Any California researchers out there?

[Rosie1223]

Most of my family research has been concentrated on Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Arkansas and I am very familiar with on-line sources for those states.

However, I have a GG-Uncle that left Missouri in 1851 to seek his fortune in the gold fields of California. My GG-Grandmother's obituary (1904) mentions him as a survivor living in California, but not much is known about him other than he never returned to Missouri.

Can anyone direct me to early California records on-line? I don't even know what area of the state he was in and he has an unfortunately common surname of Price.

TIA

[shraby]

1. You could try this site:

<http://www.usgenweb.org> It has someone in about every county in the United States who puts stuff on the county site and will do lookups for researchers free of charge. Just click on the state, then the county.

[Dem2theMax]

2. Can you give us the specifics that you have on him?

All the basics - full name, birth date, place, death date, place, family names, etc, anything you have on him. I'm in California.
Our local library has a lot of genealogy info, although I'm not sure how much of it pertains to the gold rush. But you never know.
Give us what you have and let's see what we can find out! :)

[Rosie1223]

3. James Marion Price

b. 1833 Illinois (Union or Alexander County)
d. aft 1904 somewhere in California

Father: John Price b. 1789 in North Carolina or Virginia d. 1859 Dunklin Co, Missouri

Mother: Nancy Vancil b. 1801 in Kentucky d. bef 1850, prob Dunklin Co, Missouri

m. Julia (Unknown) abt 1849 in Dunklin County, Missouri

Unfortunately the Dunklin Co Courthouse burned down in 1873, all records lost.


1850 Dunklin Cty, MO Census:
John Price, 61, Farmer NC
Nancy Price 49, Ky

Marion Price, 20 IL
Julia Price, 20 TN

James left for Missouri for California in 1851.

I don't know if he went overland or via ship. John was fairly wealthy for the area and James may have had the money to take a boat down the Mississippi to New Orleans and ship out from there to California.

I have found but don't know the connections:


1860 California Agriculture Census
J M Price listed in Washington Twp, Sonoma County

1870 Butte Co, California
Price James 37 abt 1833 Male White Tennessee
Price Mary E 27 abt 1843 Female White Arkansas
Price Bella F 9 abt 1861 Female White Missouri
Price Mary J 7 abt 1863 Female White Missouri

Price Jasper N 35 abt 1835 Male White Tennessee
Price Lucinda 30 abt 1840 Female White Missouri
Price Willie 7 abt 1863 Male White Missouri
Price Mary A 5 abt 1865 Female White California
Price Martha 2 abt 1868 Female White Arkansas

1880 Butte Co, California Census
Name Age
James Price 49 <1831> Missouri Head Saloon Keeper Divorced
Belle F. Price 19 <1861> Missouri Daughter Seamstress

Name Age
Jasper N. Price 45 TN Head Hotel Keeper Widower
Mary A. Price 15 <1865> CA daughter
William H. Price 17 <1863> CA son
Martha M. Price 12 CA daughter

James Price:
Listed in 1894 Siskiyou Great County Register as a miner
Listed in 1885 Siskiyou County Directory as a miner in OAK BAR A post office town, with a population of about seventy, and situated on the Klamath River, twenty miles west of Yreka. Farming interests predominate, while some considerable mining is still carried on in the neighborhood.

1900 Siskiyou Co Census
Name Age
Marion Price 67 Head Merchant, TN, VA, NC (Mar 1833)
Jasper Newton Price 65 Boarder Salesman TN TN Tn (Jan 1835)
Jesse Uphrey 16 Nephew at school, CA WI CA (Aug 1883)

Register Entries (Siskiyou Co, CA)

Price James Marian 55 Tennessee Mechanic Berryvale May 29, 1888

Price, James M. Berryvale - Ward 1 71 Sisson 1904

Price, James Marion Berryvale Ward Sisskiyou Co Ca 1900 Voter Registration, age 67

These may or may not be my James. I have found brothers James and Jasper Price as sons of Richard and Martha Price in 1850 Cannon Co Tennessee.

[Gormy Cuss]

4. I'm also in CA, near Sutro library, a state library branch with extensive CA resources

If you find something in the catalog that may be of interest I'd be happy to check it out on my next trip. I know there are some Great Registers of Voters for each county.

http://www.library.ca.gov/collections/index.html

I can see why you're hesitant to think this James M. Price is your relative especially if James and Jasper lived near each other the 1870 Butte Co. record but it is intriguing that both had children born in MO. If the children's birthplace and age data are accurate these Prices were in MO a decade after your James is assumed to have gone west and there should be an 1860 census record for this James in MO.

[Rosie1223]

5. Thank you for your offer!

A quick glance at your link found me a James Price listed in the San Fransisco Police Mug Books of 1875-1915! Hopefully that isn't my James either!

