The Troy Daily Whig was first published in 1834 by
James M. Stevenson and Alex. McCall. It was formed by
the union of the Daily Troy Press and the Troy American.
These newspaper records will be of particular interest
to Troy area genealogy researchers since the dates of
death and marriages predate the 1880 N.Y.S. law on reporting
of this information. A number of the 2,814 death records
show the age of the individual at the time of death
and for many of the married women, the first name of
the husband is also shown. Military ranks (Gen., Lieut.,
Captain, Col., etc.) are indicated for a number of the
names in both the death records and the marriage records.
Any entry with a “col.” (small c) after
the first name designates a person of color.
Most of the 4,486 marriage records show the residence
of the bride and groom and for those records where the
bride is identified as a “Mrs.” this is
a clue that the marriage was a second one. In a number
of cases you will be able to ascertain the maiden name
of the bride.
While 927 of the marriage records showed no indication
of residence, those records where the residence was
reported are of interest as they show numerous cities
and towns throughout New York State as well as 25 other
states and 7 foreign countries.
The numbers shown for page/column identifies the page
and column number in the Troy Daily Whig where the death
or marriage notice was published. Death and marriage
records published in newspapers for this time period
were limited to very brief information such as the name,
age and date of death or date of marriage. If the individual
was of some prominence, then it is possible that there
may be a further story in the paper.