Abata Maltos: Beloved Mother

  

Late last summer we discovered the California Digital Newspaper Archives. We had just joined the California Genealogical Society and Jane Lindsay, crack genealogist, had given us a quick download on using the library. Truth was,  I was rather overwhelmed so I sat down in front of a computer to gather my wits.

With no particular direction I fell back into default mode, doing a simple search for anyone with the name of Maltos in California. I had already found a few odd snippets about grandfather Juan. A notice about an unclaimed letter waiting for him at the post office in San Jose. Him buying and selling a lot in 1890 on Fourth Street in Berkeley. A testimonial from Jack Maltos to the curative effects of kidney pills in a Utah newspaper. 

This particular day and search yielded this from the San Francisco Call newspaper: 

                                                               

What caught my eye here was the record of a Joseph L. Maltos. We have an uncle, Joseph Maltos born in 1876. Whoever this aforementioned Joseph L was, his mother, Abata, was born in 1810, "a native of Mazatlan".  So he couldn't be our Joseph. And none of these other names were familiar to us (up to now we had never heard of Antonia Maltos, though there was a mysterious Tony in the tree). 

It's true that Maltos is a very rare name in the states. And most folks with the name or some variation (Malto, Malta, Mattos, Maltese) are Portuguese or Greek or even from Italy. So a Maltos from Mexico....this was remarkable.

I filed it away in our virtual shoebox. The "shoebox" is where things go when you're just not sure. 

December 9, 1013