Research Location - Newport Beach Public Library

The central location for the Newport Beach Library is at 1000 Avocado in Newport Beach.  Hours are Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Sunday, Noon to 5 p.m.  Ancestry.com may be accessed for FREE at the library and, if you have a library card (available FREE to anyone living in California), you can access Heritage Quest from home by logging on to the website:  www.newportbeachlibrary.org and putting in your library card number and password.  If one is visiting from outside California, one may apply for a computer use only in the library card.

The materials that would be of interest to genealogists and family historians reside on the second floor.  These are at the far rear of the stacks and include some beginning genealogy books, some heraldry and lineage books (eg. Burke’s American Families with British Ancestry) as well as the following:  reference books, compiled biographies from 1940 to 2008, gazetteers and county books, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, the American National Biography, the Dictionary of American Biography, Genealogies in the Library of Congress, Burke’s Irish Records, Irish Pedigrees, The Scottish Clans and Their Tartans, German-American Names, Welsh Family History, and Hispanic Surnames plus others.

Research Location - Pomona Public Library

Pomona Public Library

625 S. Garey Avenue, Pomona, CA 91769

(909) 620-2043

www.youseemore.com/pomona/

The Pomona Public Library was founded in 1887. A $15,000 grant from Andrew Carnegie in 1901 provided funding for construction of a new building and another grant in 1912 enabled the library to nearly double its size; the Carnegie Library was replaced by the present Civic Center Library in 1965.

The library started its genealogical collection in 1955. Reference librarians are available to assist patrons in the use of the collection which includes some 5,000 books, microfilm, microfiche, periodicals and computerized databases.

Microfilmed newspaper collections include the Los Angeles Times from 1881-present, as well as the local Pomona newspapers since the city’s founding in 1887. It also has the Japan Times & Advertiser from April through August 1942.

The Special Collections Department which is housed on the lower level and open Monday-Wednesday from 2:00-6:00 p.m. includes over 3,000 volumes on California history, some 60,000 photographs by Burton Frasher (1888-1955), the Laura Ingalls Wilder collection (Little House on the Prairie manuscript, letters), and over 4,000 citrus box labels—the largest collection held by any library in the country.

Digital collections available at the library’s website include the Pomona High School yearbooks from 1901-1979, city directories from 1896-1948, and numerous collections of historical photos of Pomona landmarks, homes and citizens. Those interested in the history of the area will enjoy the Blackstock/Allen collection of articles written by Joe Blackstock and David Allen, columnists for the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.

The Pomona Valley Genealogical Society meets at the library on the second Saturday, September through May, at 2:00 p.m.