A good way to begin learning about your community is to uncover its past. The past will provide information that explains why the community is the way it is today. Civic leaders often consult historians to compile community histories to help residents understand their community.

			Research Center at the Stearns History Museum

But you don't have to be a professional historian to find historical information. Anyone can research or investigate their local history. Museums, libraries, and government centers are good sources of historical information. Information can also be found by talking to residents of the community. Senior residents are excellent sources of information because they have experienced history by simply living through change. Throughout their lives, seniors have witnessed endless changes that include civil rights laws, advances in technology, and conflicts between nations.

Researching your community's past will involve using as many primary sources as possible. Historians use primary sources to gather facts about an event. Primary sources are the eyewitness accounts of an event that a person saw or participated in. Examples of primary sources are letters, diaries, journals, photographs, newspapers, oral histories, official records, documents, or artifacts. The more primary sources you use, the more information you will uncover. Museums, libraries and government centers offer the public special primary sources of information.

This list shows you the types of information that are made available to the public at each of the institutions.