Continued from part one…

Level A Stacks

To get to the newer stacks from the first floor lobby you follow the yellow tape on the floor and can take the elevator down to Levels A & B. Level B is mostly literature and you probably won’t be going down there for family research. There is one whole aisle of books in Chinese. I think they might be fiction. Other aisles have books in other languages.

Level A has more books that might be helpful for family research as it contains histories. There is a small collection of family genealogies some of which aren’t at any other local library. Right next to those was London Marriage Licenses, 1521 – 1864 published in 1887. That floor also had a collection of English County histories. There was also Who’s Who in Germany and a similar series in German. There appears to be histories for all the European countries; some in English and some in native languages. There is also a small collection of Rochester histories but most, if not all, are at other Rochester libraries.

Jewish Ledger

Way back on Level A are the oversize books. In that area I found bound volumes of The Jewish Ledger which was published in Rochester. Issues on the shelf are from 1937 – 1942 and 1944 1955. The online catalog says that they also have some issues 1924 – 1936 on microfilm at the “Annex.” The Annex is a hidden place on West Henrietta Road. You could get the microfilm sent to the Rush Rhees Library but I think there might be a big problem. I don’t think that they is any microfilm readers in the library. If there is even one reader it is well hidden. They used to have lots of microfilm at one time but students wouldn’t want to use it anymore nor would they have any idea of how to use it.

Atlases

To get to old stacks you follow the blue tape from the first floor lobby. Those stacks are numbered 100 – 500 and also include floors 100m – 500m. Up on level 300 there is a collection of atlases. These include some countries like Japan, Russia, Sweden, Israel, etc. I don’t know of any other library in this area that has atlases for some of those countries.

Up on level 400 I found church histories for cities in the US and Europe. Check for a location of interest in the catalog and see if there is a church history for your area of interest. One church history that I wanted to see was a medieval church register for an English town. It was located in the Robbins Library which is a department tucked in the corner of the fourth floor. It wasn’t open at the time I was there but I see that the department has medieval English history, literature, art, and culture.

Level 200 has political books and one set was Who’s Who in British Members of Parliament. You just never know what kind of reference you might find on the shelf.

Some Church Histories

Rush Rhees Library is the largest library in Monroe County and could have something for your family research. Search their catalog and see what you might find.