WXXI

Go Public

Education

PBS KIDS: Talk About: Race and Racism

BS KIDS Talk About: Race and Racism is a special co-viewing program for families with young children to watch and discuss together. 

The PBS KIDS Talk About: Race and Racism special is a half-hour program featuring authentic conversations between real children and their growmups, and will include content from PBS KIDS series DANIEL TIGER’S NEIGHBORHOOD, ARTHUR and XAVIER RIDDLE AND THE SECRET MUSEUM.

The special will feature children and their grownups talking about race and racial justice-related topics in an age-appropriate way, such as noticing differences in race, understanding what racism can look like, and embracing the role we all have to play in standing up for ourselves and each other — offering viewers ideas to build on as they continue these important conversations at home.

**Please note: This special programming is designed as a co-viewing experience with adults and children watching together. **

Watch together on-demand

More: Articles and Resources for Grown-ups 

More About the Special

Grownup note: PBS KIDS programs are designed to reflect the diversity of communities across the nation, and to address themes relevant to children’s everyday lives. This special is designed for parents and children to watch together, and for parents to build on in whatever way they choose to have these conversations with their children. The program touches on topics such as race, racism, and the recent Black Lives Matter protests from the perspective of real kids in an effort to help children understand what they might be seeing happening around them in a developmentally-appropriate way.

The PBS KIDS Talk About: Race and Racism special was created in response to parents increasingly asking PBS KIDS for resources to address tough but important topics with their kids, including race and racism, and is part of PBS KIDS’ ongoing commitment to families across the nation.

Designed as a co-viewing experience, the program explores complicated topics in an age-appropriate way. Our goal is to support parents in talking with their children about race. We hope that our content will provide a helpful starting point in whatever way parents choose to have these conversations with their children. Additional parent resources are available on PBS KIDS for Parents on pbs.org/parents/talking-about-racism to support parents in discussions about race and racial justice-related topics with their children.

The following advisors consulted on this project:

  • Dr. Aisha White, Program Director, P.R.I.D.E (Positive Racial Identity Development in Early Education)
  • Dr. Renee Wilson-Simmons, Executive Director, ACE (Adverse Childhood Experience) Awareness Foundation
  • Dr. Dana Winters, Director of Simple Interactions and Academic Programs; Assistant Professor of Child and Family Studies, Fred Rogers Center

The Gene: An Intimate History On-Demand & Education Resources

The Gene: An Intimate History weaves together science, history and personal stories for a historical biography of the human genome, while also exploring breakthroughs for diagnosis and treatment of genetic diseases — and the complex ethical questions they raise. 

Educator Resources

The Gene PBS LearningMedia Collection: This four-hour documentary weaves together science, history, and personal stories to create a historical biography of the human genome. It tells the story of the rapid evolution of genetic science from Gregor Mendel’s groundbreaking experiment in the 19th century to CRISPR, and the hope that newfound powers to alter DNA with pinpoint precision will transform the treatment of some of the world’s most complex and challenging diseases. The series also tackles the daunting ethical challenges that these technologies pose for humankind. 

  • The collection focuses on: Treatments & Access, At-Home Genetic Testing, and the History of Eugenics.

The Gene Explained Animated Series (for grades 6-12th): Everybody is talking about genes. Your body is filled with them. You look the way you do because of them. But do you really know what a gene is? This animated series won’t get you a PhD, but it does clear up a few mysteries about how genes work, how they make us, if we can change them and what they might look like in the future. (Microscope not required.)

The Gene Connected PBS LearningMedia Resources: WXXI Education team curated a list of additional resources available from within PBS LearningMedia NY. This list contains lesson plans, videos, interactives and more, from public media partners such as NOVA. These educational materials are geared towards middle and high school and support topics such as: DNA, genetic testing, genomics, eugenics, ethics, and more.

Watch the Full Program: Episode 1 and 2 of the full “The Gene” series on PBS LearningMedia. Full series length: ~ 4 hours

  • Watch The Gene in Full
    • Episode 1 Description: The story of a young family searching for a cure for their four-year-old daughter’s rare genetic disease, with stories of the discoveries of the pioneers in genetics. It also tracks the dark period in human history when a little genetic knowledge was used to justify terrible human experiments. (Running time: 1:54:09)
    • Episode 2 Description: The story of the signature scientific achievement of our time: the mapping of the human genome. As scientists learn to read the genetic code, they grapple with the dangers of increasingly sophisticated and easily available methods of intervening in the very essence of what makes us human, our DNA. (Running time: 1:54:10)

The Book & Connected Book Lists

  • Connected Children’s Book List from PBS Books: Genetics and DNA make us who we are. As our world and community is gripped by a fearsome pandemic, we are all increasingly aware of the power of genes and the importance of genetic research. PBS Books compiled a list of books to read with your children to better understand the history of genes and DNA. 

