Browse / Search Our Digitized Historical Monographs

In 2004, under the sponsorship of the Farmington Friends of the Library, the first phase of an extensive Digitization Project was begun to provide online access to important parts of the collection, including a dozen and a half historical monographs. Most of the monographs were published by the Farmington Hills Historical Commission.

Since the Monographs were digitized in Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf), they can be viewed using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, and searched with its CTRL+F searching function, or you may employ the Search Engine created for the digitization project. These are the digitized historical monographs:

Browse Historical Monographs (Below) or Search Historical Monographs

Local Histories

This growing collection of digitized Local Histories owes its existence to the meticulous and ongoing work of our Heritage Room Volunteers—Beverly Lancaster. Doris Pichner, Ruth Stiegel and Mary Yarger—without whose dedicated efforts access to and the substance of most of the Library's digitized treasures would not be possible.
Thus far there are three important Histories available:

• Farmington: 1824–1889 by P. Dean Warner

P. Dean Warner was an astute businessman, banker, and civic leader in, Farmington. He came to the area with his parents in 1825, when he was just three years old. He left home when he was 14 and lived in Detroit, attending school in the winter months. He returned to Farmington in 1845, where he lived for the rest of his life.

Warner used records kept over the years as to the settlement of early Farmington to write articles, which were printed in the Enterprise about 1899. Subjects covered were early settlement, settlers by years, farms purchased, early elections, names of those holding political office, assessments, churches, and organizations.

The newspaper articles were cut from the Enterprise, and the columns were pasted in an "Order Book" by P. D. Warner. Corrections had been written in the columns, making some of the information difficult to read. Now dark with age, the columns were digitized in 2009 for the benefit of historians and genealogists. Farmington Community

• Farmington: 1824–1908. Brief Histories & Biographies by Nathan H. Power

Nathan H. Power, in collaboration with his good friend Governor Fred Maltby Warner, wrote seven brief histories helpful to Farmington historians. In addition to early Farmington, Power also wrote brief biographies of P. D. Warner, Fred Warner, and Dr. Wixom. The writer mentions the current date of 1921 in this collection of papers, just two years before the death of the former governor.

These articles were found pasted in an "Order Book" that also contained newspaper clippings written by P. D. Warner of early Farmington. Power's handwritten copy was transcribed, with the typed copy shown at the bottom of each page.

• History Snippets from Farmington Newspapers 1921–1997 by Nathan H. Power

This collection of newspaper articles gives the reader a glimpse of the settlement of Farmington Township beginning with the arrival of the Arthur Power party in 1824. The snippets retyped were chosen to provide a variety of information about early buildings and businesses, schools, churches, and the Quaker cemetery. Also selected were newspaper articles, particularly reminiscences, giving the reader an insight to what life was like in Farmington throughout the years. Some snippets were news of the day, while others were written from an historical point of view.

Farmington Online Genealogical and Historical Indexes

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• About These Indexes
• How to Use the Indexes
• Search the Indexes

About These Indexes

These indexes were hand-compiled by Volunteers in the Farmington Community Library Heritage Room and members of the Farmington Genealogical Society. They are made available in an online version hosted by the Farmington Community Library.

The Obituary Index

The Obituary Index contains name, date of death (may be calculated, and/or approximate), source of the obituary, date of the obituary, and page number where the obituary appeared. A separate table lists maiden names and the page number where they appear in the printed version of the index which is available in the Heritage Collection. The obituary index can be searched by last name, first name, soundex code, and date of death.

The Surname Index

The Surname Index contains a compilation of names which appear in church records, newspaper articles, biographies, names of local cities, towns and lakes, family group sheets, land conveyance records, marriage notices (1940–1959), obituaries, photocopied obituariesFuneral Home Records, and wedding and birthday notices held in the Heritage Collection of the Farmington Community Library. The index contains name, source, page, and in some cases a brief note.

How to Use the Indexes

Clicking on the Search the Indexes Tab, above, brings you to the Search Tool . The Search Tool Screen looks like this:

The Obituary Index can be searched by last name, first name, soundex code, and date of death.

An Obituary Index Search returns this result:

You can click on the hyperlinked result—and it is important to note the section and page Number—and be taken to the first page of that issue. Use the menu at the top of the page to navigate to the page needed for the obituary, which page can then be downloaded or printed as a .pdf.

Other Indexes will display in their search results references to other tools—primarily print—that are available in the Heritage Room of the Main Library.

FCL Heritage Collection: Local Telephone Directories (Searchable)

Once a Directory appears on-screen, you may search for names or terms by pressing Ctrl+F and entering your term(s) in the search box at the top of each Directory page.