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BEGINNING GENEALOGY

The main goal of genealogy is to establish relationships among family members and provide documentation of those relationships.

Begin by gathering photos, documents, and family heirlooms.  Conduct interviews with relatives and check to see what family documents they may have.  Write down everything you have learned, including sources and dates. 

Begin to organize the information using basic genealogy forms.  Family Group Sheets document one family unit, parents and their children. Ancestry or Pedigree Charts trace one person back through their ancestors.  These forms are available for free online from many sources and vary in format, but they collect and organize the same information.  Consider using genealogy software to organize and maintain your research.  There are both free and for-purchase software available to download from the internet.

Valuable information can be discovered in many types of sources, including cemetery records.

Useful Mount Hope Cemetery Links:

The University of Rochester, Department of Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation -- digitized original interment records through 2002.

The Monroe County GenWeb --  tombstone transcriptions and maps (follow the "Cemeteries" tab)

The Rochester Genealogical Society -- digitized Lot maps

The Rochester Public Library, Local History & Genealogy Division -- indexes and databases to aid in locating death dates and also local newspapers on microfilm for use on site

   This information provided by Barb Koehler

REQUESTS FOR GENEALOGICAL SERVICES

The Mount Hope Cemetery genealogical look-ups performed by the Friends are a free, volunteer service. Response time is 10-14 working days. To submit a request, please download, print and mail a request form in pdf or Microsoft Word format:

Genealogical Services Request.doc

Genealogical Services Request.pdf

TIP: Cemetery interment records through 2002 are on line. Go to: University of Rochester Department of Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation.