A few years ago, I was searching for Frank Enos Sousa, (Francisco Ignacio
Sousa) my son-in-law's paternal grandfather. Frank had lived in Oakland, CA
from before the turn of the century and I had the address of the house where he
lived and where all his children were born.
I spent an entire summer looking at naturalization papers at the Alameda
County office in Oakland. I did not find it. Because the family insisted he
had been naturalized, I did not give up. I was told during my search that a
person could have been naturalized in ANY court; even a traffic court. That
really made it more difficult for me, I thought only some special court did
that.
I contacted the San Francisco County office (Oakland is just across the bay
from SF). Of course, there were almost no naturalization papers for the time
period I needed because of the earthquake and fires in 1906 that destroyed all
of them.
I was told there was something called, "The Great Register," which was
really voter registration, by prestinct, for 1890. I found a copy of The Great
Register at the Oakland Library and began to try to find Frank. Of course,
there was no way to figure out the number of the prestinct in which he lived.
I went to the voter registration office (in the same building) and asked
what the number would have been for 1890. I learned that the numbers changed
and there was no way to know what it was in 1890.
During my very agitated conversation with the person at the counter, a woman
overheard me and said I needed to check the, "Erickson Collection." OK, what
is this collection. She told me it is the original forms that all voters
signed when they registered to vote. (Don't get too excited, yet!) I was also
told that when the forms were going to be destroyed, someone, (I suppose an
Erickson) gathered up the binders and found someplace to send them.
As it turned out, they were sent to California State College in Hayward.
(Now Cal State East Bay). I made an appt. with the archivist there and saw an
entire wall of binders that contained all of the original voter registration
forms from the beginning of Alameda County until 1920.
I searched for, and found, Frank Enos Sousa had voted 16 times (you had to
fill out a new form each time you voted, I guess). On one of the forms, Frank
had written not Portugal, not Azores (like he did on 15 of them) but Flores,
Azores. His place of naturalization was also on that form. To this day, I
would like to know why someone who lived in Oakland went to SF, (there was no
bridge across the bay in those days).
That was my lead that I followed through the UPEC, which gave me his date of
birth and then to the baptism books that are in the archive in Fayal, Azores.
I have written this very long note to encourage you to keep an open mind
about spelling, places, dates, etc. when you are looking for your ancestors.
Celeste, Hayward, CA
Celeste Perry ccgran...@yahoo.com
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