My mom always said that she hated school. She was sent to Catholic School and didn’t care for the strictness of the nuns. Yet, my mom was the first one in her family to graduate and she went on to be a successful secretary, bookkeeper, and office manager. So, she must have have learned something…
Category: California Genealogy
52 Ancestors: Surviving as a Single Parent
Here’s a document you don’t normally see unless you go through someone’s personal files. Anna E. (Jackson) Shellabarger is my grandmother. This is her performance evaluation when she worked as a Accounts Maintenance Clerk for the US Naval Air Station in Alameda, CA in 1967-68. This job evaluation says a lot about her determination. She…
52 Ancestors: Martin Kelly, Political Influencer
The Martin Kelly saga continues. We’ve gone from simple boardinghouse owner to prosperous land owner. And now, political operative? It appears so. It all started with the mention of a divorce First, I had no idea my Martin Kelly remarried after his first wife died 1872. After learning that he lived in Colma not San…
52 Ancestors: The Depression and the Lettuce Workers Strikes
My grandma sent me a few letters in the 1990s detailing different times in her life. The snippets I am sharing here happened during the few years they lived in Salinas, California during the Depression. Better jobs in Salinas My grandparents, Joao Pacheco Smith and Anna Jackson, married in 1929 days before the stock market…
52 Ancestors: Martin Kelly’s Will
From day one, I was told that my ancestor, Martin Kelly, owned a boardinghouse, maybe two. Family lore was that he and his wife made a living renting rooms to people coming up to the city of San Francisco. They owned a “mile” house which marked how many miles the traveler had to go to…