Nevada State Archivist Guy Rocha and Associated Press writer Martin Griffith and his wife, Carole Griffith, will give a talk on their research on a central figure of early Nevada history at 7 p.m. April 10 at the Carson Valley Museum & Cultural Center, Gardnerville.
Little was known about Andrew Spofford Hall, a trader at Gold Canyon (present-day Dayton) in the early 1850s, until the three achieved a breakthrough in research last year.
In their talk in the Douglas County Historical Society's lecture series, "The Search for Andrew Spofford Hall: How Nevada History is Built," the three will discuss the detective work that went into the breakthrough.
Before their research, about the only known information on Hall was contained in a brief mention in Thompson and West's 1881 "History of Nevada."
According to the book, Hall returned to Fort Wayne, Ind., after being severely injured in a gun accident in 1854 and sold his station to employee James McMarlin. Unlike the settlers of Mormon Station in Genoa, Hall and McMarlin became lost to history because they never talked to historians.
Through the use of census records and other documents and the help of present historians, Rocha and Griffith were able to piece together details about Hall's life before and after he was in Gold Canyon. They also were able to learn his correct name.
The research also involved Carole Griffith's use of ancestry.com and provides lessons for those pursuing family history information.
For the first time publicly, the only known photo of Hall will be presented at the Thursday talk in Gardnerville.
The three now are trying to achieve a similar breakthrough concerning McMarlin, who vanished from history after moving to Carson Valley and living there at least through the early 1860s.
Rocha, who was raised in Las Vegas, has been state archivist at the State Library and Archives for 27 years. He manages Nevada's archives, records management, micrographics and imaging programs.
Sen. Harry Reid appointed Rocha to the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress in April 2005 and he was reappointed by Reid in March 2007.
Griffith, who was raised in Turlock, Calif., worked for newspapers in California, Oregon and Nevada before joining the Associated Press in Reno in 1985. He has written numerous articles on Nevada history for AP and Nevada magazine.
Griffith and a friend did a 650-mile, six-week trek of the old Emigrant Trail across Nevada in 1991 and a 175-mile, three-week hike of the old Applegate-Lassen Trail across northwest Nevada in 1999.
Carole Griffith was raised in Lake Five, Wis., is a librarian at the University of Nevada Medical School in Reno. She earlier worked at the main library on the university's Reno campus. She has extensively used ancestry.com and other research tools to pursue her own family history.
