RESOURCES COLLECTIONS

APLD Indexes

Aurora Address Conversion

Beacon Obituary Index

Cemetery Index

G.A.R. Post #20 Deaths

Kane County Marriage Licenses

St Nicholas Marriages

War Veterans and Burials

Ancestry

Search billions of genealogy documents, including census, military, immigration, birth, and death records. In-library use only

Beacon News Collection

Current and archived issues from 1997 to today Archival issues prior to 1997 are available on microfilm.

Chicago Community Collection

Search over 250 Chicago-area local newspapers.

Chicago Tribune - Historical

This collection includes digital reproductions of articles between 1849 and 1987, providing access to every page from every available issue

HeritageHub

U.S. obituaries and death notices from 1704 to today.

Hispanic Life in America

The experience and impact of Hispanic Americans as recorded by the news media from 1704 to today

AllavailableremotelywithyourAPLDcardunlessotherwisenoted.

Newspapers

This collection includes several local papers on microfilm, with The Beacon-News making up most of the collection from 1846 to today

Directories

The City of Aurora directories contain residential and business listings from 1858 to today (with some gaps). Beginning in 1895, the directories include street listings which allows users to look up information by address. These collection also includes some Kane County directories.

Yearbooks

This collection includes yearbooks from various Aurora area colleges, high schools, and junior high schools. Our most complete collections are from East (1913 – 2015) and West Aurora High Schools (1901-2015)

Special Collections

The Wilkinson Family Collection is our largest archival collection, including over 1,800 photographs, more than 1,000 documents, and a variety of personal realia. We also have a variety of several smaller archival collections.

Miscellaneous

The Local History Room houses select collections of reference books, subject files of newspaper clippings, photographs, audio/video materials, a local author collection, atlases and plat books, and other microfilmed materials.