I am third generation and so I had a mother, (father died when I was 3) who was fully Mexican-American, she only spoke English to her children, Spanish to her family and Spanglish with her friends.

Like my husband with the same experience-- we are 3rd and 4th generation, depending which side you count, our parents did not have any interest in Mexico. They were children of the Great Depression and served in World War II, some in WWI.

I will never understand why not.

When I was about 8 my father's birth certificate was taken out and I was thrilled, just thrilled to see this absolutely exotic name where my paternal grandfather was born: Teocaltiche, Jalisco. It took me until 1994 searching LDS records to find my grandfather's baptismal record.
Also, my maternal grandmother had for her era done an awful thing by deserting her husband, my natural grandfather in San Antonio Texas and getting a divorce. I always hated being the half-cousin and half niece. My step-grandfather

Oh, yes, I forgot to add that genealogy enabled me to discover where
the policystic kidney disease entered our family in Scotland, Canada,
and the US. My mother's father and 2 of his brother's died of it.
Two of my mother's sisters had it and died of its consequences. My
aunt Margaret had eight kids, five had PKD but are still alive because
medical treatment is much better. My aunt Sheila's only child has it
and, although married, my cousin does not want children so as to not
pass this on to them. Blessedly, none of my sisters nor I have it. It
came in through my ancestress Margaret--my great-great-great
grandmother. I'd never have found where the PKD came in at earlier
because the records in Scotland weren't made available sooner than I
found them.:) Marge V.:)
On Feb 21, 2009, at 11:42 AM, mexicanfhr wrote:

I just wanted to ask the group, why are we doing genealogy? I have
been asked ti give a talk about why we do genealogy? It has made me
think

I started doing genealogy when I was a child, only I didn't know
that's what I was doing. I was gathering information from the elders
in my father's family. I was the only child allowed to eat at the
grownups' dinner table because I kept quiet and didn't squirm around.
Then when I was a little older I asked questions specifically about
family and then quit cold turkey for years until I was in my 30s where
I did some oral interviews with my mother AND my father, separately.
Then in my 40s, I went whole hog (and having learned from my then-job
how to conduct data gathering, interviews, and citation techniques)
and learned a whole lot!!!!

Isn't it funny that someone (with the initials MLE :) ) with an
unusual surname (which I discovered is in my ancestry) wished for a
common surname, whereas, I, who had a super common Spanish surname
always loved my great-grandmother's surname of Saldivar, just because
it WAS so unusual. And it was THAT surname and the

Jonathan,

I started doing genealogy back in the early 80s when I used to take my mother to see her siblings in Los Angeles and in New Mexico. My father had passed 20 years before.

I used to listen to my mother and her siblings speak that New Mexican lingo that my father, who was from Zacatecas and spoke good Castellan, would so often criticize. My husband, descended from Altenos, also criticized their Spanish. Those "Manitos", as they called themselves, were a breed all their own. I discovered through my research that they were descended from Pueblo Indian tribes and Spaniards of hidden Jewish descent. I found a cousin who was a war captain for our tribe of Piro-Manso-Tewa. They didn't like the Mexicans "del otro lado" and vice-versa.

My mother had to learn to cook "Mexican" food when she moved to California. Her people had been isolated in the pueblos of New Mexico since the 1600s when they had been baptized and Hispanicized. I was able to trace their ancestry back to

For me it started almost 5 years ago, when I was 12. In church we were taught it was important to know where we come from and from whom. I have a couple of Mulatto (half black/half white) lines, mestizos, couple of native American and spanish lines. What a mix! For me I started because my grandfather and mother were both doing genealogy and I caught the bug at age of 12. As i go through my geenalogy I can almost feel them its a special feeling that I cannot describe. Knowing that all tthose who have died and are still alived made me. We can know our roots and take them into the future. From genealogy I have learned were I come from and where I will go. Also it is for my future descendants.
-Daniel Méndez Camino

My grandparents and later my parents were into family history. My
grandmother made coloring books of our ancestors. A basic character with
clothing that told us about the person. She later stitched these images
on a quilt. When my mother started she would tell the same stories over
and over. I thought, family history was for old people and some day I
would be involved in it. Today at 30 I don't feel so old, but I am a very
passionate genealogist. I am working on my husbands lines. This venture
has healed the relationships I have had with his family. I'm not sure
what the problem was to begin with.......but those hard feeling have gone
away. I am learning about the living and those who have passed. My
husband knew he was related to people but he could never tell me there
names or how. Now I remind him, I take him to visit.......These are
wonderful people who have stories, wisdom, thoughts that enrich our
lives. And sometimes we discover unpleasant things as well, but I am no
ones judge

Jonathan, why did you start doing genealogy?
 
