NYMONROE-L Archives

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Subject: [NYMONROE-L] Trip to Monroe County
Date: Tue, 1 Jul 2003 16:04:28 EDT

At the end of May, my husband and I visited Monroe County to do some
genealogical research and I would like to report on it. First, I would like to thank
those who did similar reports before me, including Wendy, Nicol, Meg, and
Carol. I copied their comments and took them with me. The information on what
is available at local libraries, how to get there, and other items were very
useful to me in planning this trip.

While I was at the Brockport Library, I sent my husband out to a book store
for a local map. I wanted the details that you cannot get from the NY road
map. He came back with two, both published by Maptech. One is a Rochester
50-mile radius map. It includes everything out to 50 miles from Rochester on a
huge map, so there is lots of detail. It extends east to Auburn, west to
almost Lockport, and south to Rushford and Montour. On the back is an index
and 15 city maps, including Canandaigua, Batavia, Albion, and Medina. The maps
show locations of libraries, cemeteries and city or town halls.

The second map was just of western Monroe, including the towns of Clarkson,
Hamlin, Ogden, Parma, and Sweden and the streets are indexed. On the back was
a good map of the entire Monroe County and maps of Brockport, Spencerport,
and Hilton. Again this map shows all the points of interest to a genealogist.

Since I was interested in both western Monroe and Orleans County, these maps
were very helpful. Costs were $4.95 and $2.95 respectively and worth every
penny. Amazon might sell them.

I visited the Rochester library to look at the NY Vital Records Index. I
knew I would have to get the fiche one by one and I had about 200 dates to look
up. I dreaded the chore of asking for each fiche. But I was pleasantly
surprised how quickly and graciously the librarians took a fiche from me and
brought me the next one. None the less, it is a slow process and I looked at
about 50 fiche in 4 hours. Oh, for another day or two there.

Over at Rundel, I saw some large atlases of various counties and I wanted
copies of three maps. For $1.00 a page, you can get copies and have them
mailed. Mine were waiting when I returned home. Thank you, Rundel. I looked at
the index to newspapers from 1818 to 1903, but no one from my large Rayburn
families of Hamlin and Clarkson were in the index.

I would like to comment on getting to the library. We were coming from the
west and using I-490 seemed complicated. So we approached using NY 31.
Just after crossing the Genesee River, turn right onto South St. and you will
pass between the B&L and the Rundel libraries. Immediately turn left onto Court
St. and enter the parking garage. (Warning- the sign at the entrance says
clearance is 9 feet, but it is only 7 feet when you get inside. We were in a
van and had to park on the roof!) There are signs in the garage on how to
reach the library without going outside. We ate lunch in the B&L office
building just behind the B&L library. Impressive building. We had downloaded
maps from MapQuest but the Downtown Guides Information Center has detailed maps
of downtown Rochester. Ph 716-232-3420.

I would like to thank Arnold Schockow who indexed marriages and deaths in the
Brockport Republic newspaper from Oct 1856 to Jan 1917 and to Patty Uttaro
for letting us know about it. The index is in the Ogden Farmers library. I
used the index, unfortunately I did not get to look at the newspapers.

All in all, it was a good experience. Thank you, everyone.

Betty

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