Arguing that American newspaper dynasties seldom have been studied in terms of the families that founded and maintained them, this paper examines the family origins of the powerful Otis/Chandler Los Angeles "Times" dynasty. It focuses on the growing newspaper involvement of Eliza Otis (wife of Harrison Gray Otis), beginning in the mid-1870s when she began working at her husband's Santa Barbara "Press." The paper explains that as a true partner to her husband, Eliza Otis took control of the "Press" while he was away, wrote extensively for both the "Press" and the "Times" (which she joined, with her husband, in 1882), and was a "Times" editor, columnist, and editorial writer for more than two decades. The paper also examines the personal, practical, societal, and journalistic circumstances that apparently most encouraged her work, and the importance of her extensive newspaper involvement to the dynasty Eliza Otis and her husband began. The paper concludes with suggestions on emphases and sources likely to be most useful in the study of other newspaper dynasties. (Author/HOD)