  • The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherje
    Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee braids science, history, and memoir into an epic. In this biography Mukherjee brings to life the quest to understand human heredity and its surprising influence on our lives, personalities, identities, fates, and choices.

  • The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race By Walter Isaacson
    After helping to discover CRISPR, Doudna became a leader in wrestling with these moral issues and, with her collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier, won the Nobel Prize in 2020. Her story is a thrilling detective tale that involves the most profound wonders of nature, from the origins of life to the future of our species.

  • Life’s Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code By Matt Cobb
    From New York to Paris, Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Cambridge, England, and London to Moscow, the greatest discovery of twentieth-century biology was truly a global feat. Biologist and historian of science Matthew Cobb gives the full and rich account of the cooperation and competition between the eccentric characters — mathematicians, physicists, information theorists, and biologists — who contributed to this revolutionary new science. 

Let’s Learn

Let’s Learn provides resources for children ages 3-7 is drawn from the public television series Let’s Learn. Produced by Thirteen PBS in NYC.

Let’s Learn aims to provide our young learners with knowledge and skills to learn and succeed in school and beyond. While the series is aimed at a wide range of ages, segments might serve as introduction, reinforcement, or enrichment to material depending on students’ needs. To paraphrase Catherine Snow, expert on language and literacy development in children, the teaching that is taking place “…is helpful for all children, harmful for none, and crucial for some.”

Explore: The Let’s Learn website includes: Storybooks, Reading and Writing, Math, Science, Arts, Social Studies, Mind and Movement, and STEM.
Full Episodes are available on-demand. Clips are also available by subject and theme. Activities from each clip are also available.

For Teachers and Classrooms:

Let's Learn and an apple on top of school books

Explore the Let’s Learn PBS LearningMedia Collection

Molly of Denali: Games, Videos, Podcast & Activities

Play games and watch full episodes and podcasts of Molly of Denali on https://pbskids.org/molly

Get ready to sled into fun with “Molly of Denali!” In this show for children ages 4 to 8, join Molly, an Alaska Native girl, her dog Suki, and friends Tooey and Trini on their adventures in epically beautiful Alaska. Along the way, Molly’s life is enhanced, kept on track, and flat-out saved by maps, guide books, websites, weather reports, and more.

Intro Video:

WXXI Education Favorites
Here are a few of our favorite Activities To Do

Watch & Listen

PBS KIDS for Parents Molly of Denali Series Page

PBS KIDS Full Episode Playlist

Do 

  • Play Molly of Denali online games. Try exploring the Trading Post or Sled Dog Dash.
  • Use Google Earth to look at a map of where you live. 
  • Learn the importance of beading with Moly in Beading Art. 
  • Got any old paper maps? See if you can recognize any of the locations. 
  • Download and play Molly of Denali’s FREE app. 
  • Download some Molly of Denali puzzles and activities!
  • Find out where it all started – listen to the Molly of Denali podcast!
  • Expolre nature like Molly!
    • Go on a nature walk. Download the free Seek by iNaturalist app to take your nature knowledge up a notch Use the power of image recognition technology to identify the plants and animals all around you. 
    • Make observations when you’re outside or looking outside from your window. Add your observations to the WXXI Community Nature Challenge. 

Read

  • Native American Heritage Video Playlist from PBS KIDS

Clifford the Big Red Dog: Games, Videos & Activities

Play games and watch full episodes of Clifford the Big Red Dog on https://pbskids.org/clifford

“Clifford the Big Red Dog” follows Emily Elizabeth, Clifford and friends as they explore Birdwell Island, play astronauts, robots, fairies — whatever they imagine! Clifford and friends’ adventures will inspire imaginative play, kindness, empathy and other life lessons among preschoolers. Your family can join in the fun when this silly and heartwarming group of friends finds their way to your home.

