Vivien Owen Learning Center

The Vivien Owen Learning Center provides a new community resource for family research in honor of one of the founders of the Society. Museum volunteer Vicki Gray, the wife of the late Bob Gray – in whose memory the Learning Center is dedicated, has been diligently working with resources including Ancestry.com and Newspapers.com to compile profiles for prominent Tustin families. Vicki and Tim Zierer, who has researched Tustin’s Civil War Veterans, have compiled over 41 Family Profiles to date.

Vicki has also been building the Learning Center database, which now includes Tustin area census reports and voter registration information from 1880 to 1940, a tally of residences built prior to 1941 in the Tustin area, and lists of Tustin police chiefs, fire chiefs, postmasters, and school board members throughout the years. 

Most recently, we’ve added spreadsheets of WW II veterans and students that attended Tustin Union High School from 1923 to the 1940s, along with the faculty from the same time period.

Information regarding local community organizations, businesses, residences, and veterans from the Spanish-American War through the two World Wars are being added in the future as time permits.

Members and visitors are encouraged to utilize the Learning Center, which provides free access to Ancestry.com and Newspapers.com, to research their own family roots. Vicki hopes that descendants of Tustin’s pioneer families will be inspired to write a profile about their family to add to the Learning Center database.

The Learning Center is located inside the Tustin Area Museum and is available as time permits. Call the museum to check on availability.