California, this time to stay

Voyage # 4: City of Sydney, 1911

The whole family boarded the SS City of Sydney possibly at Salina Cruz, in Oaxaca, Mexico. From my research, via microfilm and on Ancestry.com I have found the ship manifest for the SS City of Sydney which has provided us with the following information.

The City of Sydney left Ancom, Canal Zone, Panama on 9 Dec, 1911. Our family boarded in Salina Cruz on an unknown date. It headed up the California coast arriving in San Francisco on 3 Jan 1912; they departed the ship on 4 Jan, 1912.

Some of the passengers were identified as from New York, and the Panama Canal was not yet completed, so the ship may have originated in New York and sailed around Cape Horn or through the Straits of Magellan following a similar path as the SS Heliopolis, but this time heading for San Francisco.

According to the manifest for the SS City of Sydney, Great Grandpa Antonio Ortega was the only one who paid $20.00 for the voyage so it was possible that all three families made the voyage on the same $20.00.

Also according to the ship manifest each family had to identify their destination and the name and address of a family member or friend living in the USA. We also learn that they had previously lived in the United States for 5 years, making me think that they were in California for most of 1911 and were in Mexico for only a short time. Remember they didn’t arrive in San Francisco until October 28 1909.

Juan, Guadalupe, and Juan, Jr. (1 year 2 ½ months), were headed to San Francisco. They listed their friend, Juan Fatjo who lived in Santa Clara. Juan’s parents and brothers listed a cousin, Antonio Lopez, also of Santa Clara. Grandma’s parents along with Uncle Manuel (2 years 9 months), listed great grandfather Francisco’s brother, Fernando Cañada who lived on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco as their friend/relative.

It is most likely that Uncle Manuel was being held by Great Grandmother Maria Cañada when they registered, which would explain why he was listed after great-grandmother Maria as Manuel Cañada on the manifest and not with Juan and Guadalupe as Manuel Ortega.  From a handwritten note on the manifest, passenger #9 was held for medical observation and was admitted on Jan 26, 1912; passenger #9 was great-grandfather Francisco Cañada.

From Mexico back to San Francisco

of course the line is just to show how far south they went

Upon their return to California, Juan and Guadalupe settled in San Francisco along with Guadalupe’s parents.

Brothers Jose and Francisco with their parents, Antonio & Josefa, settled in Hayward. It was in Hayward that Joe and Frank fell in love, married, and raised their families.

The churches held the documents in those days, birth, baptismal, death and marriage certificates. They could tell the story for us.