Dedication

Solomon Lazar family1889

This page is dedicated to the story of several journeys, through time and over continents, some of them very successful, others seeming to withhold their treasure, but all fulfilling some kind of promise.  Like most epics, it begins with an ending. For when my oldest brother, William Thomas Lazar III, passed away at the age of 60 in November of 2010, a kind of obsession griped me, and I felt the need to look back at where the Lazar family story began.

The problem was that I knew precious little about my father's family on his father's side. I knew my great grandfather immigrated from Germany when he was a young boy and settled in San Francisco and that his name was Solomon Lazarus. There was a riddle we all learned about him: He came to the U.S., and dropped the 'u' 's'.  So that is how we became the Lazars. We also knew that our great grandfather was a Jewish man who married an Irish catholic girl. But as it turned out, we never learned more about our ancestors on the Lazar side because not only did our father, William T. Lazar Jr., pass away at the age of 42, but his father also passed away at 42. Even our Grandmother Lala, Aileen Buckley, who married Solomon's first son William, had little information to share concerning her in-laws.

I began my initial research into places and dates using census records and newspaper articles. Then my cousin gave me a collection of letters he'd found, about 70, all written by our great grandfather Solomon, starting with the death of his beloved wife in 1916 and dating to late 1919, just a few months before he passed away at 60 years old. This was an amazing opportunity to peek into the mind of my ancestor, and to learn first hand about the hopes and dreams he had for his family.

As the pieces of the Solomon's life in America began to come together I started dreaming of retracing his steps, which brings me to the present account of our journey to California. My sister and I call this page the "circle of gold" because as it happens, our brother Bill left behind a stash of rainy-day gold jewelry hidden away in a box, and once we were able to open it, our mother offered to bequeath it to us to help pay for our trip. Gold is why many people came to California, and it is fitting that it became the catalyst for our adventure. I'm only sorry that my younger brother Russell, who sadly also passed away at 42, like his father and his father before him; and my older brother, Bill, won't have the chance to share in our discoveries.

On this tour we will encounter a love affair that broke some rules, gold fever that may have broken a father, inventions that rocked the foundations of family, an earthquake that barely disturbed their progress, catastrophic fires, and an indomitable spirit to go forth and prosper.

We also want to take this opportunity to show our deep thanks to our friends and family, and all those we met along the way, who helped us in so many ways on this journey.

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