Finding naturalization information

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Permalink Reply by Frederick george henchell on March 8, 2012 at 7:59pm

Yes the earthquake/fire is one of my biggest problems.  Do you see any info in the 1910 and 1920 Federal census?  Did your ancestor stay in the SF Bay Area?

My dad was born in SF a year before the quake, so finding "paper" to document that line of my family has been a real challenge.  Wish I could visit the SF Library, but now I live in Washington State and I don't get to CA very often.

Fred

Permalink Reply by Frederick george henchell on March 9, 2012 at 8:31pm

I have thought some more about this.  I would be interested to hear the results you get from the death cert.  If he died and was buried in SF, you may have trouble.  Those cemeteries were closed and the remains moved to Colma.  (I finally tracked my great GM to that location, but gained no new info.)

If he died in Alameda County you may have better luck.  The biggest Cemetery is Mountain View at the end of Piedmont Ave in Oakland.  There is also a large old cemetery in North Berkeley called Sunset View.  If he was cremated Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland (also on Piedmont Ave) has millions of stored remains and fairly good records. (I grew up around there, so I know a little about the area.)

I looked a little bit and saw quite a few entries for Andrew Andersen in "Ancestry Library" a part of Ancestry.com.  But they want big bucks to let you see records.  You might get into it at your LDS Family History Center.  I don't belong to that church, but we have a great center in Hood River.

Also, I saw quite a few "voter registration entries"  A middle initial would help.  If you are lucky, he had a weird middle name.  Also even if he was relatively old during WWI, they may have made him "register".

The "Andersen thing" made me laugh.  I am struggling with a Mary Peterson born in Sweden about 1850, died at a young age in SF.  Then she was Mary Hentschel.  (Our name has evolved from Haentzschel and has been spelled and mis-spelled many ways.)

So again Good Luck!  Stay in touch.

Fred

Permalink Reply by Frederick george henchell on March 10, 2012 at 7:05pm

"Little Chapel of the Flowers" aka "Hull and Sons, Inc" was (and I think still is) located at 3051 Adeline Av, Berkeley CA.  It was a funeral parlor and they did do cremations, but no cremains were stored there.  I have my Grandma's obit for her service which was held there.  Her ashes are in our family nitch which is located at the before mentioned Chapel of the Chimes, Piedmont Av Oakland (this place is on the National Historic Register and located just outside the gate to Mtn. View Cem). Last time I visited they had records but they are still on thousands of 3X5 cards.  Again the only other likely place would be "Sunset" in North Berkeley.  My GGDads ashes are stored there.

"Little Chapel of the Flowers" aka "Hull and Sons, Inc" might still have records that would tell you where her ashes were sent.

Good luck, Fred

Permalink Reply by Frederick george henchell on March 11, 2012 at 10:47am

I did some more checking. You are right. The Chapel of the Flowers closed.  The building which is probably on the historic register is still there. I found it on Google street view. Now there are some businesses there including a guitar shop My grandparents lived about a block from there, so I'm familiar with the neighborhood. Their house no longer exists; it was replaced by a BART station.  The closure of the chapel is relatively recent.  Hull and Son Inc evolved to "Hulls Walnut Creek Chapel" in Walnut Creek.  1139 Saranap Ave.  (925) 934-5400.  You might give them a call and see if they still have records from the Berkeley operation.

BTW, this has been an interesting conversation. I guess it is pretty secure?  Our email is Henchell@highprairie.us

I'm also on facebook if you play with that. Not very secure, but I like it as a way to share pictures.

Fred