Maltos.... and more

Juan Maltos 1869-1936

When we began this blog my actual sister Stella (and Search Sister) and I thought it would be about our Maltos kin. She named this blog "Historias Maltos", Maltos Stories. Our blog was built to record the steps in uncovering the origins of our moms's mysterious latino father, Juan Maltos. 

Juan, John or Jack (as he called himself) died young. Born in New Almaden in 1869 His daughter Marie Maltos was only 16 when he breathed his last breath in 1936.  She had some vivid memories about this entrepreneurial papa who owned gold mines, a grocery store, was a good cook, a photographer and spoke Spanish and English. But she had no real information about his past, save he was born in New Almaden from a miner family.

 As we began our search for Juan we thought that this was about Maltos stories. 

Then we discovered it was also about Lillian Dionne, our French Canadian American Grandma. It was about Diaz, Luna, Luera, Zamora, Sambrano, Paredes, Berryessa, Martinez, Selaya, Rodrigruez, Boxall, George, Henry, Martinelli, Killeen, San Julian, Avila, Davis, Craig, Zaravia, It was about the husbands and the wives, the kids, the neighbors, the god parents. Sometimes it was even about the assassins and their attorneys.

Maltos does not even begin to describe the territory that we would cover as we looked into our history which is intertwined with the history of California and Mexico.... but it was a good place to begin.

Linda Allison

March 25, 2015

Photo Source: Hand tinted photograph from collection of Juanita Maltos Rogers