CGS Member Perks: A Visit to the Oakland Library History Room

Photos by Kathy Ikeda and Jennifer Dix

Librarian Dorothy Lazard in the Oakland History Room

One of the many perks that come with being a member of the California Genealogical Society is getting to go on special members-only outings every year. On January 23, a group of us got a close-up look at the Oakland Public Library’s historical and genealogical holdings. The delightful Dorothy Lazard, principal librarian at the Oakland History Room, gave us an introduction to the library’s rich trove of books and artifacts.

The History Room holds numerous documents that could prove invaluable for local genealogical research. These include bound volumes of Oakland birth and death certificates from 1870 to 1904, records of the West Oakland Home orphanage, Oakland Police arrest records from 1877 to 1912, indexes to vital records and cemeteries in several other counties, numerous old photos, and much more. For details, check out the old-fashioned card catalog, housed in good old wooden storage drawers (the library catalog is also online).

The library has some very detailed resources for property research in the Map Room. Dorothy passed around the oversized “Block Books,” tax assessment records showing owners’ names block by block. They also have a finely detailed Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, which showed the footprint of buildings and recorded physical details such as building material, number of floors, whether it has a basement, etc. Dorothy showed us that by backlighting pages, you may detect previous structures that were pasted over during later surveys.

Looking at the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map in the Map Room

Dorothy demonstrates how backlighting may reveal
earlier elements of the map

Dorothy gave us a brief overview of Oakland’s history. West Oakland is the original core of the city that was incorporated as Oakland in 1854. It grew quickly over the next half century and by 1909 was the second largest city in California. We got a rundown on the origins of the annexed districts: for example, Brooklyn was originally settled by Mormons and named for the ship that brought the settlers from New York in 1854; the San Antonio neighborhood takes its name from the old Peralta family ranch. The glass display case in the History Room is used for rotating exhibits. Currently it showcases Oakland’s final annexation in 1909, when the city came to encompass Claremont, Fruitvale, Dimond, Fitchburg, Beulah, Melrose and Elmhurst districts.

While only a fraction of the library's historical collection is available online, there's still a lot to see. Go to the library's home page and click on "Oakland History Online" to start exploring. Our thanks to Dorothy Lazard for the wonderful tour and to Jane Lindsey for organizing the event. Our next two outings are coming up soon! Click on the names below for more information:

Feb. 25: Field Trip to the California Historical Society

March 21: "The Naughty and Notorious Tour of Mountain View Cemetery"

All smiles after an informative and enjoyable visit!

Copyright © 2020 by California Genealogical Society

Genealogy Secrets of a Photo

by Cassie Arnold

My mother and maternal grandmother had chaotic childhoods. So not many artifacts from those years survive – either lost in frequent moves or discarded because of bad memories.

But my mother always held on to a portrait taken of her mother and herself as an infant. My mother takes pride in the fact that the photo ran in the Oakland Tribune announcing her birth. According to my mother her birth was newsworthy because her father was a football star at St. Mary’s College.

That story seemed suspect to me, but my mother had few good childhood memories, so I never challenged her on it.

Detective work begins
When my parents moved into a senior living community a year ago, I came into possession of the portrait – a color version and a black and white version that was used by the Tribune. It was in a file with some other glamour shots of my grandmother that were taken about the same time.

I thought it would be fun to find the complete news item in the Tribune. My mother said it was a photo and a caption. I went over to the Tribune archives at the Oakland Public Library one afternoon to find the original in context. My grandfather’s name was Aloysius, so he is easy to search.

Turns out the occasion for the story was the fact that my grandfather had successfully completed his parole and was now happily moving on with his young family. The arrest stemmed from a fight with one of his mother’s tenants who was trying to skip out on his rent. The article also noted that he was a former St. Mary’s football star. This was in June 1932.

My grandparents married because my grandmother was pregnant. She was attending Berkeley High School at the time and dropped out in the Spring of her senior year. She always said she dropped out when she was 16, but that was to accommodate the fact she always lied about her age. It seems my grandfather had already graduated.

I found reference in the Berkeley High yearbooks to my grandfather playing on the football team and leaving before the 1930 season, but he is not included in the Spring 1930 graduates.

This seemed like a strange timeline, so I thought it would be helpful to find out when they got married.

Since their marriage lasted just over five years, it wasn’t something anyone in the family celebrated or cared to remember. So I went to the Alameda County Clerk’s office to see what I could find. Since I didn’t have a date or even a year, I had to rely on my grandfather’s unusual name. Alameda County had no records, but the clerk recommended I try San Francisco (SF) because “a lot of people were going over there to get marriage licenses at that time.”

Clearing up the mystery
I few weeks later I went to the SF County Clerk’s office. No luck there either. My next thought was to try Contra Costa County since that’s where St. Mary’s College is, but a trek to Martinez was a major undertaking, and I put it aside.

One morning when I was cleaning up the office, I happened to turn over the color version of the portrait. It was inscribed! I’ve been looking at this picture for all of my life and never thought to turn it over.

It says, “To Daddy from your loving wife and daughter on our first anniversary May 4, 1932. Mother 19 yrs. Alice Jeanne 6 mos.”

So they were married on May 4, 1931. I don’t know where, but at least I know when.

About the Author

Cassie Arnold is an Alameda-based business and financial writer as well as a second-generation Oakland native. She is working on a history of Oakland/Berkeley from 1919 to 1941 from the perspective of her maternal ancestors.

Photos courtesy of Cassie Arnold

Copyright © 2017 by California Genealogical Society

Genealogy Field Trip to Oakland Main Public Library

Wednesday, November 20, 2013
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Oakland Public Library – Main
125 Fourteenth Street
Oakland, California 94612

For members only!

Join Past-president Jane Lindsey for a tour of the Oakland Main Library. Senior Librarian Kathleen DiGiovianni and Dorothy Lazard, Principal Librarian in the Oakland History Room, will discuss the resources available at the Oakland Public Library to assist you with your family research.

The Oakland History Room is an important center for the study of the history and current development of the East Bay. Its collection contains a wide variety of materials relating to the history of Oakland and the larger Bay Area, including books, magazines, pamphlets, newspaper clippings, photographs, postcards, sheet music, trade catalogs, and scrapbooks. Following the ninety-minute tour, you are encouraged to stay and do research on your own. The library is open until 8:00 p.m. on Wednesdays.

Metered street parking is available in the area and there are several public parking lots nearby, including at the Oakland Museum.

Register online.

This field trip is organized for members of the California Genealogical Society. The maximum group size is thirty members.

There is no fee for the field trip but preregistration is required. Registration confirmations will be sent to the first thirty registrants. Additional names will be collected and placed on a waiting list in case of cancellations.

About the Main Library

Located between downtown and Lake Merritt, Oakland's Main Library is one of the largest public library facilities in the Bay Area. In addition to large collections of over 350,000 reference and circulating non-fiction and fiction books, the Main Library offers hundreds of current and historic magazines and newspapers, a major collection of sheet music, and thousands of maps.

There are federal, state, and local government publications and a large collection of compact discs, videocassettes, DVDs, and audiobooks. Oakland Main is home to the Oakland History Room, a significant resource on the history of the area, a large and active Children's Room, and the TeenZone.

The branch is equipped with thirty-three computers with Internet access available for public use, available on a drop-in, first-come, first-served basis. Adaptive technology is available, including screen readers and enlargers for those who are blind or who have low vision or learning disabilities.

Copyright © 2013 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library.