New York State Census 1855, New York City Ward 17

These records include both transcripts and images. While the amount of available information varies, most transcripts will include the following:

• Full name

• Birth year

• Birth place

• Age

• Sex

• Marital status

• Relation to head of household

• Race or color

• Occupation

The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society (NYG&B) digitized the county originals of the 1855 New York State census enumeration for New York City's 17th Ward in Manhattan. These records have not been microfilmed or digitized elsewhere. The 1855 census records every name within enumerated households and provides the relationship to the head of household. Individual street addresses were not recorded, but each dwelling was assigned a unique number in order of visitation. A team of NYG&B volunteers transcribed all four books of the enumeration’s population pages, indexing the names of more than 60,000 individuals. However, researchers are advised that several pages in book one were damaged and only partially legible. For these pages, it is advisable to look at them in the browse-only version of this record set, located in the Useful Links & Resources section. Other census pages listing marriages and industries and businesses were not indexed.

Located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Ward 17 was a densely populated area that attracted vast numbers of immigrants of diverse ethnic backgrounds, but especially German and Irish. The street boundaries of the ward (using 2015 street names) were, roughly: On the north by East 14th Street, on the east by Avenue B and part of Clinton Street; on the south by Rivington Street; and on the west by Bowery and a small part of Fourth Avenue.

• Garrity, James. “Library Acquires NYC Ward 17 of the 1855 State Census.” NYG&B Newsletter (now New York Researcher), Summer 2003.

• Meyerink, Kory L. “Second Enumeration of the 1870 New York City Census, Ward 17 Street Index.” New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, vol. 115, no. 4 (1984): pp. 199–202. This article provides a street index to the federal census of Ward 17 made 15 years after the state census. Because the 1855 census did not record street addresses, knowing what street names fell within Ward 17 might prove helpful to researchers.