I’ve been on a family history kick for the past couple years and I decided to start on my mom’s side. The best resource for information is from people who are still alive. My mom’s dad died when he was 25 and she was almost 2. My mom had 3 pictures of her father and a couple newspaper articles when her dad died. That’s when my journey of discovery began.
Starting With What I Have
The second best source of information about ancestors is dates and places. The newspaper articles my mom had, had lots of information to start researching:
- John Fine
- Date of Articles: November 1961
- Born March 15, 1936
- Was a Navy Veteran
- Graduate of Chaffey College July 1960 with degree in business
- Was student body president of final year
- President of several clubs
- Inferred he went there in 1959-1960
- Son of Three Stooges
- Member of Claremont Kiwanis Club
- Member of Pomona Junior Chamber of Commerce
- Employed at Radio station in K-KAR in Pomona
This was quite a bit of information to look into, and it had specific dates which are always great to have.
Snipits of newspaper articles about John Fine 1961.
Going To Work Online
Since I don’t live in California, the internet became my best friend. 10 years ago I might not have even been able to find anything online, but technology advances so quickly now. First I just googled “Chaffey College” and found their school website, then I decided maybe they had a school directory or yearbook. It turns out the college did have yearbooks back then since there weren’t that many students. So another quick Google search of “Chaffey College 1960 Yearbook” brought me to a listing on Ebay. There it was! A Yearbook that my grandfather may be in (I was pretty confident because of the date from the newspaper article). And it was only $30. I have never bought anything on Ebay, so I thought about it for a couple days, but then finally just purchased it. A couple days later, it came in the mail.
Overjoyed But Wanted More
I was over the moon when I opened that yearbook and not only found a picture of Johnny, but he was on 12 pages! I was so excited, I looked for his 1959 yearbook online…and I discovered that Chaffey College had been building an online archive of the school, which included yearbooks, pictures and documents. I looked up the 1959 yearbook and found 1 page with him on it. I wondered if there were any other pictures of him that the school had, so I sent the archiving team an email…and they were so quick to respond! They sent me 3 other pictures the school had of him. The biggest thing I learned from this was: JUST ASK!
New Discoveries
Remember the best resource is to ask people who are still alive. I was keeping finding Johnny’s yearbook a surprise for my mom and aunts until Thanksgiving, but to get some more information I asked them for memories they remember of their parents. One thing my mother said was that she thinks her mom met her dad at Chaffey College. What?! So back to online I went and searched previous yearbooks because she definitely wasn’t in the one’s I had looked at. Finally, I indeed did find her in 1954 and 1955. I had to do some inferring here. Johnny served in the military and was on leave before he went to college, so they most likely met at a party sometime in the years 1956-1957.
So yet again, I emailed the school and they kindly looked into any pictures they had of my grandmother, and they did!!
Ongoing Search
I decided to go one step further. Thanksgiving was coming up soon, but I wanted to look into finding pictures of their stepfather. He was born and grew up in New York, but they didn’t have any baby or kid pictures of him. They may have existed in California where he and my grandma used to live, but unfortunately a California fire got to their house and everything burned. He also served in the Army, but those records were burned as well. So I started asking my mom and aunts when he would have graduated high school and where. I got a estimated date and a school name! So you know what I did? I emailed the school! They also were quick to respond and although I had the year wrong, they still looked and found the correct year and sent me a scan of his yearbook picture. I have never seen any pictures of my step-grandfather when he was younger and I only remember him as being in his 60s-70s. So this was an amazing find. I tried Googling his yearbook to, but no luck…yet. Maybe someone will put a copy up on Ebay in the near future – so this remains an on-going project.
The Big Reveal
Finally Thanksgiving arrived! I had prepped and printed pictures of all my grandparents and shared it on Thanksgiving day with my mom and aunts. It was hard to wait and share, but when the day finally came it was so very special. They were very surprised and excited to see so many “new” pictures of their parents.
Conclusion - Sharing
While this is only the beginning, it feels very satisfying to have found these yearbooks and information about my ancestors. After all the research I was able to print and share an online gallery with all the pictures I had to immediate and extended family.