This research guide provides a description of the scope of the collections in the Library and lists some of the major resources available to genealogists. The Library's printed, microform, and manuscript materials include family genealogies, publications of genealogical societies and state historical societies, local histories, vital statistics, collections of wills or deeds, military records, census material, and other categories. This document describes primarily Delaware-related materials. The Library has some other materials of interest to genealogists that do not pertain to Delaware. Strengths are the Mid-Atlantic region, particularly Chester and Lancaster Counties, Pennsylvania, and Cecil County, Maryland.
Some material concerns the entire country.
The The Delaware Collection , on the Second Floor in the Special Collections Department, is a collection of materials relating to the history, culture, and domestic, business, and social aspects of Delaware. Besides printed material, it includes correspondence, manuscripts, documents, diaries, journals, account books and ledgers, family papers, business records, archival material, photographs and graphic materials, and miscellaneous items. In addition, Special Collections holds numerous groups of family and personal papers of Delawareans which complement the holdings of the Delaware Collection. Material from the Delaware Collection must be used in the Department of Special Collections. In the listings in the Genealogy research guides, materials in the Delaware Collection are indicated by the designation Del preceding the call number.