Why can't I access a Collection page for "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949"?

Adrian Bruce1

In another (non-LDS) place, I was trying to help someone with an 1846 New York death record from FamilySearch. The Index Record is on https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F698-H6X

That Index Record says that it is part of the Collection "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949". There is a link on the page to go to Collection Information but when I click on the link, I just get "Page Not Found...", with the message "Well, this is unexpected... We can help you search literally billions of records, but we can't seem to find the page you're looking for."

Now, normally, I regard this as just a one-off, hit the enter key again, and voila. But in this case, the system seems to mean it. I keep repeating and it still can't find a Collection page.

If I try another approach and go to FamilySearch / Search / Records and scroll down to the "Find a Collection" box, I still fail to find the collection.

As I type the NY NYC etc collection name, then "New York, New York City Births, 1846-1909" comes up in the drop down list, as does the marriage collection, but not the deaths.

Is there an explanation (which I've probably missed) why I can't find the collection? (I would hit a Feedback button if there was one.)

Adrian Bruce1

OKaaaaay…

There is a variant on Murphy's Law which is something to do with me pressing the enter key and something happening immediately afterwards to make me a liar.

I was just checking through my post above, making sure the links work, etc.

I went to the Index Record, clicked on the Collection Information link and - the collection page appeared!

(It's https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2240477 )

However, it still doesn't appear if I go to FamilySearch / Search / Records and enter text in the "Find a Collection" box.

So what gives? Is this collection information link on a server that simply can't be bothered to get up in the morning until it's been kicked several times?

Áine Ní Donnghaile

Good morning, @Adrian Bruce1 You may remember I do a LOT of New York research. I have bookmarks for many NY record sets, and I also usually start from the New York Research Landing Page.

Just now, I started from the NY Page, entered a name for a death I had retrieved at my FSC a few days ago, with no other info, and the Muncipal Deaths collection was accessible from the Collections bubble.

I then backtracked to the FS home search page, but the Muncipal Deaths collection does not appear from that page. It could have been like that for a while since I usually access it from a different direction.

I wonder if this is a variant on the problem we've seen with individual record indexes not appearing in a search because they have become invisible due to edits.

Adrian Bruce1

Thanks for that, that does seem a useful place to start - or places, given that the counties have their own pages.

Áine Ní Donnghaile

There are also "back doors" into the deaths for the various boroughs that I often use when a record is hard to find because a name has been mangled or hard to read/index. Using that method, I can focus on a single searchable DGS covering a few weeks in a specified year. Happy to share.