Dear Diary

Dear Diary,

Please excuse my absence of the past two weeks or so. I have been so completely obsessed with my search for Lola that I've ignored many things - friends, chores, laundry, errands, shopping, blogging, artwork, sleep, the list goes on. Do I really want to leave work and go to Target, or do I really want to leave work and run home to research more on Ancestry.com? Well, the latter has been my life these past few weeks.

I have made progress though. What I just love about Ancestry.com is how it puts you in touch with others searching for people that you are searching for. Thanks to this, I have made contact with two people searching for Lola's family! I was so happy to learn that. I was feeling sad that no one else was looking for them but that has changed. Thanks to these two people, I was able to get information that I didn't have as well as give them information they didn't have. A great exchange, if you will.

I took a trip to the Downtown LA Library to research archives of the LA Times; a trip to the LA Country Registrar's Office to look for vital records (discovered my dad's first wife's maiden name and found their marriage certificate along with Lola's youngest brother's death certificate that listed his final resting place and next of kin) and then a trip to the cemetery to find his grave and the home he lived out his life in; a trip to the Huntington Park, CA, library to research the archived City Directories and the microfilm of the now defunct Huntington Park Daily Signal.

Thanks to the contacts I made, I found Lola's sister's married name, obituary, and discovered that her sister was in a State Hospital (this interests me as I have heard for so long that Lola was as well, yet I cannot find any proof of that at this point); Lola's mother's obituary; and more information about Lola's youngest brother who wasn't born until 1901, explaining why he was not on the 1900 Census, thus putting to rest my confusion about these two young boys that surfaced in 1910. His name was William. I plan to devote posts to the various Census years and to the family members.

While going through the old Huntington Park City Directories, I found where Lola and Red lived up until 1932. Not sure where she was after that. I also found the address for my dad and his first wife shortly after they married. Turns out, it was a block away from the library so I drove by and took pictures of that apartment.



One very exciting factor is that after a day of hard core research, my sis found the obituary of Lola's other younger brother, George. This gave us his daughter's married name and I then searched for her and found her husband's recent obituary and the names of her children. A little deeper searching, and I had a phone number and have now established contact both by phone and email! That was the best Easter present! The daughter of my dad's uncle is still living (his first cousin)! I am now hoping to learn things from her, and hope to get pictures.

I find it odd that in my search for Lola, I'm finding others that I didn't know existed, but not her. I think there are so many possible reasons for that, and it just makes my head spin. I truly believe that someone, somewhere holds the key, and as one of my friends said, I am determined. Stay tuned, and I'm going to try to not go AWOL again.