Upon further review I found a marriage record for Jasper and Lucinda in 1859 Jefferson Co Missouri and a census record for that family there in 1860. Probably will find that James nearby.

Ancestry.com is advertising they will have the California 1852 State Census on line soon. Hopefully there will be a clue there.

Thanks again!

[CountAllVotes]

6. yes and yes!

:hi:

I am a 5th generation Californian and I've researched the areas you mention extensively.

The town of "Sisson" is the town of what is today called "Mt. Shasta" in Siskiyou County, California. It was known as "Strawberry Valley" before it became known as "Sisson" which was sometime before 1900.

As for San Francisco, records before the 1906 earthquake are difficult to find. However, my father's family comes from Old San Francisco dating back into the 1860s so I have quite a bit of information in case you find that your relative was there. It is a good possibility I'd think as the other areas of California you mention were very remote (and still are today) during the time you mention but they were indeed Gold Rush country nonetheless. San Francisco was more or less a place that most gold miners went to or stayed at some point during their treks in and out of the mines.

I know that there is a California Birth Index available on ancestry.com. It may be useful for you, I cannot say. I don't have a subscription with them right now (giving it a break for awhile and waiting for a "deal" on a subscription hopefully at a later time).

Another odd thing we have in common is that odd place, Dunklin Country (aka "Boot Country") Missouri. I have many relatives from Kennett which is in Dunklin County. Kennett is pop. 18,000 today and it never had a large population and was known to be cotton picking land pre-1900 into the early 1900s.

My Missouri relatives are on my mother's side and many of them were mixed blood Indian folk (Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaw). Are you surprised yet? Many of these same people were from Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and other nearby places as well as various parts of northern Texas.

I do have a lot of San Francisco records and the old newspapers can be found on-line - the SF Call from the late 1897 to 1910. Many parts of California can be found in these online indexes (scroll down and you'll see the San Francisco call below the Salt Lake herald (Utah.). You'll also see other old newspapers listed on this same link that have Jefferson, Texas on it, etc. :)

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/pages/

Best of luck to you and let me know if I can be of more help in locating your ancestor that came to California. Given the time frame you have defined, I'd suspect he came overland to California.

CountAllVotes

:D

[Rosie1223]

7. Awesome!

My parents grew up near Kennett and I've visited there many times! Too bad your Mom's maiden name isn't Price -- you would've had to pick me up off the floor!

PM me your Kennett connection, if you like. We might be related.


Thanks for the link!

[Dem2theMax]

8. I found a hint to one of your possible connections.

Sorry I haven't been back to reply to your post. My Internet connection has been on and off and on and off for weeks.
I live in the boonies. We only have one affordable broadband company to 'choose' from. :mad:

Anyway, I've been looking around in the Godfrey Library online and I just found this:

http://genealogytrails.com/cal/sonoma/marriage.html

Go down to the year of 1857.

(Actually, it is easier to do a search on the name PRICE. You'll find it faster.)

J. M. Price m. M. E. Scott, October 26.

Chances are, this would be them in your info:

1870 Butte Co, California
Price James 37 abt 1833 Male White Tennessee
Price Mary E 27 abt 1843 Female White Arkansas
Price Bella F 9 abt 1861 Female White Missouri
Price Mary J 7 abt 1863 Female White Missouri

Was going to do some searching on Ancestry.com but they are down for maintenance.
So, I'll come back and try again!

[Rosie1223]

9. Thanks!

Your info lead me to:

1860 Census Sonoma Co CA Washington TWP
J.A. Price, 29 (1831) Illinois
M.R. Price, 23 (1837) Missouri
T.C. Price, m, 1 (1859) California
John Robison, 30 (1830) Missouri

This is interesting because there are also lots of Robison/Robinson family members in Dunklin Co.

Find-A-Grave Shilo Cemetery, Sonoma Co, CA
Mary Elizabeth Price
b.2 mar 1837
d.27 Nov 1862
Wife of J.M. Price

Infant Price
d. 26 Nov 1862
Son of J.M. and M.E. Price

The 1870 Butte Co census James has his 7 y/o as being born in Missouri though. This would lead to believe that that James didn't migrate until after 1863.

Sonoma County looks promising, though

Thanks Again!!

[Rosie1223]

10. I think I found him!

It helps to know that his name was actually John, not James!

I found this person whose vitals matched. I emailed my uncle, the keeper of the family secrets, and he confirmed that I had the first name incorrect. Now on to tracking his children.

Thanks for everyone's help. It helped steer me in the right direction!

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=23648785&PIpi=8837228

[XemaSab]

11. If that's his grave

I have a pile of relatives buried in that same cemetery, all the way back to my grandpa's grandpa, who was murdered for his wages back in the day. :D