We have many records available in the search for our military ancestors, but what of their sons and daughters? What of the children who were born and died while their families accompanied their British-soldier fathers to battle? Although this isn’t done today, it did happen in past centuries, and that is where we must search
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“Thank you for all your years,” event emcee Cathie Peacock told the crowd at a late October luncheon. “Your talent, your wisdom and your expertise have served as an example for others to follow.” Those years tallied in the thousands, which accounted for the enormous amount of talent, wisdom and expertise packed into the Tuolumne
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In the realm of swindles, scams and backsliding chicanery, it is generally agreed that the following episodes were the Old West’s biggest gold mine frauds of the 19th Century. While one of these stories took place in Calaveras County and the other hundreds of miles east in the state of Nevada, the principle culprits in
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More than five years ago, Carlo De Ferrari began jotting down a few stories about his family. “I wanted to leave something about us for my nieces and nephews,” says the 89-year-old De Ferrari, Tuolumne County’s official historian. “I thought they should know something about their ancestry.” But what seemed like a modest project mushroomed.
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By Lou Allie Heath Why Mama chose Thursday, though Grandma on a nearby farm always washed on Mondays, I could never understand. I thought the weather should be the main consideration but not my mom or grandma. Rain or shine, the wash must go on. They might have to wait a day or more before
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“I didn’t write it because I thought I was special,” says 101-year-old Lou Allie Heath of her two-volume memoir. “I had just an ordinary country girl’s life.” Lou Allie was born into a farm family on Nov. 6, 1910, in Erath County, Texas. She taught home economics for 26 years and raised two children in
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Returning from my 18-month Family History mission in Utah, I walked into the Carlo M. DeFerrari Archive in Sonora wondering, “What’s new?” Directly in front of me was a huge painting called “The Hunter’s Dream.” To my left were several more paintings and artifacts, and to my right sat County Historian Carlo De Ferrari and
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Those who have dug gold in the Mother Lode – day after day for hours on end – know just how hard it is for a placer miner to earn an honest living, which is probably why so many 49ers chose to make their “pile” by shady and perfidious dealings. Take Mr. Fletcher and his
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Their 1950s love story went something like this: Genevieve was shy and quiet. She fell hard for Michael, an older boy who had a mature manner and a great smile. Their dates involved a lot of walks and talks – there wasn’t much money to spare back then. They got engaged on her 18th birthday
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California has always been part reality and part fantasy. Since the days of the Gold Rush, it has been known as the land of infinite opportunity – and home to some of the world’s greatest hoaxes. A classic instance of the latter happened in 1936, when – according to the most popular version of this
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