While researching New York City vital records, I stumbled across the FHL's Register of New York City death records.
I haven't read the entire 209-page document yet, but when I was skimming it, this caught my eye:
Manhattan Bodies in Transit, 1859-1894
about which I note the following:
- This is too late for the 1855 death that JustinY is researching. Do other records of this kind exist, and if so, who holds them?
- Is the 1859 start date of this collection a result of some regulation/law which started in 1859?
- Would people who died on a voyage from 1859 through 1894 be found in a collection such as this one?
- "There is no known index to this collection." (i.e. when the printed document was created in 2005.)
(Obviously if one wanted to answer these questions, they could be arranged in a more sensible order.)
So near, and yet so far.