Our mission is to preserve Madera County historical documents for future generations while making our records accessible to patrons and researchers. 

The California History and Family Research Room, located on the Second Floor of the Madera County Library, is a repository of early Madera County records and historical information that document the social, political, economic and cultural development of the Madera County area from the mid 1800's to present day. This Collection has a variety of formats including; photographs, primary and secondary printed sources, digitized records and oral histories. Our Room also has a reference collection of published secondary sources and serials. Publications include histories of Madera County and its component institutions; area histories that give context to the community, historical maps as well as area periodicals that describe Madera County area history.

 The California History and Family Research Room cooperates with other repositories collecting Madera County History to minimize duplication and competition and to maximize the completeness and relevance of the collections.

Collection Focus

Collections within the California History and Family Research Room consist of local history related records representing daily life of our community and illustrating events and developments from the 19th Century forward. Our Room focuses its collections on the following:

• Madera County Government and Departmental Records

• Photographs, Family Information and Records pertaining to all ethnicity within Madera County including, but not limited to; Native Americans, Japanese-American, Chinese, Hispanic, Portuguese, Basque, African American, Italian, Armenian and Caucasian descents.

• Madera County Family Genealogies

• Madera County Land Owners and their Families

• Historic School Records

• Hospital Information, including the Ahwahnee Sanitarium.

• Sierra Grazing Records and Information

• Sierra Pack Stations; Records, Photographs, etc.

• Oral Histories

• Local Businesses

• Historic Maps

Digital Collection

CatalogIt is an application for documenting the Story of Things. Each story begins with a single item — where, when, how, and by whom it was made; what it was used for; and how it came to be where it is today.  This is  where the Madera County Library - California History & Family Research Room now host its digital collection.

Madera Tribune from 1910 to 1969 is online at https://cdnc.ucr.edu/ Madera Tribune is also on microfilm at them Madera Main Library from 1901 to 2012