California, San Francisco Earthquake Cards - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States CaliforniaSan Francisco County

What is in the Collection?
This collection will include records from 1906. These records include an index and images of note cards of compiled information concerning deaths or probable deaths of earthquake victims.

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
The records may contain any of the following:


 * Name of the victim
 * Nature of injuries or cause of death if known
 * Place of death or injury
 * Name of hospital and doctor who treated the injured
 * Where death is recorded
 * Name of court processing probate
 * Names of family members
 * Names of Newspaper articles listing conditions or names of victims
 * Name and address of damaged building; nature of the damages

How Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search it is helpful to know:


 * The name of the victim
 * The place of residence
 * The nature of injuries
 * Identifying information such as residence or nature of injuries

Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page: Fill in the requested information on the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about those in the list to what you already know about your own ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to find your ancestor.

View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page: To search the collection you will need to follow this series of links: ⇒Select "Browse through images" on the initial collection page ⇒Select the appropriate "Dead or Probable Dead" ⇒ Select the appropriate 'Surname Range' which takes you to the images

Be aware that with either search you may need to compare the information about more than one person to make this determination. Keep in mind:


 * There may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * You may not be sure of your own ancestor’s name.
 * Your ancestor may have used different names or variations of their name throughout their life.
 * If your ancestor used an alias or a nickname, be sure to check for those alternate names.
 * Even though these indexes are very accurate they may still contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned.
 * The information on these cards is brief so it is easy to confuse individuals.

For tips about searching on-line collections see the on-line video at FamilySearch Search Tips.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. Save a copy of the image or transcribe the information. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details. Add this new information to your records of each family.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Use the information to locate a death record
 * Use the information to search newspapers about your ancestor
 * Use the information to find the cemetery where they were buried

I Can't Find Who I'm Looking for, What Now?

 * Look for variant spellings of the names. You should also look for nicknames and abbreviated names.
 * Try alternative search methods such as only filling in the surname search box (or the given name search box) on the landing page leaving the other box empty and then click on search. This should return a list of everyone with that particular name. You could then browse the list for individuals that may be your ancestor.
 * There is also the possibility that you ancestor is not in the index.

Citing this Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection Citation:

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):

Image Citation