The Sonoma County Archives at Los Guilicos house some of Sonoma County’s most important and irreplaceable historical records and have been threatened by wildfires in the past years. Our advocacy group is made up of local history enthusiasts who seek to save and preserve Sonoma County’s heritage by advocating for the relocation and improved management and access to the Sonoma County Archives.
Lynn Downey
Co-Chair, Advocates for the Sonoma County Archives
Lynn Downey is a consulting archivist, a widely-published western historian, and was company Historian for Levi Strauss & Co. for 25 years. She is the author of A Short History of Sonoma, Levi Strauss: The Man Who Gave Blue Jeans to the World, and the award-winning Arequipa Sanatorium: Life in California’s Lung Resort for Women. She is the editor of Sonoma Historian, the journal of the Sonoma County Historical Society.
Lynn organized the Wallace Collection of architectural records at the Sonoma County Archives in 2018 and 2019. Her client list also includes the Sonoma State University Library, Charles M. Schulz Museum, Tomales Regional History Center, Matson Navigation, and two institutions in Arizona: the Desert Caballeros Western Museum, and the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe.
Lynn lives in Sonoma and her website is at www.lynndowney.com.
Carol Eber
Carol is a retired high school teacher and administrator whose career was based in Sonoma and Marin Counties. As the great great granddaughter of Mark and Guadalupe West, she has a strong interest in local history and researching her roots as a seventh-generation Californian. Consequently, she wants to see the archives protected and preserved since she has found family documents there. Carol is a member of the Sonoma County Historical Society and the Sonoma County Genealogical Society. She is currently president of the board of directors of the Sonoma County Regional Parks Foundation. She also serves as the sports director for the local chapter of the Sons of Norway. Her husband, Andy is a fundraising consultant.
Steven Lovejoy
Steven is a retired chemist living in Sebastopol. He is the president of the Sonoma County Genealogical Society and a Sonoma County Historical Records Commissioner. He holds a Certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University and is the author of several books concerning early Sonoma County historical records, including Guide to the Court of Sessions Records of Sonoma County, California, 1850-1863 and Index to the Public Official Bonds of Sonoma County, California, 1850-1892
Mackenzie Mackling-Eynon
Mackenzie Mackling-Eynon was born and raised in the city of Sonoma. After receiving her Associate Degrees in History and Humanities from the Santa Rosa Junior College, she transferred to UC Davis where she pursued a B.A. in History with a concentration in U.S. History (although she took a similar amount of European courses). After college, she spent a year living and working in Brixton, a neighborhood in South London, through the ELCA's Young Adults in Global Mission program. During this year, Mackenzie took advantage of London's free museums and learning about the history that appears on every block of the city. The History of the British Isles remains her favorite historical sub-topic. Ever since she inherited her Grandmother's family trees & history, Mackenzie has had an interest in Genealogy. Mackenzie now lives in Rohnert Park with her fiancée, and works in the Wine Industry. She enjoys exploring the history around her, whether that be an afternoon sifting through Antique shops, exploring local cemeteries, or getting lost in Costume Dramas.
Jo Markwyn
Jo (Margaret Josephine) Markwyn received a BA in history from Wellesley College and an MA in history from Columbia University. Several years later she entered the Ph.D. program in Early American History at Cornell University where she met and married Daniel Markwyn. They came to Santa Rosa in 1970 when he returned to teach at Sonoma State. Many years later in 1997 after their younger child had finished college, she entered the Cultural Resource Management program at Sonoma State and then did historical research and writing for the Anthropological Studies Center at SSU until 2005. After retiring she has been a volunteer at the Sonoma County History and Genealogical library for many years.
Jeremy Dwight Nichols
Jeremy graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, receiving a B.A. degree with a major concentration in physics. His working career was spent in Silicon Valley as an engineer at several major electronics firms. At one of these, he met Laura Cline, who became his wife in 1976. He retired in 1997 and moved to Sonoma County, where he lives in a rural setting with his wife and two cats.
Mr. Nichols has written two books, Cemeteries of Sonoma County, California, A History and Guide (Heritage Books, 2002) and Potter’s Field, The Chanate Historic Cemetery in Santa Rosa, California (Heritage Books, 2009). Both books benefitted greatly from research he was allowed to do in the Sonoma County Archives at Los Guilicos. Mr. Nichols is currently writing a history of the Sonoma County Farm and Hospital, which makes extensive use of materials found only in the Archives.
In addition to his volunteer work for the Museum of Sonoma County and the Sonoma County Library, Mr. Nichols has volunteered at The Bird Rescue Center in Santa Rosa for ten years. Currently, he serves as President and Chairman of the Board of Directors. Mr. Nichols also volunteers for both Sonoma County Regional Parks and California State Parks.
Katherine J. Rinehart
Co-Chair, Advocates for the Sonoma County Archives
Katherine is a consulting historian who holds an M.A. in History from Sonoma State University. She is the former manager of the Sonoma County History & Genealogy Library and Sonoma County Archives and current chair of the Sonoma County Heritage Network. She is the author of Petaluma: A History in Architecture and is a regular contributor to the Sonoma-Marin Farm News, a Sonoma County Farm Bureau publication.
Access to primary records located within the special collections of public, private, and academic libraries and archives is critical to her ability and others to document and share the diverse history of Sonoma County.
Katherine lives in Petaluma
Don Silverek – Photographic Solutions / Archivist
Sonoma County Historical Society – Past President – Journal Editor
Bi-Centennial Commissioner
Commercial photographer and image specialist Don Silverek began his studies at the San Francisco Art Institute exploring early photographic processes including gum bi-chromate printing and photo lithography. He has worked extensively over the last 40 plus years with historical societies and historical image collections to preserve and document history’s visual benchmarks. He was the photographer for the Peterson book “Santa Rosa’s Architectural Heritage”, photographic archivist for the movie “Santa Rosa – The Chosen Spot of all the Earth”, and a member of the Society of American Archivists. His professional career has included positions directly related to emergency management as both an Assistant Fire Chief and Police Sergeant, which extended into becoming a State of California Emergency Management Specialist. This area of expertise is the impetus for his concern to create a disaster-resistant, secure, working facility for our county historical archives.
Chris Wendt
Architectural Historian
Mr. Wendt has over 12 years of experience teaching history and English. He assists senior architectural historians with a variety of tasks, including field survey and photographic documentation of historic-age resources, property research, writing architectural descriptions, and developing historic statements. He conducts National Register, California Register, and various local register evaluations for projects subject to CEQA and Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. He has served as the visitor services and volunteer coordinator for the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust and Museum of Sonoma County. He also worked with the Petaluma Historical Museum and Library and Cotati Museum and Historical Society where he conducted archival research and aided in the identification of historic resources. Mr. Wendt understands on a personal and professional level, the importance of our County’s cultural resources located at Los Gulicos and what they mean to not just ourselves but for future generations of Sonoma County residents.