Linda in Everett

--- On Sat, 2/21/09, mexicanfhr wrote:

From: mexicanfhr
Subject: [Nuestros Ranchos] Why are we doing genealogy?
To: general@lists.nuestrosranchos.org
Date: Saturday, February 21, 2009, 9:42 AM

I just wanted to ask the group, why are we doing genealogy? I have been asked
ti give a talk about why we do genealogy? It has made me think, about why I
started my genealogy about 30 years ago. And I just wanted to get, some more
ideas or thoughts from the group members.

Jonathan

About 20 years ago at a Castanon family reunion I noticed my grandmother Juana Sanchez Castanon crying quietly as she watched the family.  I asked her why and she said that in 50 years there would not be a Mexican left in our family. A great number of my generation, including me had married into so many different nationalities we look like a United Nations but very few spoke Spanish, had the classic dark features refered to as Mexican looking and our children did not claim Hispanic heritage at all.  I was one of the few remaining grandkids who understood some Spanish but did not speak it either.  I was also from a generation that did not take pride in our heritage since we were told we were different, inferior and only good for labor by our community.  I felt it my "calling" to try to learn what our history was. I've been working on this quest for 15 years now.  I not only have an immense sense of pride in myself and my ancestors but have a sense
of responsibility to those who came

I got the genealogy bug 20 years ago when my kids were little and we got our
first video camera. I started interviewing my parents, aunts, uncles,
grandmother, and grandaunts, and eventually graduated to researching
ancestors when I learned about familysearch.org. Like Angelina, it was a
way for me to stay connected to my large, extended family, since they are in
California and I've been on the East Coast for 31 years now. Many of my
relatives are on my group email list. I'm able to share my small successes
with them and invariably at least one responds. But there is a real
spiritual component to this quest. I feel like I really honor each one of
my ancestors and past family members by finding them, saying their names
again, fitting them into our family tree. I like to think that somewhere in
the spirit world they are smiling, happy to be remembered, relieved to be
included.

On Sat, Feb 21, 2009 at 12:42 PM, mexicanfhr wrote:

>
> I just wanted to ask the group, why are we

Jonathan,

Funny.

I've been asking myself why I WOULD want to seek my ancestry. I haven't done much but, what little history I know of the "conquest" is that these invaders didn't really bring their women and families to settle Nueva Espana in the way the English did. Especially in the beginning, they mostly raped the indigenous women and killed the ones that would try to fight them off. Much like the slave owners in the united states, many were raped by their European slavemasters, impregnated and left for dead. It's been said that "the Child is what the Mother is." I suspect it would be much more difficult to trace the lineage of our mother's mother's mother... How many Mestizos are the result of rape whether married or not? Sure science says a father is a father but, I don't know if I would consider a man who raped my mother and left her for dead to be my father.

I'm not putting genealogy down, these are just questions I've asked myself and because of Jonathan's question

Hello to Everyone,my reason was kinda of a wierd . I grew up in a mexican neighborhood and constantly being told I didn't look mexican ,what happened to me.. I too wondered why looked the way I did ,light complexion, hazel eyes. I began to notices my extended family on my dads side 98 % light,my grandmother with a green eye and blue eye.My maternal grandfather was very dark but it was frustrating I allowed people to make me feel odd.I began to ask questions ,study history of mexico and tracing my ancestors ,to find my answer.

Chinese Proverb:What is a tree without roots,What is a stream without its source ?

Now I know why I look the way I do,and I have met cool new primos in my search.

Ronnie Reynoso, pariente acasi todos de Los Altos de Jalisco

> To: general@lists.nuestrosranchos.org
> From: jonathan@mexicanfhr.com
> Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:42:21 -0800
> Subject: [Nuestros Ranchos] Why are we doing genealogy?
>
>
> I just wanted to ask the group, why are we doing genealogy? I

Hi Jonathan -

I grew up hearing "stories" from aunts and uncles - unbelievable stories,
such as we were French, Spanish and Indian heritage on my mother's side and
derived from royal blood on my father's side. I wanted to verify these stories.

I grew up in the US - my mother's grandparents died before I was born - they
had come during the time of Revolution, and no aunt or uncle kept in touch
with that side of the family in Mexico (Zacatecas). On my father's side, he
had died when I was a baby - and all of his family lived in Mexico (Coahuila)-
I would hear the aunts and uncles tell us many stories when I visited.

Today, I feel it is as if the ancestors want me to whisper their name and
write it down so they are not forgotten. By the way, I am still looking for
verification of our French blood and trying to verify the royal blood story.
In the meantime, I did discover that I came from a long legacy of educators -
and I am one today - seems like some

Jonathan

For me there are two reasons:

(1) Knowing where we came from tells us something about who we are.
(2) It is a gift to my children.

