Researching Your Historic Property Using Online Databases

Researching Your Historic Property Using Online Databases

Historical Society of Santa Rosa hosts Simone Kremkau, Senior Library Associate at the Sonoma County History and Genealogy Library, as she presents resources and techniques to research your historic home or building using the Sonoma County Library’s website. 

Learn about the Sonoma County Library’s numerous online databases offering free access to digitized maps, newspapers and images, and discover how resources held by the History and Genealogy Library and the Sonoma County Archives can assist you in researching a structure’s history.

Simone holds an MA in English and German Literature from Heidelberg University and an MLIS from the Berlin School of Library and Information Science at Humboldt University. She has been with the Sonoma County Library since 2015.

Emcee and zoom host, Leslie Graves, facilitates questions with Simone and HSSR Board Member, Denise Hill for the last 30-minutes of the presentation.

This recording originally aired on October 21, 2021 and is approximately 1:30:00 in length. It is also available on the HSSR YouTube channel. See additional details on this site

Introduction....4:25
Sonoma County Library Databases....7:50
FIMo – Fire Insurance Maps online....9:25 
Newspapers.com....14:40
Ancestry Library Edition/Heritage Hub....19:48
Sonoma County Digital Collections – Historic Photos and Local History Index....25:26
Sonoma County History & Genealogy Library....30:55
Historical Maps/Atlases....32:17
Aerial Photographs....34:05
City & Telephone Directories....36:16
Historic Resource Surveys and Architectural Guides....38:45
Permits, Registers, Tax Assessments 42:58
More materials to fill any gaps: Indexes to local cemetery, marriage, birth, death, probate records, high school yearbooks, etc.....44:50
Sonoma County Archives....45:55
Free Online Databases: California Digital Newspaper Collection, David Rumsey’s Map Collection, City of Santa Rosa Aerial Viewer....52:00
Q&A....1:05:00

 

To contact the Sonoma County History and Genealogy Library and Simone for further questions: history@sonomalibrary.org or (707) 308-3212,

 

For more information and to join the Historical Society of Santa Rosa visit their website at www.HistoricalSocietySantaRosa.org