Eric,
That's awesome. I had that same sort of thing happen with my great grandfather. Who, was also killed in Oakland in 1909 when my grandmother was 2. Weird coincidence huh? His name was Fernandes but I found the article in SF Chronicle and he was listed as Fernanz. He was killed in an explosion in a quarry. Just an FYI about the Alameda County recorders office. They will no longer let you look at any death records and they will not make a copy for you while you're there. They will look for the record and either send it or a letter telling you they couldn't find it and then it also still takes weeks to get it. Save your time gas and just file the request online. I work just around the corner from the recorders office and I have gone round and round with more than one person there; including the director. I even took a print out of their website where it says that you can look at the records. Congrats on breaking down the wall Jacki From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Eric Gomes Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 9:17 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [AZORES-Genealogy] Brickwall Broken! I did it!!!!I broke down my first serious brickwall today... I have been trying to find where my great-great grandfather, Manuel Rodrigues is buried. He immigrated to Hawaii in the 1880's from the Azores and then the family immigrated from Hawaii in 1906... So... according to family lore, he was killed by a train in Oakland when my grandmother was a child. She has no memory of him or her other grandfather, Manuel Cabral, who was also killed by a train in Oakland in 1925 when she was 3 days old. Well, I finally found him... I have searched the internet, been to the Oakland Family History Center on several occasions, used City Directories, pulled the California Death Index from the Oakland Public Library, looked through numerous micro film rolls of the Oakland Tribune and the Hayward Daily Review at the Oakland Public Library and California State University HAYWARD (I refuse to call it East Bay) to no avail... well, it turns out, the CA death index had him listed as Manuel RodrigueZ.... I was at Cal State Hayward today and was looking for Manuel Rodriguez in the June 10, 1927 Oakland Tribune... I first found an article of an unidentified elderly man that was struck by a Southern Pacific Electric Train... the type that used to travel across the Oakland Bay Bridge on the first level... that was my first clue... In the June 12, 1927 obituaries, I found him listed. I know it is him because the address matched and the middle initial matched... he is the only Manuel A Rodrigues in several different sources. Pay Dirt... =) I will request the death certificate the next time I am in Oakland... and I plan on traveling to Sacramento on my next day off to see if there are any records at the Railroad Museum. And now for the serendipity... -- Eric Gomes Castro Valley, CA Surnames: Gomes, Smith, Townsend, Lopes, Cabral, Erwin, Kennedy, Rodman, Rodrigues, and many more. -- To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. Follow the confirmation directions when they arrive. For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." -- To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. Follow the confirmation directions when they arrive. For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership."