WXXI Education Favorites
Here are a few of our favorite Activities: 

    Learn more at the PBS KIDS for Parents Clifford The Big Red Dog Page

    Series Trailer:

    PBS KIDS Play & Learn Science Resources

    PBS KIDS Play & Learn Science
    Play with shadows, control the weather, roll and slide objects down a ramp, choose the best materials for an umbrella – all while building science inquiry skills and learning core science concepts. The games in the app encourage kids to see the science in their world. They are intentionally designed to serve as catalysts for real-world exploration by modeling real-world locations and experiences. The related hands-on activities and parent notes prompt families to “try it” at home and provide tips for engaging in conversations.

    PBS KIDS Play & Learn Science for Parents App
    Ramp and Roll

    Ramp and Roll explores how objects move, roll, slide and/or stay put on ramps and other surfaces. 

    • PBS Play & Learn Science Mini-Games: Play the following games in the app: “Explore the Roll”, “Hit the Target”, and “Surface Challenge”
    • Hands-on Activities:
      • Create a ramp using recycled materials (cardboard tubes, cereal boxes) or using items you have around (books, pillows, clipboards).
      • Test different objects (balls, marbles, blocks) to see if they roll down your ramp.
      • Add different materials to your ramp to change the surface (bubble wrap, a blanket, sandpaper). Does your object still roll? Does it roll the same?
      • Race different objects to see which object rolls the farthest?
      • Go on a ramp hunt – look around inside and outside for different kinds of ramps.
    • Connected Book:  
      • Oscar & the Cricket a Book about Moving & Rolling by Geoff Waring
      • Ramp & Roll books
    • Videos:
      • Ramp-n-Roll (0:51) – George must figure out how to build a ramp so that Hundley, a little dachshund, can get out of a basement window in this video excerpt from Curious George: Hundley’s Great Escape. 
      • Building Ramps (1:28) – In this video segment from PEEP and the Big Wide World, real kids explore what types of objects will slide down ramps of different materials.
      • Rolling Down a Hill (1:28) – Real kids discover what types of round objects will roll the fastest down a grassy hill, a piece of cardboard, and a sidewalk in this video segment from PEEP and the Big Wide World. 
      • Homemade Hills (1:27) – In this video segment from PEEP and the Big Wide World, real kids explore what types of objects will slide down ramps of different materials.
      • The Watchamacallit (8:50) – Peep, Quack, and Chirp discover how ramps and slides work by using angles and round objects, in this video segment from PEEP and the Big Wide World.
      • Super Grover 2.0 Digital Ramp (0:27) – Join Super Grover to learn about ramps. Ramps help you go from low to high. 
    Shadow Play

    Explore light and shadows by making and observing shadows, making and interacting with shadow puppets, and playing with flashlights. 

    • PBS KIDS Play & Learn Science Mini-Games: Play the following games in the app: “Exploring Shadows”, “Shadow Scenes”, or “Guess the Shadow”.
    • Hands-on Activities:
      • Use a flashlight or another light (lamp, cell phone or tablet flashlight) to create hand or full body shadows.
      • Use the PBS KIDS Shadow Puppets to make shadows.
      • Move objects closer to the flashlight and then further away, what happens?
      • Tape a piece of paper to a wall or door. Use a flashlight or lamp to create a shadow, try tracing the shadow on the paper with a pencil or crayon.
      • Play “Guess the Shadow”. Use different objects (try using the PBS KIDS Puppets) to make a shadow and then try to guess what or who the shadow belongs to. 
      • Host a shadow puppet show!
    • Printables:
    • Connected Books:
      • Moonbear’s Shadow by Frank Asch
      • The Black Rabbit by Philippa Leathers
      • Shadow Play books
    • Videos: 
      • My Shadow Goes Where I Go (1:30) – In this short video from The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!, children learn about energy and light. Nick and Sally create shadow puppets and sing a song about where your shadow can go! No matter where you go, you’re shadow will be there!
      • Shadows Can be Scary (2:23) – Daniel Tiger sees a scary shadow on the wall, but Dad shows him that shadows can be fun. Teach kids that being brave and investigating scary things together helps make things seem not as bad
      • A Thing or 2 About Making Shade (1:30) – This short video from The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!, teaches about physical science, energy, and light. Thing 1 tries clear, tinted, and opaque glass, to create a shade for Thing 2. He decides that opaque glass provides the best shade, and relief from the sun.
      • How to Make Shadow Puppets (2:11) – Make your own shadow theater with just a few household items! Mya shows your how to make some neat shadow puppets, and tells the story of the dinosaurs in her own low-lit play.
    Weather and Gear

    Explore the weather by observing, matching appropriate gear and clothing for certain weather, and experimenting with thermometers and temperature.

