For Northern California, this book is equal to the records of Massachusetts, 1620-1720. There are references to persons born in all of the continental United States, and from many other countries, who settled in California during and after the Gold Rush. This book is not only an exceptionally useful reference, but it is also interesting to read. Trinity County pioneers had many exciting adventures during the journey to California and afterwards, when they built new homes in the untamed West. The first part, Deaths 1850-1900, contains information about most of the Trinity County pioneers. Family information from obituaries and dates of arrival in California and Trinity County have been included when available. There are two indexes: Births and Marriages, 1850-1950; and Deaths, 1900-1950, with all reference sources given. Entire families can be located within this volume; sometimes as many as four generations. Entries in the Index to Deaths 1900-1950 list name, date of death, age at death and birthplace. Entries in the Indexes to Marriages 1850-1950 are first listed by husband, and then listed by wife, to facilitate finding names of interest. Marriage entries list names of husband and wife and date of marriage. Entries in the Indexes to Births 1850-1950 are listed alphabetically by father's name, and include father's name, sex of child and birthdate of child. There are 12,470 names in the deaths and marriages sections, and 3,940 in the births section. California historian Patricia Johnsen Hicks has authored several books on Trinity County, was a nominee for the Pulitzer Prize in journalism in 1993, and has been researching Trinity County records for over thirty years. This book, in particular, was in preparation for nearly twenty years.