Genealogy + History

A comprehensive mix of resources, records, and tools devoted to African American family history research. Includes a connection to expert research assistance.

Covers more than 500 years of African-American history and culture with images, videos, timelines, biographies, maps and more.

Uniquely put together for Dayton Metro Library, our patrons, and area communities, this database offers approximately 32 different collections that cover a variety of sub-topics relating to African American history.

Covering a critical period of colonialism (1910-1940), this collection brings together primary source materials that enlighten the study of politics, culture, and history. It provides particular insight into German, Italian, British, Portuguese, and American influences as the world advanced toward World War II.

An indispensable resource for genealogists and historians providing census data, vital records, immigration records, family histories, military records, court and legal documents, photos, maps, and more.

Program spans the sixteenth to twentieth centuries and is the largest digital collection of historical primary source publications relating to the history and study of sex, sexuality, and gender research and gender studies research. Documentation covering disciplines such as social, political, health, and legal issues impacting LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) communities around the world.

Particular strengths in the Archive Unbound program include U.S. foreign policy; U.S. civil rights; global affairs and colonial studies; and modern history. Broad topic clusters include: African Studies, African American Studies, Archives of Sexuality and Gender, Brazilian and Portuguese History and Culture, China and the Modern World, Indigenous Peoples of North America, Holocaust Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, and Religions of America.

Free and open source - no library card required! Find historical newspaper articles, pamphlets, diaries, correspondence and more from specific time periods in U.S. history marked by the opposition African Americans have faced on the road to freedom. This resource supports students from middle school through college, as well as anyone interested in learning more about the ongoing Black Freedom Struggle.

Black Life in America is a unique digital archive of news media is sourced from more than 19,000 American and global news sources, including over 400 current and historical Black publications. By offering balanced coverage from diverse sources published from 1704 through present day, this multi-disciplinary resource is crucial for the study and interpretation of historical and current events.

This resource brings together over 80,000 pages of pamphlets from 1800 to the late twentieth century. These pamphlets cover history, politics, literature, and other important subject areas in the form of speeches, flyers, official decrees, sermons, poems, plays, concert and theater programs, and more pertaining to Latin America's largest and most influential power.

This collection is sourced from preeminent libraries and archives across the world, including the Second Historical Archives of China and the British Library. The series covers a period of about 180 years (1800s to 1980s) when China experienced radical and often traumatic transformations from an inward-looking imperial dynasty into a globally engaged republic.

Genealogical information for researchers including Obituaries, Our Forefathers, Service Notes, Marriages, Gedenk Blaetter and more.

Thousands of digitized images and documents pertaining to the history of the Miami Valley. All items included in this site are owned by Dayton Metro Library.

Historic digital collections from libraries, museums, and archives across Ohio and more. The DPLA portal to photographs, maps, documents, and AV materials from across the country is a great starting place for your local history and genealogy reference.

A premier collection of historical U.S. military records for use in genealogy and other research. Stories, photos, and personal documents bring details of America’s military veterans to life.

HeritageHub provides access to hundreds of years of obituaries and death notices from thousands of newspapers across the United States. This one-of-a-kind collection helps patrons and family historians uncover new family members and understand family relationships on a deeper level than ever before.

An essential collection of genealogical and historical sources for more than 60 countries, including census records, books, serials, and other historical records.

Provides access to an archive of countless hours of first-person video testimony from thousands of African American leaders.

Deep and broad in its coverage, this collection incorporates anti-Semitic propaganda, correspondence from prisoners, documents from resistance groups, bank records from Nazi financiers, eyewitness accounts from concentration camps, and much more.

This resource enables exploration of the political, social, and cultural history of native peoples from the sixteenth century well into the twentieth century. Sourced from both American and Canadian institutions, as well as direct-from-source from newspapers from various tribes and Indian-related organizations. The collection also features indigenous-language materials, including dictionaries, bibles, and primers.

Gain a better understanding of the academic discipline of Middle Eastern Studies, also known as Near Eastern Studies, which takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the region located to the east and south of the Mediterranean Sea, including the Arabian Peninsula and parts of North Africa, extending as far as Afghanistan in Central Asia. Middle Eastern Studies is part of a broader category of study known as area studies, which examines all geographic, political, or cultural regions.

Death certificate information for Ohio residents spanning the years 1913-1937, from the Ohio Historical Society.

More than 26,000 digitized historical documents from Ohio libraries, museums, historical societies, and archives, from the Ohio Historical Society.

The history of refugee crises throughout the twentieth century remains largely untold through primary sources. With Refugees, Relief and Resettlement: Forced Migration and World War II, Gale chronicles the plight of refugees and displaced persons across Europe, North Africa, and Asia from 1935 to 1950, bringing together over 590,000 pages of pamphlets, ephemera, government documents, relief organization publications, and refugee reports that recount the causes, effects and responses to refugee crises before, during and shortly after World War II.

Founded on the ideal of freedom, North America had a unique role as a birthplace for and spread of new religious movements. Religions of America presents scholars and researchers with more than 660,000 pages of content that follow the development of religions and religious movements born in the United States from 1820 to 1990.

Large-scale, detailed maps of Ohio cities produced by the Sanborn Fire Insurance Company, 1882-1962. Useful for identifying buildings and studying the growth of towns and cities.

Trace the global history of slavery between the 17th and 19th centuries with over five million pages of material that document the history of slave trade.