1920's Oh the changing times.

I just want to give a big Thank You for the emails and blog comments I received after my first post! The responses I received are more then I expected and so positive my heart has truly been touched.

So on to my next post:

Dr. Francis Harold Saunders (DVM) is my grandfather. He started his veterinary practice in Stockton CA in the early 1920's that continued well pass his death into the 1980's. If you or your family happened to live in the Stockton area during this time there was a good chance Doc Saunders treated your animals.

This is college picture of Doc Saunders. What a handsome fellow he was~

I have lots of stuff to share on him, but today I want to share something I learned about a veterinary college he attended.

In the San Joaquin County Biographies there is biography on Francis Harold Saunders (DVM).To view the bio click here.  In the bio it mentions that he entered the San Francisco Veterinary College where he remained for one year, then entered the Washington State College, from which he was graduated in 1921.

I was curious why he would leave San Francisco Veterinary College after one year to move to a school further away. If your traveling from Stockton (Roberts Island), Washington was quite a bit further to travel.

As I started researching (aka googling) I found that San Francisco Veterinary College closed in 1918. I found a article (click here to view) that mentions that as the horse was replaced by the automobile and other internal combustion conveyances, many city-based veterinary colleges including San Francisco closed.

This makes since to me, so mystery solved! I just find how interesting it is that time and time again as a society advances with inventions and such there are almost always unintended consequences.

As a side note as I was looking into this I read that San Francisco Veterinary College was started by a man by the name of Dr. E.J. Creely. I thought this name sounded familiar and sure enough what do I find in on of my binders on my grandfather but a picture of a Dr Creely (turns out the son of Dr. E.J. Creely).  Not sure why stumbling on this tickled me so but it made my day!

Sonora CA - part 1

While I was on my December vacation my friend Sheri Fenely and I took a day trip to Sonora to see what we could find on my 2nd great grandfather David Watson and his family.  I knew the Watson family had spent some time in the mining town of Chinese Camp and I was on the hunt for anything I could find in this area. Here is my relationship to David Watson:

 Prior to going to Sonora I had contacted Charlie Dyer at the Carlo M. DeFerrari Archive and Record Center and he emailed me a index list of what was available for David Watson. I was totally surprised he had this inital information at his fingertips. Here's an excerpt of what he provided me.  You can imagine how excited I was for our Sonora visit. 

When we arrived Charlie had the documents already on a table for us. That’s what I call customer service. I’ve prepared myself that this may not be how all my ventures go, but what a nice start.

So today I’m  going to share a couple of the items I received on our visit.

Estray Affidavits-
I was a little unclear what this meant so I looked it up.

         Estray: in law, is any domestic animal found wandering at large or lost, particularly if the owner is unknown.

        Affidavit: a written statement confirmed by oath or affirmation, for use as evidence in  court.

So back in the day if someone found a stray animal it was important to report that you had found the animal as you didn’t want to be accused to stealing it. It turns out that David Watson was the person who assisted with the appraisal of animals.  The transcription below was done already by someone at the Archives.  
You'll notice I'm practicing noting my sources :-)

 

 

Legal Record

Certificate of Appraiser/Estray Affidavits

CARLO M. De FERRARI ARCHIVE, Sonora Ca.

Arch 1764/Record 0038

Obtained by Susan Saunders-King on Dec 12, 2013

 

Wanted Posters-

I was thinking these would be big posters like the one in the movies, but they are about the size of a post card.  In these cases not looking for people but missing animals. These two cards were in a book with a ton of other wanted posters.    

 

Wanted Posters 1903
Arch 4619/Record 0112  & 0129
CARLO M. De FERRARI ARCHIVE, Sonora Ca.
Obtained by Susan Saunders-King on Dec 12, 2013
  

I also received some other documents but I need to do some more research before I share. These are documents involving a suite over money loaned to be paid back from money made from a mining claim.

So more to come~

Let me introduce myself- Hi, I'm Susan Saunders-king

As this is my first post and I wasn't sure how to start I did what some of you might have done and googled "how to start your first blog".  The reoccurring theme was: start off by telling about yourself.  So here it goes.

I'm married and have two wonderful daughters and a son-in-law. I'm getting near 50 and for some reason I'm looking forward to this mile stone. I was born, raised and will most likely finish my time here on earth in Stockton CA.  I'm still working full time and looking forward to retirement so I can devote more time to this genealogy bug that I have.

I've always had an interest in my family history and as often happens I became the keeper of all the family stuff on my fathers side. When I was in my early 20s my dad passed to me most of the family’s pictures and albums.  This came to me in Bekins moving box, a large ones -like 4x3 or something.  Now I can tell you that box sat around for years in several garages (don't cringe) before I started going through it. Only as I got older did I appreciate how lucky I was that nothing happened to the boxes contents.

I also received a lot of information from my Uncle Howard (great uncle), He was the family historian. When I was a teenager and showed an interest he copied a ton of stuff for me. I have to confess I still haven't gone through all of it.

My goal for this blog is to share my family history. I have strong California roots and much of what I'm sharing will be from Central California. Along the way I'd also like to share some local history and include some of my adventures as I do further digging into my past.

I'm hopeful this blog reaches some distant family or others who may find an interest in what I have to share. I'm also very excited to learn from you, my new blogging community.

Sincerely,
Susan