Livermore-Amador Genealogical Society Master Index of Local Names Introduction

There are many publications about the genealogy and local history of the Tri-Valley area of eastern Alameda County, California. Many of them are online with free access on the Web site of the Livermore-Amador Genealogical Society [L-AGS] at:

From that home page, the databases can be found by clicking on the link titled "Searchable Local Records - Cemetery, Census, etc." All of these databases (in fact the whole site) can be searched using the search engines on the home page. Some of the online databases have browsable indexes.

What has been needed in addition is a browsable master index of names from all of these databases. Such a master index allows a researcher to browse through all entries for an individual from all sources, spanning all spelling variations of the surname and all forms of abbreviation of the given name, while also grouping other individuals of similar surnames. The index presented here attempts to fill that need.

This compilation goes further by including index entries from databases not online on the L-AGS Web site.

The full list of sources from which the master index was compiled is:

There are many duplicate names deliberately included in the master index, because, for a given name, an entry is made in this index for every book in which that exact name appears. Similarly, for a given book, if a person is mentioned in one part of the book with the name John Doe, and in another part with the name John A. Doe, two entries are listed. We have not made a judgment that these two names refer to the same person. How many different individuals are represented is not known.

An important caution is this: All of the names have been transcribed at least once, namely, for this compilation. Some went through several generations of transcribing before reaching the publications listed above. Skimming the index shows many names with unlikely spellings, but verifying the names against the primary original was not attempted. If we are notified that an entry is incorrect, and the entry disagrees with the source, the entry will be corrected promptly. If the entry is true to the source, and the source is stated to be in error, a plus-sign (+) will be suffixed to the name in the entry.

Another caution is that some of the persons in the various indexes were probably not residents of our Valley. No attempt was made to research this point for each name - all were accepted for the compilation.

When the source already contained an index, that index was reformatted as necessary and merged into the master index. Page numbers were not included because they could be found in the source index.

When the source did not include an index, one was created for this compilation. These new indexes, including page numbers, are published on this Web site at Page Indexes to Selected Books.

Transcriptions of local historical documents continue. The master index can be useful to transcribers who are struggling with bad handwriting: if a few letters of an illegible name can be made out, the full name may be recognized as one listed in the index.