Research

Ancestry Library Edition
Ancestry Library Edition offers comprehensive resources for genealogical and historical research. Available at any Sonoma County Library branch.
Archives Unbound logo
Primary source material from 296 archival collections covering topics of importance to U.S. and California history
California Digital Newspaper Collection
The California Digital Newspaper Collection contains over 400,000 pages of significant historical California newspapers published from 1846-1922, including the first California newspaper, the...
Calisphere logo
Calisphere is the University of California's free public gateway to a world of primary sources. More than 200,000 digitized items — including photographs, documents, newspaper pages, political...
The Digital Public Library of America contains e-books, maps, pictures, and other digital library items from libraries, museums, and archives across the country.  No checkout required!  See below for...
FIMo - FIre Insurance Maps Online
User-friendly access to an extensive historical California map collection. High definition, color and gray-scale images display important historical details not visible on black and white map scans. ...
Retired 9/1/21 - Try the HertiageHub resource to explore your family history.
Great Courses Library Collection image
The Great Courses Library Collection includes more than 250 video courses, led by the world’s top experts, covering a broad range of subjects.
HeritageHub image
The premier collection of U.S. obituaries and death notices for in-depth genealogical research from 1704 – today.
HeritageQuest
Browse through thousands of family and place histories, genealogical books, documents, and official records.
What are Historical Magazine Archives from EBSCO?EBSCO offers full text historical runs of select major magazines dating from the 1800’s forward.  Seven archives are available now in conne
ImageQuest logo
**On April 5th, 2023 ImageQuest will be unavailable from 12:00 - 3:00pm due to a scheduled update.** Patrons may use any image included on ...
National Geographic Logo
An online database housing magazine issues, images and maps produced by National Geographic.  The content includes the complete run of National Geographic magazine from 1888 to 2015 with over 7400...
Online Archive of California
The Online Archive of California (OAC) provides free public access to detailed descriptions of primary resource collections maintained by more than 200 contributing institutions including libraries,...
ProQuest eLibrary
More than 11,000 Research Topics pages deliver information on a vast array of people, places, historical events and eras, literary genres, current events, broad curricular themes and much more.
Historical Newspapers
Search early issues and see exact copies of the articles as printed on the original pages of the Chronicle. Only available at the History and Genealogy Library.
Press Democrat, Apr 15, 1922
Scanned pages from Sonoma County newspapers. The collection includes clippings as well as entire pages, but does not yet include entire issues
Sonoma County Local History & Culture banner
Local History & Culture provides access to digitized images, documents and more that illuminate Sonoma County history and culture.
The New York Times
Access to New York Times regular newspaper content from 1851-1922 and 1981 to present.  For access to New York Times content from 1923-1980 see our New...
The New York Times
Access to New York Times regular newspaper content from 1851 to present.  For access to New York Times from inside the library see our New York Times -...