote these amazing stories showcasing various immigrant groups living in nyc, some going through massive culture change, like the end of pushcarts on the lower east side.
I shall look! Thank you!
This is lovely, and thank you so much for introducing me to Stephanie Shih! What evocative work! (Also, I live in Jackson, just down the road from Bentonia, where Skip James was born).