How to Research 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.

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Introduction
7:50 Sonoma County Library Databases
9:25 FIMo
14:40 Newspapers.com
19:48 Ancestry Library Edition/Heritage Hub
25:26 Sonoma County Digital Collections
30:55 Sonoma County History & Genealogy Library
32:17 Historical Maps/Atlases
34:05 Aerial Photographs
36:16 City & Telephone Directories
38:45 Historic Resource Surveys
42:58 Permits, Registers, Tax Assessments
44:50 More materials
45:55 Sonoma County Archives
52:00 Free Online Databases
1:05:00 Q&A