I’ve been on the hunt for my 3rd great grandfather’s land records this week. I went through the indexes for San Mateo County, California and hit a gold mine. It turns out Martin Kelly owned more land than I ever dreamed possible. The family lore said that he owned “a boardinghouse in San Francisco”. That…
Category: California Genealogy
This ain’t no genealogy bingo, it’s a jackpot!
I’ve spent the last few weeks working on my Azorean ancestors. While I still have work to do in Achada, Nordeste, I decided to take a break from reading Portuguese records. I saw that new records had been added at familysearch.org in the San Mateo County collection. I wanted to see if I could find…
Calvary Cemetery Records are Online
As a San Francisco researcher, I’m overjoyed to the point of ecstasy whenever a new index or database becomes available online. With the lack of pre-1906 vital records, I have to take full advantage of whatever records there are. So, I was thrilled beyond belief when the San Francisco Genealogy website added the Calvary Cemetery…
One of the Highest Wage Earners in 1940
Another entry in my Labor Day photo series… One of the interesting things about going through the 1940 census is seeing how much money my relatives were earning in 1939. For the most part, my relatives were earning between $500 and $1500 a year. So, I was surprised to see that my great uncle Joe…
My Grandma Was a Working Woman
Long before women burned their bras, my Grandma Shellabarger was a working woman. In fact, she worked most of her life. At first it was because her family couldn’t survive during the Depression on the 33 cents an hour my Grandfather made. After their divorce it was necessity. She needed to feed herself and her…