Marin Oral Histories

Hosted by permission of Cathy Gowdy of the Marin County Genealogical Society.

Anne T. Kent

Carla Ehat

Genevieve Martinelli

Margery Hoffman

Two women, Anne Thompson Kent and Carla Ehat were chosen by the library and were instructed by the Regional Oral History office of the Bancroft Library, U.C. Berkeley. They were guided by its Director, Willa Baum. This project affords scholars, genealogists and historians an exciting resource to draw upon.

Anne T. Kent, President of the Moya Library in Ross, CA and the major founder of the Marin County Library in the early 1920s wished to continue the Kent family tradition of "Old Settler's Day," an annual get-together that her father-in-law, William Kent, held every year on Kent property. Mrs. Kent wanted to carry on this "Day of Remembrances" - but she decided to utilize a more modern technology in the 70's - the tape recorder. She enlisted the assistance of Carla Ehat, just retired after a 30 year career with the U.S. Navy. The two women volunteered their time and efforts during an eight year period; conducted 275 Interviews and traveled thousands of miles on the trail of "Tales of Marin."

Mrs. Kent died in 1981 and Carla continued interviewing with Genevieve Martinelli - completing 25 more oral histories - bringing the collection to a total of nearly 300 interviews. Margery Hoffman lovingly transcribed to paper all 300 taped histories!

What you see here is a searchable database built to suppliment the Oral Histories as a research tool. Our intent is to allow all interested people to know of the existence of these valuable resources and the identities of those citizens who were interviewed in Mrs. Kent and Ms. Ehat's Oral History Project. Text copies of the actual interviews, plus the audio tapes are housed in the Anne T. Kent California Room at the Civic Center Branch of the Marin County Library. Contact Laurie Thompson for information regarding access to the histories.

These tapes contain the stories of people who made unique and valuable contributions to Marin's History. Each of these stories, by individuals of diverse backgrounds and interests have enriched the story of Marvelous Marin.

James D. Adams	Winnifred Bridge Allen	Della Atkinson Andrade	Peter H. Behr
Emma Benevenga	Cesare Paul Bettini	Marion Hayes Cain	John Elliot Cook
Edna Shafter Orr Crist	Dr. Ernest Denike	Harrison Dibblee Jr.	Nell Doherty
Dorothy Ward Erskine	Manuel T. Freitas Jr.	Dr. Jack Gazzola	Ruth Magneson Hansen
Marion Ibach	Arthur & Soo Jue	Kenneth Kehoe	Katherine Solomons Lillenthal
Ernest Mailliard	Nellie Codoni McIsaac	Elsie Andrews Mazzini	Frank Pepper