On the death certificate of my gx2 grandmother, Anna Maria Eberhardt, it states that she was born in New York in about 1850. It also states that it was in New York that she married James Barnes in about 1870. Their firstborn son, (my great grandfather), William Francis Barnes' death certificate states that he was born in Brooklyn, Kings, New York, USA on the 31st of July 1873. Anna Maria & James and their children William, Harold & Frederick Barnes emigrated to Australia from Brooklyn on the "Ivanhoe", arriving into Sydney on the 1st of June 1878.

About 12 months ago I found a record on Ancestry for a marriage in 1869 for Anna Eberhardt so I applied to the NYC Dept of Records and Information Services Municipal Archives for the certificate but I received a reply saying that the record was not found. (It may well have been that this particular Anna Eberhardt didn't marry James Barnes.) I also applied for a birth certificate for William Francis Barnes but again nothing was found.

I'm at a loss where to look for these records. Of course I'm assuming that the information contained on the death records is correct, which of course it may not be.

James Barnes' parents, James & Eliza Barnes, emigrated to the USA from England, probably in 1868, and settled in Connecticut for the remainder of their lives.

I'd love to hear from anyone with any information on how I might find records for James, Anna Maria, William, Harold & Frederick Barnes. I can't believe that there'd be no records to be found for this entire family!