Maybelle’s Knighthawks

[Update: The name of the group was Stoltz Blues Chasers. No one seems to know where the Nighthawks name came from.] How can this photo not make your weekend just a little better? This is my grandaunt Maybelle Margarete Stoltz with Maybelle’s Nighthawks, according to family lore the first band in El Paso led by… Read More

Fremont Arms Hotel, Los Angeles

This undated post card shows the Fremont Arms Hotel, which was located at 542 S. Fremont Avenue, immediately across the street from the residence of the Alvarado family ca. 1917-1921. The description of the hotel on the back of the card reads: New and strictly modern. European plan. Rates [crossed out] and up per day;… Read More

A Luján House of Love

Last week I visited family in El Paso, and one of the things I did with my dad and some cousins was to see historic San Elizario, just outside El Paso. Aside from checking out the historic presidio chapel, founded 1789, where my ancestors were baptized, married and buried, I was curious to see the… Read More

Hey Great-Grandma, I Can See Your House from Here!

For some time I’ve had a mission to find a photograph of the house on Fremont Avenue in downtown Los Angeles where the Alvarado family lived in the late teens and early 1920s. I’ve spent many hours combing through online collections of historical photographs, hoping to find some clue that would give me a window… Read More

A Gravestone in Maine

In the spirit of Halloween, when traditionally styled gravestones are popping up on lawns everywhere, I offer the real thing. Through the magic of findagrave.com, which contains some 65 million cemetery records, I found today photographs of headstones of several early Maine relatives, including the gravestone of my 4th great-grandparents James Dunham (1758-1829) and Elizabeth… Read More

Ending a Great War

Appomattox Court House Union soldiers

As has been noted elsewhere on this blog, my great-great-grandfather Seth Dunham came to California from Maine during the Gold Rush. His parents, James Dunham (b. abt 1788 in Orland, Hancock, Maine) and Elizabeth “Betsy” Gilpatrick (b. 27 May 1795 In Orland) had 10 other children besides Seth. So while I’ve paid much attention to… Read More

A World-Wide Web of Cousins

I am constantly amazed at the family connections to be made when undertaking family history research on the Internet. Not only has this blog enabled me to learn things from cousins I know, but it has also unearthed cousins I did not know about. All are so helpful and willing to share what they know.… Read More

The J. W. Robinson Residence, Los Angeles

As my great-grandparents José María and Jesús Alvarado would exit the front door of their modest residence at the corner of Bellevue Avenue and North Broadway in 1900 Los Angeles, two blocks to the northwest they would see this grand house, built in 1887, on a hill above them. This was the residence of Joseph… Read More

Los Angeles, 1900

An unusual color photograph of downtown Los Angeles in 1900. The view is looking south down Broadway, not far from where my great-grandparents lived at North Broadway and Bellevue Avenue. The tower visible at the top left is Old City Hall.… Read More