Click the button below to view the Library’s digital Heritage Collection. Users can search through city/telephone directories, historical newspapers, images, maps, obituaries and other indexes. To find more genealogical databases, visit our Online Learning Hub.
Heritage Room Resources
Census
Various published census records are available via Ancestry Library (in library use only) or Heritage Quest (in library or remotely with a valid FCL card).
Directories – City, Telephone and Polk
Various issues of Farmington area city, telephone, and Polk directories are available. Some early (1939-1950) editions of these directories are also available via our Digital Collections.
Genealogical Periodicals
- Acorns to Oaks – Oakland County Genealogical Society
- American Spirit (DAR)
- Detroit Society for Genealogical Research Quarterly
- Your Genealogy Today (formerly Family Chronicle)
- Family Tree Magazine
- Internet Genealogy
Historical Periodicals
- American History
- Civil War Times
- History Today
- Michigan Historical Review
- Michigan History
Newspapers
In addition to the digitized issues available online below, the Library has the following newspapers either in hard copy or on microfilm in the Heritage Collection at the Farmington Hills location. Newspapers prior to 1969 may not be accessed in hard copy— please use microfilm. Newspapers may not be photocopied, but prints may be made from the microfilm.
- Detroit News: January 1976 to present
- Farmington Observer (formerly Enterprise, Enterprise Observer, Observer, and Observer Eccentric): on microfilm 1910–2011. Scattered issues November 2 , 1888 to 1910.
- Farmington Forum: January 1976 to December 1989 (not on microfilm)
- New York Times Sept. 1851 to present. The last 12 months issues are also available online with searchable full-text.
- Northwest Gazette: March 8, 1993 to present (not on microfilm)
Issues of the Farmington Enterprise and the Observer are searchable. Use the buttons below to search publications by keyword or browse by the year they were published. This application is a work in progress. There are known problems with the data which are currently limiting search results. Formatting of the web pages is very rough, and monograph search results display a large amount of technical material which is not particularly relevant to actual use of the system by researchers.
Photograph Collection
Photocopies of the FCL collection of more than 2000 photographs may be viewed in the Photo Collection Index. A digital copy can be e-mailed with the submission of the request form found in the Heritage Room in the front of the Photo Collection Index. No more than five requests will be honored at one time.
Surname Indexes and Collections
Indexes may be searched here.
- Cook Collection
- Obituaries
- Photocopied Obituaries
- Heeney-Sundquist Funeral Home Records
- Engagement, Anniversary & Weddings 1940–1959
- People in the News
- Portrait & Biographical Album, Oakland County, MI (1892)
Vertical Files
Burgundy binders in Unit 1C contain newspaper clippings concerning aspects of Farmington Township.
Yearbooks
Farmington Township high schools, 1923–present (scattered years); some elementary schools; and yearbooks from some area colleges and universities, 1892–1953 (scattered years). Must request yearbooks from the Reference Desk.