40 Families History Project is a community history project, focused on the vanished Japanese-American farming community of

Palos Verdes The Palos Verdes Peninsula (''Palos Verdes'', Spanish for "Green Sticks") is a landform and a geographic sub-region of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, within southwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. Located in the S ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

Origins

A photograph of a group of mostly Japanese farming families, taken in 1923, was displayed at the Malaga Cove Library in

Palos Verdes Estates Palos Verdes Estates (''Palos Verdes'', Spanish for "Green Sticks") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, situated on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The city was master-planned by the noted American landscape architect and ...

. In 2005, reference librarian Marjeanne Blinn started the 40 Families History Project, to "preserve the soon-to-be-forgotten history of the Peninsula’s Japanese American settlement to educate future generations."

Outcomes

The 1923 photograph was enlarged and hung in the nearby Peninsula Center Library, in nearby

Rolling Hills Estates Rolling Hills Estates is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. On the northern side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, facing Torrance, Rolling Hills Estates is mostly residential. Incorporated in 1957, Rolling Hills Estates has ...

. Volunteers identified over 100 individuals in the photograph, using various historical sources including draft records and alien registration records, as well as through interviews with surviving descendants of the community. Relationships between the individuals were also determined, using census records and interviews. Although the project retains the name "40 Families," volunteers have since determined that 50-60 families are represented in the photograph. Details about the former residents' later lives are another interest of the project. Many of the individuals in the photograph were

interned Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, but some may have returned to Japan before the war. Some stories are recovered at reunions of internees, or through research in old newspapers. The land this community worked is no longer farmland, and none of the original structures survive. Some of the community's land was at the current site of the Trump National Golf Club, and the nearby Terranea Resort. Further photographs from this community's history have been donated to the project by descendants and local historians. The project maintains a website, a

Flickr Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and profession ...

account, and a blog (now apparently dormant) to publicize its ongoing work. One volunteer created an online map, "Ranch Locations for the 40 Families Project," to depict the geographic extent of the community. In 2009, the 40 Families History Project participated in "Camp Days, 1942–1945," an art show at Palos Verdes Art Center, highlighting the internment-themed works of Japanese-American artists Chizuko Judy Sugita de Queiroz and Henry Fukuhara. Volunteers continue to work on the 40 Families History Project, contributing valuable research on the families and lives of the people in the 1923 image. The 40 Families History Project is considered an exemplary use of online and volunteer resources for local history libraries.Ellyssa Kroski, ''Web 2.0 for Librarians and Information Professionals'' (Neal Schuman Publishers 2008)
70.

References

{{reflist Family history