    • PBS KIDS Play & Learn Science Mini-Games: Play the following games in the app: “Read the Temperature”, “Weather Controller”, “Thermometer Picking”, “Photo Weather”, “Gear Up”, and “The Amazing Umbrella”
    • Hands-on Activities
      • Roll the weather cube. Use Del and Dee Dress Up Characters and Gear to put different outfits ont the character that matches the weather.
      • Track a week’s weather using the “Today’s Weather” printable or a sheet of paper.
      • Hot vs. Cold weather experiment: Use a thermometer to test something really cold (ice cubes or snow) vs. something warm (hand warmers, something put in the microwave). What happens to the thermometer?
      • Roll the weather cube. Find items in your house (winter hat, goggles) that you can wear to match the weather on the cube. 
    • Connected Books:
      • Weather by Jill McDonald
      • All About Weather: A First Weather Book for Kids by Huda Harajli MA
      • Weather books
    • Printables: 
    • Videos: 
      • Poem: “Big Snow” (0:18) – This video segment from Between the Lions is an animated poem that rhymes. Snow falls all over the city and then a snow plow pushes snow. 
      • Bert is All Dressed Up for Winter (2:51) – Get your galoshes on your head, your gloves on your ears, and get those earmuffs around your waist. Earmuffs around your waist? No, no, no, they’ve got it all wrong. Hopefully, Bert can figure out how to get dressed for winter so he doesn’t end up with a cold.
      • Clouds & Weather (2:15) – This video, featuring original stop-motion animation, is a fun way for children to learn about different types of clouds and their relationship to weather. 
      • What is Weather? (2:16) – Abby Brown loves to help kids have fun while learning! In this segment, Abby teaches kids about weather. Kids learn to observe the air and and sky as well as a thermometer in order to evaluate the weather.
      • Meet the Helpers: Meterologist (2:35) – Dive deeper into a meteorologist’s career and find out how this Helper assists in emergency situations. 
    Water Play

    Explore how different objects float or sink and notice how water moves through different kinds of spaces.

    • PBS KIDS Play & Learn Science Mini-Games: Play the following games in the app: “Water Wall”, “Thirsty Doggie”, and “Sink or Float”
    • Hands-on Activities
      • Use aluminum foil or recycled containers to create boats. Test whether they float in the sink, bucket, or bathtub.
      • Add pennies or washers to your boats to see if they can hold weight.
      • Find a variety of objects (pennies, pencil, crayon, ball, race car) and use a sink, bucket, or bathtub to test whether objects sink or float. Make guesses before testing.
    • Printables: 
    • Connected Books:
    • Videos: 
      • Do Try This At Home: Make a Boat (1:30) – In this short video from The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!, children learn about motion and stability: forces and interactions. Nick and Sally test some objects in their backyard wading pool, to see what will float and what won’t. 
      • Sink or Float (1:33) – Show students how easy it is to experiment while introducing them to the concept of buoyancy, in this fun video demonstration. Students are asked whether they think an item will sink or float, the item is then dropped into a fish tank, and the results are charted.
      • Sink or Float Experiment (1:03) – Learn about household objects that sink and float in this easy-to-prepare activity with The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!
      • The Fish Museum (8:52) – In this video segment from PEEP and the Big Wide World, Quack learns about what objects float and sink as he tries to add objects to his underwater fish museum.
      • Making Things Float (1:27) – In this video segment from PEEP and the Big Wide World, real kids explore what types of objects float in water and how to keep sinking objects from staying afloat.
      • Make a Boat (1:28) – Real kids learn how to make their plastic bottle boats sink and float by adding different objects and water to them in this video segment from PEEP and the Big Wide World. 

    Other Support Resources 

    Books & eBooks: There are also LOTS of books available from our local libraries for you to borrow:

    Discovering New York Suffrage Stories On-Demand

    The 70-year fight for suffrage began in Central and Western New York, an epicenter of reform. Women began their battle for the vote  in the mid-1800s. This part of the upstate region was an epicenter of reform, tackling societal issues like abolition, religion, temperance, and women’s rights. Success depended on many women whose stories are often forgotten.  Watch On-Demand & Access Classroom Resources

    Meet Matilda Joslyn Gage, Paulina Wright Davis, Mary Burnett Talbert, and Hester Whitehurst Jeffrey, diverse suffragists who tirelessly navigated religious intolerance, sexism, politics, and racism as they fought for the vote and women’s equality. Learn more at the documentary website.  

