Message from the California State Library

A special thanks to all our researchers, transcribers, and photographers who over the years have contributed so much to putting San Mateo County genealogy on the map!

M.

Jan 6, 2020

In the spirit of celebrating a job well done, we have selected San Mateo as the California History Section’s County of the Month, featuring your organization in the accompanying documentation. This distinction highlights organizations involved in local cultural preservation and outreach, as well as the varied local history resources available to researchers at the State Library.

Elena Smith, Librarian

California History Room, California State Library

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First established in 1856 after breaking away from San Francisco, San Mateo County had an estimated population of 769,545 as of 2018. This county, however, has a far older history than these basic statistics might indicate. Several early European explorers, including Portola visited this region, which eventually became home to several Spanish and Mexican ranchos. The county also features a number of historic lighthouses, which prevented any number of shipwrecks, as well as Filoli, a historic home with particularly lavish gardens. Not surprisingly given its wealth of his- toric sites, this region boasts of many history and genealogy organizations. If you are looking for exciting local history resources in the California History Section's rich collections, then check out what we have for this county!
Digitized Resources .........................................................3 
General Research Tips.......................................................5 
Specific Resources in our Catalog ..........................................7 
On-site Research Resources.................................................8 
Other On-site Resources....................................................9 
Other Places to Look.......................................................10 

Digitized Publications
A few years ago we digitized some of our more fragile publications. You can now see documents related to San Mateo County on Internet Archive!
URL: https://archive.org/
Type in Search Box: (San Mateo County) AND
collection:(californiastatelibrary)
Select Option: “Search Full Text of Books” 

Digitized Images
We have scanned and digitized a portion of our extensive photograph collection, including images related to San Mateo County. You can see them on Calisphere!
URL: https://calisphere.org/institution/51/ items/
Type in Search Box: (“San Mateo County”) 

In August of 2017, in an effort to better support the work of local governments and historical societies in promoting and preserving the past, the California History Section started the County of the Month program. This recognition honors the diverse character of California's many counties while providing research tips to individuals interested in finding out more about California local history. If you have any questions about this program, please feel free to contact us.

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See all the resources for San Mateo at https://www.library.ca.gov/Content/pdf/californiaHistory/SanMateoResearch.pdf