A great database Frisco Public Library offers is Heritage Quest, opens a new window. It provides access to specific information about people in different time periods, a snapshot in time. Genealogists, biographers, or just the curious can easily search specific record sets, like city directories, obituary indexes, and census records. These records provide information such as where someone lived, who they lived with, and what jobs they were doing. Try it out from home with your library card number and let us know if you have any questions.
Here’s an example of how you can use the same research techniques I applied to learn about actor Robert Redford to search for information about your own family.
1. I signed into Heritage Quest using my library card number and clicking on Connect.
2. I searched from the first page by entering Charles Robert in the First & Middle Name field, Redford in the Last Name field, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California, USA in the Place lived field, and 1936 in the Birth Year field. I then clicked Search.
3. 3,057 results were found with this search, but they weren't all about the famous actor. I thought about the information I already knew about him, like that his father had the same name, and only looked at records that could reasonably be him. The first record was the 1950 census and I clicked on that.
4. I read through the information and double-checked that this was about the right people. I clicked on the image of the census page to find out more. It shows Robert living with his parents in Los Angeles at 11331 Homedale. He had attended school in the last year and the highest grade he had reached was 8th grade. It also tells what states his parents were born in and that his father worked in accounting for an oil company.
This is already a lot of interesting information, and it might be all I am looking for at the moment. If I am doing a project or a book, I can go further and do a search for the address in a mapping software and see if the structures at the address now are the same as at the time when he lived there. It is amazing how these added details give you a more complete picture of who these people were.
If you would prefer to leave your projects for another day, you might enjoy some of these titles today.
PEOPLE Robert Redford Tribute 1936-2025, opens a new window
The Natural, opens a new window
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