David Comstock describes Lives of Nevada County Pioneers as "a work in progress [that] will never be completed" -- because he continues to edit its profiles of thousands of people and now and then adds a new name or two (email 2024/07/27).
    While writing "The Nevada County Chronicles" trilogy in the 1980s and 1990s (see Gold Diggers and Camp Followers), Comstock made numerous notes on people, places, and events related to Nevada County during its earliest years. These notes -- based on hundreds of books, letters, and documents, and a few decades of newspapers -- became the nuclei of two colossal reference works, beginning with this biographical encyclopedia.
    The encyclopedia is now published as a CD-ROM with a PDF file for each letter of the alphabet, and a file for "Non-residents with significant ties to Nevada County". The 27 files are separately paginated. The edition shown here contains 559 pages, some updated as recently as 2024. A typical page has from 5 to 10 profiles showing biographical information in chronological order. The "A" section runs 14 pages with information on 94 people.
    Researchers using this reference work will also want to consult The Christine Freeman Directory (Volume 1: A-I and Volume 2: J-Z), which has many more names but much less information per name. Its "A" section has 19 pages with 256 names, 31 of them of businesses and places. "I knew Christine Freeman in Nevada City in the 1970s and 1980s," Comstock writes. "I learned much from her research methods" (email 2024/10/31).

Author: David A. Comstock
Publisher: Comstock Bonanza Press
Published: 1980s-2024 ongoing updates
Subjects: People, Biography, Residents, Non-residents, Nevada County
Related Items:

• Directories > Christine Freeman Directory - Volume 1 (A-I)
• Directories > Christine Freeman Directory - Volume 2 (J-Z)

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