Census and Church Research - need to find marriage cert

[sforza]

I've been trying to locate the marriage record of my great grandfather (b. 1880, NYC) for a year, with no luck. Can anyone offer advice on research strategy? So far I've:
1. mapped known addresses from census and other vital records with locations of churches (closed and open) and phoned, written and faxed for marriage, but also baptismal/communuion/confirmation in the event these were annotated with marital info. So far no record from any church that existed anywhere close to where he lived as a child or where his wife lived after immigrating from Italy or where they lived as a couple.
2. index searched the NYC municipal archives - no records. Also searched the films of several years around the time they would have married frame by frame. Nothing. I have noticed, by the way, that there are churches ID'd in their neighborhood that don't have a single marriage for an entire year on the microfilm. But those same churches do appear to have surviving records, but not for my GGF.

I have found a marriage record of his older sister, c. 1882, NYC. The church name, if that's what is even was, is illegible. However, the address is legible. It does not correspond to any church in NY ever. Question - was it common for immigrants to be married unofficially - ie, outside a church by a priest in a private home? Second, is there a way I can search census documents by address to see what it was? Is there an online guide to match addresses and enumeration districts?

Any other ideas? Thanks in advance.

[tammara]

Where in NYC were they living? And which churches have you checked?

I was in this same situation not too long ago. My relatives lived on Mulberry st and someone suggested I check Most Precious Blood. It turned out that's where they were married. I never woould have known, had someone on this board not suggested it.

[Joannsalvo]

Steve Morse has a census street finder:

http://stevemorse.org/census/index.html?ed2street=1