SONOMA COUNTY HISTORY & GENEALOGY LIBRARY
 
 
NEWSLETTER MARCH 2020
Volume 2 Issue 3 
A Farewell from Katherine J. Rinehart
Katherine J. Rinehart
As some have heard, I have resigned from the Sonoma County Library to return to a career as a full-time historian. My last day was February 28, 2020. Looking back on my 18 years with the History & Genealogy Library, I am honored to have had the opportunity to manage our amazing resources and have built so many wonderful relationships with our patrons and community partners.
 
I am especially proud to have overseen the recent transformation of the H&G Library. When I assumed management in 2015, the library was a little-known hidden resource, open only four days a week and staffed by one full-time and one part-time employee.
 
Today the Sonoma County History & Genealogy Library is a welcoming place where patrons expect and receive quality service and access to specialized knowledge and materials. The library is now open 48 hours a week and staffed by four full-time and one part-time employees. These professionals perform system-wide outreach activities and have taken increased responsibility for collection care to ensure accessibility and proper storage. The scope of their duties now encompasses grant writing, developing disaster preparedness plans and engaging with the public in ways that have not been possible before. The H&G Library team, Simone Kremkau, Joanna Kolosov, Zayda Delgado and Kate Deadder, are amazing. I have learned so much from them and it has been a privilege to be their supervisor.
 
With regard to the Archives, I am pleased to share that the Sonoma County Library Commission authorized funding for a full box-level inventory and rehousing project for the Archives at their December 2, 2019 meeting. This important work, conducted by an outside consultant, should begin this spring. To keep abreast of this topic, I encourage you to reach out to the Sonoma County Library Commission and the Sonoma County Historical Records Commission.
 
While I am excited about what lies ahead, I will miss my wonderful co-workers and patrons who have made the H&G Library truly a “Magic Place,” to quote Gaye LeBaron. That said I hope to see many of you at the Sonoma County Historical Society's Annual Meeting and Awards Luncheon on March 29!                            
Photo by Scott Hess
 
New Databases: FIMo - Fire Insurance Maps online
FIMO Database
Launching March 9, 2020 - Digitized Insurance Maps for California
 
Published to help assess fire risk for buildings, Sanborn fire insurance maps show the footprint of every building in the city. These maps also indicate type of construction, use of structures, addresses, and, sometimes, the names of businesses. FIMo is a digital collection of over 2100 color fire insurance maps, real estate atlases and similar land use maps covering 523 cities in California dating back to the 1870s. Enter an address to see if it appears on a map in the collection or browse by city to see what maps are available. At any Sonoma County Library branch and from home with your library card! Go to sonomalibrary.org > Research > A-Z List > FIMo 
 
Women's History Month
Research your female ancestors at the H&G Library. Click on the images or visit us for more information! 
 
Sonoma County Library Events
Meet our Patrons - Sandy Frary
Hi Sandy, please tell us who you are and why you came to the H&G Library!
I am the archivist for Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery and maintain the listing of the 5,535 people buried there. The original records were lost decades ago but researcher Ray Owen and I have spent the last 12 years recreating the accurate historical burial listing. I depend on the H&G Library to enable me to access historical information, like old newspaper articles, obituaries and photographs to reconstruct the original records. The newly revised and greatly expanded Rural Cemetery Burial Listings book is scheduled for publication this spring. We added 580 listings and purged 350 incorrectly labeled burials (see below). This publication will add considerably to the known history of Santa Rosa. The Rural Cemetery is a town in itself and all the stories can be found there!       
 
Sandy FraryWhat do you wish people knew about the H&G Library?
I wish that the H&G Library building was not so tucked away and out of sight, so more people would be aware of this hidden gem. It is a nice building if only it was more easily seen by the public, especially by those who are unaware of its existence.  
 
What would you like to see added to the H&G Library's collection?   
I realize this has less than a slight chance of ever happening, but it certainly would be helpful to be able to access digital copies of Sonoma County death certificates here at the H&G Library. Or at the very least, the Sonoma County Death Index which references names and dates of death without disclosing any personal information. Access to the index would also help patrons with finding out if a death certificate is available at the Sonoma County Clerk-Recorder's office. An impossibility, I'm sure, but one can dream.
 
What might someone be surprised to know about you?
While volunteering at the Sonoma County Coroner's Office one day a week for the last ten years, I have done and seen things I would never have imagined, for instance, locating a body for the Violent Crimes Unit and being onsite when it was exhumed. I have identified all 351 burials in the County's Indigent Cemetery adjacent to the Rural Cemetery. As a regular assignment, I report all Sonoma County deaths to the Consumer Product Protection Agency in Bethesda, MD. Also, I tend to the over 100 vintage roses growing in the Rural Cemetery. With the aid of my eight helpers in the "Rose Brigade" I have propagated hundreds of these living antiques, which are sold at cemetery rose tours. We will hold our next rose tour/sale at the Rural Cemetery in the spring of 2021.
 
