The picture below was scanned from a rare stone lithograph of downtown Los Angeles, cut in 1853, known as the "Survey View." The view is from Fort Moore Hill looking east, toward the river.
Welcome to La Nopalera. Nopal translates to "prickly pear cactus," so Nopalera is the "place of the prickly pear cactus" or, more simply put, the "cactus patch." It was the first name of the area that later became Hollywood, California.
In this cactus patch you'll find a hodge-podge of information on genealogy, local history and felines. I hope you'll find your visit educational and entertaining.
There have been
visits to this site since January 2000. Thank you!
Please email me with any comments and questions.
This site was created on 15 July 1998 and updated on 18 February 2003 replacing a draft of the Metcalf book with a five-generation Register (see Metcalf Register to the left). The published book contains nine generations of Leonard's descendants with the source citations not present in this Register. The book, Some Descendants of Rev. Leonard Metcalf, is now available for purchase on the website, www.HeritageBooks.com. The New England Historic and Genealogical Society News (#130, 5 Sept. 2003), announcing the acquisition of the book by the NEHGS library, noted that "The author has compiled an extensive genealogy of Michael Metcalf, who arrived in America in 1637," stating that "This massive book is well documented . . . The index and bibliography total well over 100 pages." The book is xxii + 768 pages hardbound.
Many, many thanks again to all of you who provided me with contributions. Your names appear on the title page, in the acknowledgments and wherever possible in the text.
A second edition is in the works and publication on CD-ROM is projected for 2009 or 2010. My current effort is focused on additional descendants as well as many additional source citations. Further contributions (and corrections to the first edition) would be greatly appreciated.
A Little Royalty was updated on 16 February 2004.
Broken links in Related Web Sites under Genealogy and Los Angeles History were fixed on 23 February 2004.
Barbara's Ahnentafel and Howard's Ahnentafel were updated on 26 June 2004.
The Feline Picture Gallery was updated on 2 July 2004 to include a picture of "The Littlest Laker Girl."
A Mayflower Line was created on 14 July 2004, documenting the lineage from Gov. William Bradford of the Mayflower to Sybil Chapin (1768-1859), wife of Thomas Metcalf (1764-1827) and the author's third-great grandmother.
Photos taken at the author's high school Class Reunion in Maryland were posted on 23 September 2006.
The Genealogy Picture Gallery was updated on 8 October 2006 correcting some typos and including two new pictures: the Metcalf home site and the Fairbanks house, both in Dedham, Massachusetts.
Thomas with Sources, a six-generation register of Thomas Metcalf (1764-1827) of the seventh generation, was updated on 26 February 2007 to illustrate the inclusion of source citations and pictures. In the text of the register, a thumbnail of a picture is shown following a person's notes. To view the picture at full size in a new window, just click on the thumbnail. Descendants who may still be living have been suppressed.
The Oberwinder PDF Book was added on 15 May 2007 replacing the Oberwinder Preface and the Oberwinder HTML previously excerpted from the book. This PDF (151 pages with many illustrations, some in color, about 37 MBs) reproduces the entire contents of the book Die Familie Oberwinder published (in English) by the author in 1999. Due to its size, I recommend that you right-click (control-click on a Mac) on the link and choose "Download Linked File" (or the equivalent) to download the PDF file to disk and then launch the downloaded file.
Metcalf Register, a five generation Register of the descendants of Rev. Leonard Metcalf, Metcalf GEDCOM, a "barebones" GEDCOM of Rev. Leonard's descendants for ten generations, and the corresponding List of Surnames were updated on 21 May 2007 to include the latest corrections and additions.
PAWriter II (MacOS) version 82 was posted on Friday, 29 August 2008.
For your convenience, you may search the Internet or this website from here with:
Visit the free United States Geological Survey Terraserver (images courtesy of the USGS) and fly over satellite images of almost anywhere in the USA. Zoom in to a resolution as fine as one meter per pixel. See your home and street or your ancestor's farm. Download the image. And much more. Click below and explore: