Eat, Pray, Geneaology

Last night in the chat room, our GenWise hostess, Gena Philibert Ortega, passed along the information that the Summer, 2010 issue of Gastronomica magazine contained an article about one of my Yorba ancestors and that she'd make a copy for me. The article features my 2nd cousin, Piedad Yorba Sowl who owned and operated the Casa Verdugo restaurant in Glendale, California, in the early 1900s.

Casa Verdugo Restaurant

Piedad Yorba was the granddaughter of Don Bernardo Yorba, the youngest son of Jose Antonio Yorba. Jose Antonio was a Catalan volunteer who came to California in 1769 with the famous Gaspar Portola-Father Junipero Serra to establish the first missions and presidios.

Casa Verdugo was a landmark tourist spot for decades back when the Red Car trolley line was the king of public transportation in southern California. The old adobe structure and the tamales and enchiladas prepared by Piedad and her daughter Viola drew thousands, including some 2500 visiting Shriners on May 6, 1907. Imagine feeding 2500 hungry men tamales and enchiladas in one day before frozen foods and microwaves!

Talking about Piedad's Casa Verdugo with Gena and other chatters, I was reminded that my Yorba ancestors had a real heritage with food in southern California. Another 2nd cousin, Martina Lepida Yorba, was the wife of Lorenzo Pelanconi.

Martina Lepida Yorba Pelanconi

The Pelanconis owned the building which houses one of Los Angeles' most famous restaurants. It is called La Golandrina. Built between 1855 and 1857, the two-story Pelanconi House was the first brick building in Los Angeles. In 1930, after the restoration of Old Spanish Los Angeles' Olvera Street, Consuelo Castillo de Bonzo moved her Mision Cafe to the Pelanconi Building and opened La Golandrina, Los Angeles' first authentic "Mexican food" restaurant. Today, you can still visit and dine at La Golandrina.

La Golandrina cafe

The third in my trilogy of food-family connections is even closer in relationships. The world-famous El Adobe restaurant in San Juan Capistrano, California (President Nixon used to visit there often) used to be the family home where my great grandfather, Jose Miguel Yorba grew up as a child. The adobe house shared space with the local hoosegow or jail and had been built by my gr-gr-great grandfather, Jose Antonio Yorba (eldest son of the Jose Antonio who came through the area on the first mission expedition of 1769). This Jose Antonio's son, Jose Miguel called Chavito (Shorty) lived in the adobe and raised his family there until about 1910. In 1948, El Adobe opened as a restaurant and the rest -- as they say -- is history.

Although we in genealogy sometimes tend to concentrate on names, dates, and places, the simple daily events and activities of our ancestors help to make them more alive to us. And what can be more "connective" from them to us than food!

I made the tie-in with my title of this blog post "Eat, Pray, Genealogy" as a play on the current movie "Eat, Pray, Love", but, I think, you will agree that eating and sharing food is a part of our spiritual bonding with other people. No matter what your particular religious beliefs, we cannot escape the bonding that takes place between us when we "break bread together". I like to think that the restaurants mentioned above and their connection to my ancestors forms a special bond not only between myself and my relatives but also to all the people who came and dined and enjoyed the good food.

Whether your ancestors ever had a connection to a restaurant, a favorite family outing place to dine, or even cooking home meals or for community bake sales, remember that food shouldn't be left out as "boring" in the saga of your ancestors and relatives. It's one of the most common and important legacies we all share.