Q. What government information is helpful in genealogy research?

Thank you for your inquiry.  The decennial census is a federal government source of information that is often helpful to genealogists.  The census, however, does not release records pertaining to individuals for seventy years due to privacy issues (the latest records released are from 1940).  At Hofstra, we do not collect the records that contain information on individuals . 

You can search individual records on several websites.  A good one to try is www.familysearch.org a site of family history centers operated by the Church of Latter Day Saints. You can search their online library catalog and they now have a search engine for 1940 records.

You can also use the commercial service Ancestry.com (a fee-based service) to research individual records.  That site has census and other records for genealogical research.  Hofstra does not subscribe to Ancestry.com. 

Another commercial site that provides information on researching  census records  is http://www.1930census.com/.

A few other sources for genealogical research are:

The New York Public Library has a genealogy collection open to the public (Room 121 at 42nd St. Library 212-930-0828).  You can find out more about the Irma and Paul Milstein collection at http://www.nypl.org/milstein.

The National Archives Genealogist and Family Historian website http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/) answers many basic questions about genealogical research such as:  "What genealogical records are online?  What records will help me with family history research?  How can I obtain copies of records?"

You may also want to try Stony Brook University.  They have a large collection of census materials.