Research Strategies
My first step was to design a family tree with the information I already knew and approximate birth and death dates. I knew my grandfather, Rudolph Vay, died in 1969 and was born in the late 1800's. I also new that his father was also named Rudolph Vay and emigrated from Germany. I started my internet research with the Family Search website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints - http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/default.asp. This website provides an enormous amount of information that the church has researched as well as information submitted by it members and people around the world. This website will provide for free the 1880 United States Census information.
In my search for Rudolph Vay I found my great-grandfather listed along with his wife, mother-in-law and his eight children with their ages listed. What a great starting point. I didn't know any of this information. My grandfather was not listed because he was born of the second marriage of Rudolph Sr. after his first wife died. I was able to see where all of the household members were born, their occupations and where the census took place which was the 11th Ward of Rochester, New York. In looking at this information I was able to determine that Rudolph had arrived in New York in approximately 1857-1858 or possibly earlier. His oldest child was born in New York and was 22 years old as of the 1880 census.
I soon discovered that a treasure trove of information can be found at our Monroe County Library. If you are a member of the Monroe County Library System, you can view the original handwritten documents of the United States census' at this website: http://www.libraryweb.org/heritage.html.
You click on the Heritage Quest Online Remote Access link and type in your library card number. Then click on the Search Census link.
You can access many (not all) of the censuses starting with the 1790 census. You do need to bear in mind that previous to the 1850 census the information is very basic. The forms typically show the name of the head of household and how many males and females reside at that address. Starting in 1850 all persons living at an address were documented by name age and place of birth . The occupation of the working males was also documented. There is a gap from 1880 to 1900 because a fire destroyed a vast number of the 1890 censuses. A limited number were salvaged.The last year of published censuses by the United States Government is 1930. The 1940 census is due to be released in 2012.
The difference between the Family Search website and the Heritage Quest site is that Family Search only provides the 1880 census and you can not view the original document unless you click on the link to Ancestry.com of which you must have a paid membership. The Heritage Quest website provides viewing of the original handwritten documents for the censuses starting in 1790. Not all years are available at this website. Many libraries provide free access to Ancestry.com. The Rundel Memorial Library in Rochester provides this access.
You also need to keep in mind that the censuses can not be completely accurate due to the language barriers of the residents providing the information to the census takers, the scribes interpreting what they are hearing and the fact that some of the immigrants could not read and write and therefore did not spell the names for the scribes.
This is where a feature called Soundex comes in. The websites that use the Soundex feature will then provide you with variations in the spelling of a name since it could be mispelled. For example, the name could be spelled Vay, Vey, Veigh, Vae, etc. I could easily overlook an ancestor simply by a misspelling in the census documentation.
The Rochester Public Library has also started the process of scanning and publishing to the web the Rochester City Directories through a grant from the Gleason Foundation. These books are similar to our modern day telephone directory although when the books were initially published, there was no telephone. This link http://www3.libraryweb.org/lh.aspx?id=1104&ekmensel=c57dfa7b_12_38_1104_8 will take you to the website where the directories can be viewed. The directory was printed for the first time in 1827 and at this point the scanning and publishing to the web is up to the year 1930. These directories not only provide the person's name, but where they live, work and when they died. In addition, if an individual left the city of Rochester, it will document that they have been "removed" from the city. Unfortunately you do not know where they moved to.