Can I find who lived at a property in California in 1925?

[millofski]

Hi all,

Hope this is the right area to ask.  My dad & I are going through some of grandfather's old photos, letters etc.  Amongst his things was a letter to my great-grandmother congratulating her on the birth of my grandfather from a cousin Frank & looks like a cousin Janet (but no surname).  We're struggling to match the first names to anyone on my tree.

There is an address (101 Southampton Avenue, Berkeley, California) on the letter plus a date (15th October 1925) so was wondering if there's a way of finding out a full name of who was living there at the time?

Many thanks,

Oli

[jorose]

City directories can be good for this.

https://sfpl.org/locations/main-library/magazines-newspapers-center/bay-area-city-directories-and-phone-books/city
 - unfortunately those listed here do not have street lookup but you could look for family surnames and see who pops up?

https://archive.org/details/oaklandalamedabe1938paci/page/234/mode/2up
In the 1938 Frank P Walsh was at 101 Southampton Avenue, although this might be a concidence given that it was a long while later.

[hanes teulu]

Closest find to date.
1930 Census

Incorporated Place - Berkeley, County - Alameda, House No - 101, Street - Southampton Ave
Name - John Kauscha (or Kaurscha**)
Relation - Initially entered as "Head" but crossed out and replaced with "servant".
Age - 42, Married - Yes, Born - California, Father - French, Mother - Swiss

Note - this is from the original image - John's record has not been transcribed/indexed.

[shellyesq]

The 1925 Oakland/Berkeley city directory has a Frank W. Hibbs with wife Janette H. living at 66 Southampton Av.  In the 1926 directory, Frank & Janette were at 101 Southampton.  Frank was a naval architect. 

[shellyesq]

It appears that Janette's maiden name was Annie Janette Nelson, and their wedding announcement was here - https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DAC18900622.2.67&srpos=1&e=------189-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22janette+nelson%22-------

I don't know how accurate it is, but there is a tree for the family here - https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/sources/LDRF-YNL

[millofski]

Thanks all.  Currently looks like Frank Hibbs & Janette are the likely culprits but not sure why they called themselves cousins as nothing with their surnames even remotely related to me great-grandmother.