George

**************
A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2
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Jonathan,

When I was a little girl we moved to U.S. I didn't like the move because I loved my grandparents so very much and I hated to leave them. Both paternal and maternal. That's when the seed was planted and I wanted to know more about my ancestors. I had a ggg-mother named Maria Dolores Diaz who lived to a ripe old age of 103 - so I am told - I have not verified that. What I do know is that she made my clothes when I was a baby. She used to make beautiful knit and crochet clothing for a living and always made extra for me. She would work very hard for 3-4 months straight; would buy more material to make more projects, and would spend the rest of the money on her drinking binges until all the money was gone. Then she would start all over again. :-)

Another ggg-father named Jose Rafael Lopez Aguilar lived to 102 and I did take a picture of the little cemetery house where he was buried. I come from families that were big in numbers. One of my ggg-aunts had 17 children. My

For me genealogy began about 10 years ago at my father's funeral. I asked some of my nephews and nieces if they knew my father's father's name. None of them knew. I vowed then not to let my father's ancestors die with him, too.

Jose Carlos de Leon

EMAILING FOR THE GREATER GOOD
Join me

> To: general@lists.nuestrosranchos.org
> From: jonathan@mexicanfhr.com
> Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:42:21 -0800
> Subject: [Nuestros Ranchos] Why are we doing genealogy?
>
>
> I just wanted to ask the group, why are we doing genealogy? I have been asked ti give a talk about why we do genealogy? It has made me think, about why I started my genealogy about 30 years ago. And I just wanted to get, some more ideas or thoughts from the group members.
>
> Jonathan

Hi Jonathan,

My experiences with family history is as follows. I became intensely curious about my ancestry as pre-teenager. I found myself doubting all the oral traditions passed on by my parents and grandparents and their siblings. Growing up is hard enough without adding the element of being treated by everyone else as unacceptably "different." Just like old Sergeant Friday, I wanted just the facts.

Learning the "facts" continues to be a life-altering process for me. I'll be 71 in less than three months. I have been researching off and on since the 1970's. The "facts" continue to surprise me. Curiosity is no longer the force driving my research. I feel a compelling need to understand myself better. I also see the results of investigation as a very worthwhile legacy for my children and their children and so on.

I have come to believe that well-done family history research helps us to include others in our lives. It does not drive wedges between and among us. I could

Hi there Jonathan,

I always had a yearning for my beginings . When I was 10 yrs. old my dad picked me up from my friends house ( Ramon Palacios ) he lived in front of Roosevelt High School in East Los Angeles . Anyway , as we were driving I asked my dad where my name came from . My name is Welester G. Alvarado . You can only imagine how i took the blows for a name such as mine . All my friends were Henry , Richard , John etc. etc. and here I was with a name like Welester . The kids called me Chester , Dexter , Fester and the list goes on and on .

Well back to my dad and the big question ¨where did my name come from ¨ I was certain that he would tell me . So, I asked ¨hey pop ( that´s what I called my dad ¨ Where did my name come from . He quickly turned and in a very sharp tone said ¨WHY ! don´t you like it ! I slowly slid down the car seat and softly replied .....yes . That was that ! No more questions about my name .

That in short Jonathan made me start to question my

For me genealogy is a way to connect to family. While I came from a relatively large family (6 kids) we were raised away from our extended family in Mexico. I really enjoyed the few visits we made as kids and relished in the feeling of being surrounded by family. This need to connect with family was intensified when my father died in 2006 and so I discovered genealogy .... I think of my father each time I make another connection, I can picture him sitting next to me sharing the joy of each and every new discovery.

Hello Jonathan,

My father and I started genealogy back in 1987 when he was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. His doctors were curious to know if there was a family history of this. My father died in 1988 and his brother followed in death also from ALS. This fueled my desire to find out more about our family. Since beginning, I have now found 31 family members who died from some motor neuron disease such as ALS througout the years as far back as 1850's when it was known as 'creeping paralysis' or 'loco motor ataxia'. This information has allowed us to participate in studies of this disease in pursuit of a cure. Two more family members passed away last year, my dad's aunt and a cousin.

Hope this helps.

Catherine Wood

Hi Jonathan!

I wish I had started doing genealogy 30 years ago!!! :-) The reason
I do genealogy is probably a selfish one......I only have one
brother.....I come from a small family and always wanted a larger
family......my parents had other ideas!! :-)

I have always had this "yearning" to find the rest of my
family.......although I knew very little about them. It gives me
great satisfaction when I discover a bit of information about them. I
am absolutely overjoyed when I finally meet one of my distant cousins
through genealogy! It is the very best feeling (for me) in this world!

My grandfather (Julian Trevino) was born when his father was age 71
and his mother was age 41! He was the last of 17 children from two
families of my great-grandfather!!! To me it is a great miracle that
I even exist!!! :-) When my grandfather was born he was given to his
padrinos (also his cousins) with the understanding that they never
change his Trevino surname. He was