SONOMA COUNTY HISTORY & GENEALOGY LIBRARY
 
 
NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2019
Volume 1 Issue 9 

2019 Sonoma County Archives Crawl
On Saturday, October 5, the Sonoma County Library, partnering with the Historical Records Commission, celebrated National Archives Month with the first-ever
Sonoma County Archives Crawl.
 
Around the county, local historical societies, groups and sites welcomed visitors with special programs and activities. This included the library’s special collections at the Petaluma History Room, the History & Genealogy Library and the Wine Library, with additional presentations at the Central Library featuring guests from numerous local history archives, societies and projects.
 
THANK YOU to all attendees and visitors for your participation and support!
 
We would also like to thank you for the positive feedback and suggestions for future events. We are listening! Planning for the next Sonoma County Archives Crawl is already underway. In October 2020, we hope to share more hidden gems from the Sonoma County Archives and emphasize “all things preservation” – presentations and workshops for organizational and personal archivists alike.  
 
Amanda King, Deputy County Clerk-Recorder, and Dr. Peter Meyerhoff, Sonoma Valley Historical Society.
 
Debbie Williams and Sandy Frary, Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery Preservation Committee, with guest (left to right).
 

Dr. Daniel and Jo Markwyn, appraising Pedersen's Furniture Company records with Joanna Kolosov, H&G Special Collections Librarian, at the H&G Library.
  
Eric Stanley, History Curator at the Sonoma County Museum and member of the Historical Records Commission, and Constance Smith (in a Civil War era mourning dress), Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery Preservation Committee.
 
Leslie Graves, Sonoma County 2020 Women's Suffrage Project, and Karen Petersen and Eloise Van Tassel, The Sitting Room Library (left to right). 
 
Photos by Katherine J. Rinehart
 
Recent Discoveries at the Sonoma County Archives
Indigent Fund Receipts Help Tell a More Complete Story
By Katherine J. Rinehart
 
Thanks to the Sonoma County Genealogy Society, we are aware of indigent records that exist within the Sonoma County Archives. These records cover the period from 1878 to 1926 and give the names of people who sought funds from the county because they had no other means of financial support.
 
For the most part, these are people not written up in the local history books and are otherwise overlooked by those conducting genealogical research. Most of these individuals owned no property and had fallen on hard times because their primary provider had become ill, died, deserted them, was in jail, or they were too old to be gainfully employed. The Sonoma County Genealogical Society published two books on the subject.
 
The first volume of Indigent Taxpayers in Sonoma County, California gives information about the applicant, his or her family, and the circumstances of the request. The second volume provides a listing of the taxpayers who supported the applicants' request for county funds. The applications are important because they provide a substitute census for the county in place of the 1890 federal census, most of which was destroyed by fire. Of the 16,000 signatures, over 8,000 of them occur in the period from 1881 to 1909. 
 
Information not captured in either volume are records that document “indigent fund receipts” such as the one pictured above. These receipts are a recent discovery and help tell a more complete story of how Sonoma County cared for its poor before passage of the Social Security Act of 1935. In 1898, the Sonoma County Hospital, located on the south side of Chanate Road in Santa Rosa, provided care for ailing and impoverished patients who grew most of their own food. Local businesses provided other supplies and invoiced the county treasurer.
 
The Hahman’s Drug Store receipt is just one of many such receipts currently being inventoried by Sonoma County Library staff. This is time-consuming work – but necessary as we strive to make the collections in our care known to the public.
 
Photo, top: Indigent fund receipt, Sonoma County Archives. Right: Sonoma County Library Digital Collections. Paul T. Hahman Drug Store, 1890.
 
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Do you need gift ideas for the book lovers in your life? Are you planning to get more good reading done during the holidays? The H&G Library has got you covered - find our historical fiction and non-fiction recommendations below! The title links to the print edition in the library catalog, but most often the book is available in electronic formats as well. And if you don't have a library card, find out how to get one here.
 
2019 Holiday Book Gift Guide: Staff Picks 
Recommended by Katherine J. Rinehart, H&G Manager
 
Towers of Gold. How one Jewish Immigrant named Isaias Hellman created California - Frances Dinkelspiel - 2008        
 
I read this book when I was researching my paternal great-great-grandfather William Perry who settled in Los Angeles in 1852 and traveled in the same business circles as Isaias. Both men crossed paths in LA and in San Francisco, and it was interesting to learn about the cities, the power/water and lumber businesses and what it meant to be Jewish in California at the turn of the last century. Even though it’s non-fiction, the book reads like a novel and Dinkelspiel skillfully cites her sources without bogging down the stream of the narrative. If you like the style, make sure to check out Tangled Vines. Greed, murder, obsession, and an arsonist in the vineyards of California (2015), too! 
 
Dark Tide. The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 - Stephen Puleo - 2003
Historical context of the molasses flood and examination of the changes brought about by prohibition, immigration, the anarchist movement and the role of big business.
On Gold Mountain - Lisa See - 1995
100 years of the author's family history, providing a complex portrait comprised of hard work, suffering, failures and successes as they moved from China to the United States.
 
The Sonoma County Library is looking forward to hosting Lisa See in February 2020 as a distinguished speaker - stay tuned!

Recommended by Kate Deadder, H&G Library Associate
 
Destiny Disrupted. A History of the World through Islamic Eyes  - Tamim Ansary - 2009
 
Having grown up in the Middle East, this was a very personal read. The West has its own west-centric narrative; Ansary tells the story from the Islamic point of view. It was fascinating to learn how the two civilizations developed alongside each other and intersected throughout history. The Venetian glass industry, for example, has been deeply influenced by the sophisticated craftsmanship of the Middle East. Later, mosque lamps created in Venice were commissioned by sultans and members of their court. Although the book covers a lot of ground, it is still an easy read and very engaging!  
 
Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt - 1996
Both my maternal and paternal ancestors were Irish. This childhood memoir is a hauntingly realistic account of growing up as a son of Irish immigrants in Depression-era Brooklyn and Limerick, Ireland in the early 1930s. 

Recommended by Joanna Kolosov, H&G Special Collections Librarian
 
The Aviator's Wife - Melanie Benjamin - 2013
 
This historical novel retells the story of the kidnapping of the 20-month-old son of aviator Charles Lindbergh in 1932, from the perspective of his wife, Anne. While her famous husband usually takes center stage, it focuses on Anne's whole life, her upbringing, marriage, and the emotionally devastating events surrounding the abduction of her child. I have always liked personal accounts, and this fictional biography is very well researched and, at the same time, a page turner. I couldn't stop listening to how the intertwining stories unfolded in the audiobook and spent some time parked in the driveway!
 
Finding Family. My Search for Roots and the Secrets in my DNA - Richard Hill - 2012
The author's personal story of a decades long search for his biological family and innovative use of genetic genealogy tests.
  
Forty Autumns: a Family's Story of Courage and Survival on both Sides of the Berlin Wall - Nina Willner - 2016
Intriguing memoir of five women separated by the Iron Curtain for more than forty years and their miraculous reunion after the fall of the Berlin Wall. 

Recommended by Kim Wallis, Extra-Help Librarian

The Library Book - Susan Orlean - 2018
 
I have always been fascinated by "everything library." The book chronicles the Los Angeles Public Library fire of 1986, an event I had never heard about before, probably because it happened on the same day as Chernobyl which occupied the news in general and my family in particular, since my Dad was a nuclear physicist. The fire and search for the arsonist is not the whole story, though. At the same time, Orlean interweaves many narratives, like library architecture, library history, book burning, librarianship, and the important role local libraries play in our lives today. I have often traveled to Los Angeles but have never been to its public library. Now I definitely want to go! 
 
Finding Dorothy: a Novel - Elizabeth Letts - 2019 
The story behind The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the book that inspired the iconic film, through the eyes of author L. Frank Baum’s wife, Maud.
 
The Tattooist of Auschwitz - Heather Morris - 2018
Based on interviews that were conducted with Holocaust survivor and Auschwitz-Birkenau tattooist Lale Sokolov—an unforgettable love story in the midst of atrocity.

Recommended by Simone Kremkau, H&G Senior Library Associate
 
Thunderstruck - Erik Larson - 2006
 
This book combines two of my reading favorites: following an exciting murder mystery and learning about things my formal education missed out on, as in here, the history of wireless communication. Larson interweaves the lives of its inventor, Guglielmo Marconi, and "Britain's second most famous murderer," Harvey Crippen, but you have to wait until the very end to discover how and where both intersect. It's worth it! Surprisingly, the story also turns out to have local relevance. In 1914 the American Marconi Wireless Co. built and operated stations in Bolinas and on Tomales Bay to achieve a signal powerful enough to cross the Pacific Ocean.
 
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin - Erik Larson - 2011
America’s first ambassador to Nazi Germany, William E. Dodd, and his daughter Martha experience the rising terror of Hitler’s rule in 1930s Berlin.
 
The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley - 1982
The Arthurian Legend in a nutshell of 900 pages, told from the perspective of the women behind the throne, bringing it back to its Celtic roots.  
 
New Wells Fargo Community Mural in Windsor
Wells Fargo Community Murals celebrate the legacy of the communities they serve, highlighting the geography, industry, and cultural diversity that give each community its unique character and sense of place. From small towns to big cities, Wells Fargo has installed custom community murals in over 2,300 Wells Fargo locations nationwide.
 
The Sonoma County Library is pleased to have provided Wells Fargo with historic images from its Local History & Culture digital collections, which served as inspiration for murals at branches in Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa and most recently in Windsor at the 8844 Lakewood Drive branch. 
 
Sonoma County Library Events
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 throughout Sonoma County here.
Library events are free and open to all.
 
Women's Suffrage Centennial Logo
 
An Evening with the Author 
 Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner
Monday, December 16, 2019
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Central Santa Rosa Library
 
Photo of Dr. Sally Roesch
 
Please join us for a presentation by Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner, editor of The Women's Suffrage Movement - an intersectional anthology of works by the known and unknown women that shaped and established the suffrage movement, in time for the 2020 Centennial of Women’s Right to Vote. With a foreword by Gloria Steinem - Penguin Random House, 2019.
 
Dr. Khal Schneider - Native American Voting Rights and the Citizenship Question - Saturday, January 25, 2020 - 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM - Central Santa Rosa Library
 
Robert P. J. Cooney, Jr. - Winning Political Power for Women: Carrie Chapman Catt and the League of Women Voters - Saturday, February 15, 2020 - 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM Rohnert Park-Cotati Regional Library
 
Local Events
Beyond Stereotypes Exhibition
Model Train Show
Local Women Exhibit
Subscribe to the H&G Library newsletter     Previous Issues     Facebook        
Email the editor: skremkau@sonomalibrary.org           
CHANGED HOURS
Effective November 25, 2019, the Sonoma County H&G Library will be open
Monday through Saturday, 10 AM to 6 PM
Holiday Closures: December 24, 2019 and December 31, 2019: 10 AM - 2 PM
December 25, 2019 and January 1, 2020: CLOSED 
 
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 
Read about us in the Press Democrat
Sonoma County Library
707-545-0831www.sonomalibrary.org