    Watch the Episode &  Access Classroom Resources & Video Clips

    Discovering New York Suffrage Stories PBS LearningMedia Collection

    Classroom Uses for Genealogy, History and DNA

    WXXI Education has pulled together educational support resources related genealogy, research, history, DNA and storytelling.

    PBS LearningMedia Genealogy & Ancestry Resources

    Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr Collection: The basic drive to discover who we are and where we come from is at the core of the 10-part PBS series Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the 12th series from Professor Gates, the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. Lessons in this collection are appropriate for 6-12 grade level students. 

    Connections Podcast: ‘Finding Your Roots,’ and the challenges African Americans face in tracing ancestry: Discussion with lead genealogist from “Finding Your Roots” about the challenges African Americans face in tracing their ancestries, about resources available in the process, and we hear from two women who found their roots. Listen Here:

    • Nick Sheedy, lead genealogist for “Finding Your Roots,” season seven 
    • Cheryl Wills, award-winning journalist, anchor for Spectrum News NY1, and author of “Emma,” “The Emancipation of Grandpa Sandy Wills,” “Emancipated: My Family’s Fight for Freedom,” and “Die Free – A Heroic Family Tale” 
    • Teej Jenkins, Teej Jenkins, Rochester resident who researched her genealogy with her family. Teej is also a host of WXXI’s Arts in Focus and a producer for WXXI-TV of such series for the City of Rochester as Cultural Expressions and What’s Good Rochester.

    Here are a few of our favorite FYR lessons and activities:

    Finding Your Roots: The Seedlings: Inspired by the popular PBS series “Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.” and shot on the campus of Penn State University, “Finding Your Roots: The Seedlings” follows 13 young people in a genetics and genealogy camp as they explore their family history and DNA ancestry with techniques never before used in an educational setting.

    • Download Full Curriculum: Resources include an introduction to genealogical research from prominent genealogists, clips from the show demonstrating how personal stories connect to larger events in history, and brief historical introductions to key people, places, and events in U.S. and World History. Fill out the form at fyrclassroom.org/curriculum/ and you will be forwarded to a Box folder where you can download the full curriculum. 
    • Download At-Home Activities: Here are free eight activities for families and future genealogists to do to begin learning about their own family history. Activities include: family tree, family interviews, family migration, observable traits, DNA extraction, and more!

    Faces of America:  What made America? What makes us? These two questions are at the heart of the PBS series Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The lesson plans and media resources based on the series address a wide range of topics including historic waves of immigration, anti-immigrant sentiment, family genealogy, and state-of-the-art genetic research. Through this collection, students will gain a broader perspective of America’s immigrant history (both past and present) and learn what it really means to be an American.

    Ken Burns’ The Gene: An Intimate History: This four-hour documentary weaves together science, history, and personal stories to create a historical biography of the human genome. It tells the story of the rapid evolution of genetic science from Gregor Mendel’s groundbreaking experiment in the 19th century to CRISPR, and the hope that newfound powers to alter DNA with pinpoint precision will transform the treatment of some of the world’s most complex and challenging diseases. The series also tackles the daunting ethical challenges that these technologies pose for humankind.

    NOVA Cracking Your Genetic Code: What will it mean when most of us can afford to have the information in our DNA—all six billion chemical letters of it—read, stored and available for analysis? NOVA’s Cracking Your Genetic Code reveals that we stand on the verge of such a revolution. But what are the moral dilemmas raised by this new technology? Will it help or hurt us to know the diseases that may lie in our future? What if such information falls into the hands of insurance companies, employers or prospective mates? One thing is for certain: the new era of personalized, gene-based medicine is relevant to everyone, and soon you will be choosing whether to join the ranks of the DNA generation.

    Other Historical Resources for Schools

    Black History in Two Minutes: It’s Black History delivered in short, lively, fact-packed stories accessible to people of all ages and education levels. It’s fast, accurate U.S. history available in free video podcast recordings describing major historical events and introducing less well-known experiences involving Black Americans. The series is narrated by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

    Rochester Voices: From the collections of Local History & Genealogy Division of the Rochester Public Library, this interactive, mobile-friendly website is designed to engage a K-12 audience, as well as the general public, in the study of local, state, national, and even global history, by allowing users to explore the stories of Rochesterians who experienced the past first-hand. Combining the features of an online special collections catalog and interpreted digital exhibits with those of an exploratory learning laboratory, this site enables diverse users to interact with unique historical materials in a variety of exciting new ways. The original letters, diaries, interviews, and other primary sources that make up the Rochester Voices digital collections are held in the Local History & Genealogy Division’s special collections and those of its partners.

