Answering Queries

We get several queries a month at the Chula Vista Genealogical Society web site asking for help with cemetery lookups, obituary lookups, etc.


Don't you just love this one that we received recently?


"Info re Lute Barnes early 1900s. "


I responded and asked for more information, and received this (my correspondent was so excited he found his caps lock key on in the middle of the email):


"hE WAS MY UNCLE . bORN IN mANSFIELD OHIO ABOUT 1870 MOVED TO sAN dIEGO ABOUT 1889 WITH HIS BROTHER fORD bARNES.Moved to Chula vista started a lemon orchard. Had a son named Murry. Father was Sy Q. barnes.That is about all I can rember."


I spent about two hours today trying to piece this family together from census records and California vital records, and had some success.


The man's name was actually Lucius Bentley Barnes, his wife was Lena P. Burgess, and his children were Mildred (1897), Lyman (1899), Murray (1906) and Kenneth (1909), all born in California. I also found the brother, Ford Barnes family data. They resided in what is now Chula Vista in the 1900 to 1930 census records, and Lute and Lena died in Chula Vista.


Lucius and Ford's father was Norton Barnes according to the records, and his family (including Lute and Ford) were found in the 1880 census in Miami County KS.


There is more research that could be done here - now that I know death dates, I could obtain death certificates and find obituaries for these folks, and could also find city directory listings for them. It's not clear what my correspondent wishes me to do further, so before I do the hard work I sent this info off to him today.


My main reason for even attempting this task was to see how long it might take. Chula Vista's 100th anniversary is in 2011, and the local historical society might want to do some sort of genealogy research on the early American settlers of the city. This is something that CVGS might be interested in participating in.