Joiner History Room Website.

The Joiner History Room website is designed to help prepare researchers to optimize visits to use the DeKalb County History Center Archives. The site also contains obituaries, databases, and other historical resources.

Sanborn Maps.

Sanborn Maps document areas of DeKalb, Sycamore, Shabbona, and Somonauk. They also represent Genoa, Kingston, and Sandwich.

“Sanborn fire insurance maps were produced to assist insurance underwriters in determining fire insurance rates for individual buildings by examining the buildings' construction methods, heat and lighting sources and manufacturing uses, and the same attributes of nearby buildings.”

“The maps primarily provide information on the downtown areas of cities and adjoining residential areas. They are a record of urban development from the 1880s through the first half of the twentieth century. Family historians may find them interesting in documenting family homes and businesses.”

Digitized Newspapers.

Digitized newspaper collections span 1869 to 2000, with the bulk covering the 90 years between 1878 and 1969. Towns that published the papers represented digitally include DeKalb, Genoa, Hinckley, Paw Paw, Shabbona, Sycamore, and Waterman.

Plat Maps.

Key historical plat maps that document property ownership in DeKalb County, organized by township and section, include 1860, 1868, 1871, 1892, 1905, and 1929.