There is so much life between a person's birth and death dates on a family tree! With a lifelong passion for research, a few vague stories and some memorabilia, the digging into my family's Gold Rush history began. More and more unknown stories surfaced the deeper I went. There were hardships on arrival in California, gunfights, a stagecoach robbery, devastating fires, murders, a hanging, and the deaths and triumphs over depression and alcohol. Digging through research also revealed the effect the Civil War had on my relatives, their involvement in construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, and the toll pandemics and disease brought to the family.Discover the stories of the lives of my family members who came for the gold - including those skeletons in the family closet that have surfaced and are now gathered here.