A World-Wide Web of Cousins June 16, 2010 | Eric Stoltz | 5 Comments 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 Wedding of My Great-Grandparents in San Diego May 28, 2010 | Eric Stoltz | 1 Comment 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 May 14, 2010 | Eric Stoltz | Leave a comment 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 May 9, 2010 | Eric Stoltz | Leave a comment 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 May 9, 2010 | Eric Stoltz | Leave a comment 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 May 9, 2010 | Eric Stoltz | Leave a comment 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
A Gold Rush Initiation in Tuolumne County May 4, 2010 | Eric Stoltz | 4 Comments The 1850 U. S. Census was a disaster in California. It was disorganized and many of the records were lost, requiring California to mandate a state census in 1852 to try to gauge the massive increase in population due to the Gold Rush. Among those Gold Rush newcomers was my great-great-grandfather Seth Dunham (4 May… Read More
Sonora Town, the First Barrio of Los Angeles April 28, 2010 | Eric Stoltz | 3 Comments The city of Los Angeles, El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles, was founded on September 4, 1781 by a multi-racial group of settlers from Mission San Gabriel. The city continued to grow slowly; its leaders generally Californios of the landed classes who had received vast tracts of land, the ranchos, by grants from… Read More
The Building, Destruction and Rebuilding of St. Bartholomew Church April 24, 2010 | Eric Stoltz | 3 Comments The first church in Berg, the ancestral village of the Stoltz family in the Pfalz region of today’s Germany, was built in 1608. It was quite small, most likely a chapel. It had room for only about 65 people. Over the years the village continued to grow. In 1733 Berg became a parish, with its… Read More
Carlos Alvarado and the Birth of the Modern Department Store April 11, 2010 | Eric Stoltz | Leave a comment My great-uncle Carlos Ysidro Alvarado was born 15 May 1897 in Ensenada, Baja California. He was baptized 27 Oct 1897 in the Iglesia Todos Santos (Church of All Saints) in Ensenada. He was the second child of José María and Jesús Alvarado. Two years later the family moved to Los Angeles. The Alvarado family landed… Read More