California History and Research Guides
Are you stumped? We can help! The California History Room librarians have spent hundreds of hours plumbing our collections to develop research guides for specific California topics. You can see our current guides below. If you cannot find a guide to the topic you are researching or if you still have questions, please consider using our library databases or contacting us.
General
- African Americans in California (PDF)
- Art and Artists of California (PDF)
- Chinese Americans in California (PDF)
- Fiction in California (PDF)
- Fires and Firefighters in California (PDF)
- German Americans in California (PDF)
- Highways and Byways in California (PDF)
- Horses and Horse Racing in California (PDF)
- Images of California (PDF)
- Japanese Americans in California (PDF)
- Jewish Americans in California (PDF)
- Land grants in California (PDF)
- Latin Americans in California (PDF)
- Medicine in California (PDF)
- Mining in California (PDF)
- Native Americans in California (PDF)
- Oddities in California (PDF)
- Oil in California (PDF)
- Poetry in California (PDF)
- Portuguese Americans in California (PDF)
- Railroads in California (PDF)
- Remote Access: Vital Statistics and Indexes (PDF)
- Ships and Shipping in California (PDF)
- Water in California (PDF)
- Wildflowers in California (PDF)
- Wine in California (PDF)
- Women in California (PDF)
- 1960's in California (PDF)
What's New
- Arcata (PDF)
Genealogy
- African Americans in California (PDF)
- Chinese Americans in California (PDF)
- Federal Census Resources (PDF)
- German Americans in California (PDF)
- Immigration and Naturalization Resources (PDF)
- Japanese Americans in California (PDF)
- Jewish Americans in California (PDF)
- Latin Americans in California (PDF)
- Native Americans in California (PDF)
- Portuguese Americans in California (PDF)
- Women in California (PDF)
- 1852 California State Census Resources (PDF)
General Genealogy Guides
Local History
By County
- Alameda County (PDF)
- Alpine County (PDF)
- Amador County (PDF)
- Butte County (PDF)
- Calaveras County (PDF)
- Colusa County (PDF)
- Contra Costa County (PDF)
- Del Norte County (PDF)
- El Dorado County (PDF)
- Fresno County (PDF)
- Humboldt County (PDF)
- Imperial County (PDF)
- Inyo County (PDF)
- Kern County (PDF)
- Kings County (PDF)
- Lassen County (PDF)
- Madera County (PDF)
- Marin County (PDF)
- Mendocino County (PDF)
- Merced County (PDF)
- Modoc County (PDF)
- Monterey County (PDF)
- Orange County (PDF)
- Placer County (PDF)
- Sacramento County (PDF)
- San Francisco County (PDF)
- San Mateo County (PDF)
- Santa Barbara (PDF)
- Santa Cruz County (PDF)
- Shasta County (PDF)
- Sierra County (PDF)
- Siskiyou County (PDF)
- Stanislaus County (PDF)
- Trinity County (PDF)
- Tulare County (PDF)
- Tuolumne County (PDF)
- Ventura County (PDF)
- Yolo County (PDF)
- Yuba County (PDF)
By City
- Arcata (PDF)
- Auburn (PDF)
- Bakersfield (PDF)
- Calexico (PDF)
- Carmel-by-the-Sea (PDF)
- Crescent City (PDF)
- Fair Oaks (PDF)
- Folsom (PDF)
- Fort Bragg (PDF)
- Modesto (PDF)
- Newport Beach (PDF)
- Placerville (PDF)
- Redwood City (PDF)
- Richmond (PDF)
- Sacramento building research (PDF)
- Sacramento City (PDF)
- San Francisco (PDF)
- San Francisco earthquake (1906) (PDF)
- Sutter's Fort Character Guide (PDF)
- Watsonville (PDF)
- Weaverville (PDF)
- Visalia (PDF)
