Plaza, Los Angeles, Circa 1900 Just a lovely image of the Plaza at the time my great-grandparents José María and Jesús Alvarado lived around the corner.… 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
An Alvarado Ancestral Theory The hand-written family history provided by my great-grandmother, Jesús García de Alvarado (1871-1966), has proven invaluable in building out the Alvarado line of my family history. At the same time, it has presented some conundrums. This article proposes a theory of our Alvarado lineage back to the Spanish colonial era, seeking to reconcile church records… Read More
An Amazing Photo Discovery: The Alvarado Residence of 1899 After the final discovery of a photo that included the residence of my Alvarado ancestors’ house from 1900s and 1920s Los Angeles tucked away in a neighborhood, I thought that was about as good a find as I could get. So imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon a close-up image of the very house… 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
From this Valley They Say You Are Going From this valley they say you are going. We will miss your bright eyes and sweet smile, For they say you are taking the sunshine That has brightened our pathway a while. So come sit by my side if you love me. Do not hasten to bid me adieu. Just remember the Red River Valley,… Read More
The Wedding of My Great-Grandparents in San Diego In a previous post I mentioned that I had discovered that my great-grandparents José María Alvarado and Jesús García were married in San Diego on 10 Sep 1895. But where in San Diego? They had apparently met in Ensenada, and we do not yet know why they chose to be married in San Diego. The… Read More
Porous Borders in 1895 Because the first children of my great-grandparents José María Alvarado and Jesús García de Alvarado were born in Ensenada, Baja California, and José María had indicated on his petition for naturalization that he emigrated to Los Angeles in 1899, I had always assumed that they were married in Ensenada. In a comment to a previous… Read More
Mischievous Ancestors Youth, as they say, is wasted on the young. And while you’ve got to love having non-conformist ancestors, sometimes their adventures make it difficult to track them. Case in point: my grandmother María Lucia “Lucille” Alvarado Wood Dunham Minasian. She was quite a handful, especially once she met up with my grandfather Sumner Earl Dunham… 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