E. Palmer (Edmund Palmer) Conner

Born in Norfolk, Virginia, Edmund Palmer Conner moved west with his family as a child and grew up in Southern California. Archival notes from the Online Archive of California describe him as one of three children of Charles S. Conner and Theodosia Brown Conner, with the family settling first in San Diego and later in Pasadena.

Conner is best known as the author of The Romance of the Ranchos. Project Gutenberg describes the book as a historical account of California ranchos, tracing their development from the Spanish and Mexican eras into American ownership.

The same Project Gutenberg record identifies him as "E. Palmer (Edmund Palmer) Conner," and the digitized text presents him as a chief title searcher at Title Insurance and Trust Company in Los Angeles. That background helps explain the book's strong interest in land history, property records, and the stories behind old California place names.