    • 19th Ward Oral Histories: This oral history collection project was initiated in 2018 by the 19th Ward Community Association (19WCA). The 19WCA is one of the oldest neighborhood associations in the United States, having been established in the 1960s as a response to redlining and blockbusting, with a mission to “create, foster, and maintain a multi-racial community where individual and cultural differences are celebrated and where people share a sense of community.”
    • African American Oral Histories: Dr. James Wright, manager of the Rochester Public Library’s Phillis Wheatley branch, commissioned a project to record the oral histories of African American Rochesterians in the 1970s and early 1980s. The project was designed to highlight the public contributions of African Americans in the greater Rochester area and to make that information available to the community.  The interviewees represent a wide range of occupations, attitudes, and roles in the community, and they discuss a variety of topics from housing discrimination, segregation, and barriers to employment to the importance of community involvement and advances in civil rights.
    • Latino American Oral Histories: In 2011, Dr. Isabel Córdova, Associate Professor in History & Political Science at Nazareth College, initiated a student project to record and preserve the oral histories of Latinos in the Rochester area. Her colleague in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, Dr. Hilda Chacon, contributed similar student projects to the collection. Shared with the Rochester Public Library and available here, the Latino Voices collection comprises 66 interviews of Rochesterians with roots in a variety of Latin-American countries, including Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Colombia. 
    • The Frederick Douglass Voice: The Frederick Douglass Voice began publication on October 6, 1933. The newspaper, published by Howard Wilson Coles, was devoted to the activities, aspirations, and ideals of Black people in Rochester and the vicinity. Howard Coles used the newspaper to call attention to critical issues in the Black community. 
    • Classroom Connections: Here you will find a variety of activities and resources designed for students and their teachers. Developed with help from local educators, Rochester Voices follows the Common Core State Standards. The content of this site, which is differentiated by grade level, allows you to examine primary sources and explore humanities themes, while interpretive elements foster thoughtful analysis of these materials.

    Genealogy and Local Partner Resources


     Monroe County Library System (MCLS):

    The Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County boasts one of the premier collections of local historical and genealogical materials in western New York, while smaller municipal member libraries such as the Ogden Farmers’ Library in Spencerport, the Henrietta Public Library, and the Penfield Public Library have built collections of materials relevant to their particular towns. MCLS libraries have developed collections and finding aids that try to make sense of the past in an effort to better serve local residents as well as visitors who come seeking their roots.Resources including the New York State Vital Records Index, Life Records, City and Suburban Directories, high school and college yearbooks, microfilmed newspapers dating back to 1818, and subscriptions to e-databases are held by the Central Library’s Local History and Genealogy Division, where Rochester Genealogical Society members volunteer as docents some evenings and Saturdays to provide extra assistance to researchers. (not currently during the pandemic) Connect with your local library to locate electronic services licensed for the public that you can use in your genealogy searches. 

    To learn more at the Genealogy Resources section of the MCLS website:

    OWLL Library System Local History Resources: For Those Living in Livingston, Ontario, Wayne and Wyoming Counties

    Rochester Genealogical Society (RGS):

    The Rochester Genealogical Society began in 1938 when several people at a meeting of the Rochester Historical Society formed an informal group to preserve their family heritage. The Rochester Genealogical Society became an independent organization in 1977.

    The organization sponsors regular educational activities and encourages member-to-member support as well as community awareness of genealogy and family history. Its membership is comprised of people from all walks of life, who freely offer help or guidance to other members and the community whenever asked. Some members also volunteer at the Local History & Genealogy Division of Central Library and local Family History Centers to assist researchers or serve as speakers on particular topics.

    Whether you are a well-seasoned genealogist or family historian, or are just starting out, we are confident that you will find your membership in the Rochester Genealogical Society beneficial.

    Meeting and Events

    Monthly programs are announced with information on the RGS Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/NYRocGen, and at the Society web site, nyrgs.org  There are also a writers group, and a DNA interest group.

    Other Family Search Sites for the Greater Rochester Area

    WXXI Video Spot About Local Search Resources at Monroe County Library System for Conducting Genealogical Research

    FamilySearch: FamilySearch is dedicated to preserving important family records and making them freely accessibly online. 

    PBS LearningMedia Resources >

    Keep informed about what’s happening in your community and WXXI by signing up for our newsletters.

    Sign Up