NYPL Labs and the Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy are excited to announce the launch of Emigrant City, the Library’s newest, online participatory project. Emigrant City invites the public to help transcribe recently digitized mortgage and bond record books from the Emigrant Savings Bank records, a collection residing in the Archives & Manuscripts Division. With these transcriptions, we’ll be extracting structured data from an estimated 6,400 mortgages taken out by recent immigrants during the 19th and early 20th century in New York. When the project wraps up, we’ll have a rich resource for genealogists, historians, and others. In the process, volunteers will get a detailed glimpse of real estate transactions and immigrant life during a foundational period of New York City’s history.
Join us in transcribing 19th and early 20th century real estate records from the Emigrant Savings Bank. These unique documents reveal the lives and dreams of immigrants who helped create modern New York. Help unlock a vital piece of history!