Sierra County Vital Records from 1850-1905, With Biographical Notes and Photographs

Note! You may contribute to this effort!!

The official birth, marriage and death records of Sierra County, lodged in the Clerk/Recorder's office at the Courthouse in Downieville, are woefully incomplete. For whatever reasons, people often didn't bother to trot over and record such important events — especially births — until the State made it mandatory in 1905. People looking ardently for information about ancestors, those of us who help others trace pioneer families, and others doing purely academic research, have long gnashed our teeth over this sad situation. I was hoping someone else would tackle the chore, but no.

Thus far I have transcribed all the b/m/d records from the fiche at the Courthouse, extracted information from Lee Adams' Sierra County Pioneer Cemetery Index, and am ploughing through old county newspapers on microfilm at the State Library, the Bancroft Library and wherever they may be. Some individual families have already shared their records but I need much more from private sources. Friends, get out your family Bibles or wherever you keep such treasured information and send me your records (also photos and biographies of your Sierra County forebears, if you will) so that this book will be as complete as humanly possible!

Publication date: unknown.

Memoir of Marion Merrick Westall, Miner

This highly informative and droll "Pilgrim's Progress" sort of memoir was written in old age by miner Marion Westall (lived 1867-1962), who was born at aptly-named Poverty Hill in Sierra County to pioneer parents. He mined in an assortment of other California counties besides Sierra, in Nevada as well, and took a brief but memorable stab at mining in the Klondike during the Alaska gold rush. His descriptions of applying native ingenuity to solve mining engineering challenges is most valuable, as are his asides about his peers and their habits.

With editorial assistance from the author's kin, I am transcribing the manuscript and adding an introduction, photos, footnotes and an index.

Publication date:"On Hold"

Debbie Whitney of Shady Flat:
The Life & Times of A Pioneer Child in California Gold Rush Country

Currently I am polishing a fictionalized history for older children based on a big-hearted, feisty little girl born at Shady Flat in 1865. Her father, David Whitney, who came to Sierra County overland in 1850, was a miner and lumber baron along the Yuba watershed for many years. Her mother, Eliza, struggled with the loneliness and depression common to many gently-reared women of the early days who tried to cope with isolation and a lopsided population that was largely male (and barely civilized.) The child, however, took to the mountains and pioneer life with zest.

Publishing date: unknown

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