My gggrandfather was Thomas Nelson Smith who sailed for California from Boston in 1855 and traveled to Kanaka Valley in El Dorado County where he joined up with his brother Edward Hall Smith who came to Kanaka Valley in 1853. Their mother, my ggg grandmother Annie Creighton Smith was traveling with Thomas and his sister and died of Yellow Fever in Panama.

Edward had a son Edward Hall who was born in 1861 and died in Dalles, Oregon. Edward would be about the right age for Ernest Edward Smith's grandfather. I have no additional information on Edward Hall's family. He had no other sons.

My gg grandfather had one son named Thomas Christian Smith who was born in 1870 and was married in 1912 to Margaret Elizabeth Callan. They had one daughter and one son born in 1914 and 1917. One daughter Helen married Bing Peterson and had four children one of which lives in Placerville.

Perhaps Thomas had another son born in 1928.

Perhaps you can track down the Helens daugther Kathleen Margaret Peterson. I have lost track of her. She was living in Portland, Oregon a few years ago but I have lost track of her.