Coroners' Reports, New York City 1823-1842; by Kenneth Scott; 260 pp; 1989; Hardcover; 6x9; Item # NYGS06

Dr. Scott has abstracted the first twenty years of New York City Coroners' reports held by the Municipal Archives. His abstracts of similar reports from before 1823 were published in THE RECORD in 1988-89 (119:76,145,217; 120:18,88) and aroused a great deal of interest and favorable comment. These abstracts, revealing a fascinating cross-section of life in a rapidly growing city, are certain to be of interest not only to genealogists but to historians of 19th century urban life, crime, and public health. These are, of course, reports of deaths under unusual or suspicious circumstances, ranging from suicides to murders to accidents of every description.

Persons found on the street died from a myriad of diseases. The victims were of all ages and social classes, black and white, native and immigrant, and many of the reports give genealogically useful information. The abstracts, which needless to say are done by an expert, are arranged alphabetically by decedent with an index to other names. This is Dr. Scott's 50th book, and it concludes with a complete list of those fifty publications.