What was your most interesting find at the H&G Library?
My first ever trip to the H&G Library provided me with my most interesting find. I knew that my paternal grandfather, John Wright, who died in 1919, was buried in Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery because my father had taken me to see his grave when I was about ten years old. But his grave marker had gone missing and there was no record of his burial. I found the H&G Library and searched through what seemed like miles of microfilm looking for his death notice. And then - bingo! - I found his obituary AND it stated "burial in Rural Cemetery."  I had accomplished my mission and had my first taste of historical research!                                       
                                                                                Interview and photo: Simone Kremkau
 
The Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery is located at 1600 Franklin Avenue - enter through the main gate close to the intersection of Monroe Street. The grounds are open to the public daily from 6 AM - 9 PM (PDT) and 6 AM - 6 PM (PST). Members of the cemetery preservation committee regularly organize docent-led tours and events that highlight local history and the many town pioneers who are buried there.
 
Find a copy of the 2007 edition of the Rural Cemetery Burial Listings book at the H&G Library; the updated and expanded edition is scheduled to be published this spring and will contain a comprehensive alphabetical list of the 5,538 burials with detailed genealogical information, many photos of the deceased, and, for the first time, a list of the 351 indigent burials at the adjacent county cemetery. 
 
Women's Vote Centennial at the Sonoma County Library
 
Sonoma County Library joins its partners, Sonoma County 2020 Women’s Suffrage Project and the League of Women Voters Sonoma County, in hosting a yearlong centennial celebration with programming and events throughout the county that explore the long and complex history of the suffrage movement.
 
Suffrage centennial events will take place at participating locations through 2020.
See a calendar of all the events - library events are free and open to all.
 
 
California Women Win the Vote:
League of Women Voters Sonoma County
Film Screening 
 
Sunday, March 14, 2020
2 PM - 4 PM
Windsor Regional Library
 Film runs 39-minutes followed by discussion.
 
Using both historical materials and live reenactments, this film presents the dramatic suffrage campaign that won the women of California the right to vote nine years before the Federal Amendment. The campaign became a role model and motivation for the rest of the country; today, the tactics and spirit of these women are a guide and an inspiration for citizen activism in a democratic society.
 
Left to right: Robert Cooney, Molly Murphy MacGregor, executive director and co-founder of the National Women's History Alliance, Katherine J. Rinehart, and Maria Cuevas, co-founder of the Women's History Project
 Celebrating 100 years of the League of Women Voters and Susan B. Anthony's 200th birthday at the Rohnert Park Regional Library
 
Led by Carrie Chapman Catt, suffragists across the country surged to victory in 1920 and turned the National American Woman Suffrage Association into the League of Women Voters.
If you weren't able to attend the event, watch
a live recording of the February 15, 2020 presentation by Robert P. J. Cooney, author of Winning the Vote: the Triumph of the American Woman Suffrage Movement on the Sonoma County Library's YouTube channel.
 
At the Rohnert Park Cotati Regional Library. Left to right: Robert Cooney, Molly Murphy MacGregor, executive director and co-founder of the National Women's History Alliance, Katherine J. Rinehart, and Maria Cuevas, co-founder of the Women's History Project. Photo: Barbara McKenzie.   
 
Distinguished Speaker Series
Susan Orlean and the Library Book
 
Distinguished Speaker Series:
New York Times bestselling Author Susan Orlean 
 
Sunday, March 15, 2020
2:30 PM - 4 PM
Central Santa Rosa Library
Forum Room
 
 
Join us for an afternoon with journalist and author Susan Orlean who will discuss how her latest work, The Library Book (2018) interweaves narratives like library history, library architecture, book burning, librarianship and the important role local libraries play in our lives today, with the quest to solve the notorious cold case of who set fire to the Los Angeles Public Library in 1986. Orlean will also speak on her books, her encounters with extraordinary people, her experiences traveling the world and many other topics. A book signing will follow questions from the audience. 
 
Local Events
Learn about Reclaim the Records, a non-profit organization and activist group that advocates for greater transparency and accessibility for genealogical and other records in the United States, and using Freedom of Information laws to obtain copies, makes the data available to the public for free.
 
12:00 PM - 2 PM 
Santa Rosa Finley Center, Cypress Room 
2060 West College Ave, Santa Rosa 
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Sonoma County History and Genealogy Library
Mailing Address: 211 E Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Physical Address: 725 3rd Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Phone: (707) 308-3212 
Monday - Saturday 10 AM - 6 PM 
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Sonoma County Library
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