wonderful story.



if I have a chance I have to ask anyone that even looks hispanic where
they are from. Heck I know stuff like you've just described happens and
I really want it to happen to me, Too. Your wonderful story makes me
want to yell out to the world asking every Mexican I can get to listen
"Are you from Jalisco or Zacatecas?" "Do you know anyone from this or
that Rancho." "My grandparents were born close to Colotlan/Santa Maria
de Los Angeles, Jalisco do you know anyone from there?" I've even
wanted to go to Hispanic festivals and set up a genealogy booth with
signs seeking out Jalisco and Zacatecas residents [note: I might have
some Aguascalientes roots but the evidence is not fully developed].



I even started an unfinished project to "spam" all the "Puentes' " that
came up on Yahoo people search.



I have found several lost branches of my family by cold calling people
with my last name. Thus the family that used to be less than 1000
people now is way way over 3000. [I just wish they were interested in
meeting each other. . ."Do you want to meet some new cousins?" "Well
ok, yes I can see that we are related, but who are they?]. I even
called all the Puentes that are listed in the Guadalajara Phone book
and found some more related families from one of the previously found
lost branches. But the one elusive branch keeps evading me as I pursue.
And I have projects lined up along these lines that will surely take me
into the grave.  I hesitate to start on my Diaz family roots because
the name is so numerous in every phone book i open.



Its interesting to me to hear some of the stories about the people that
left Rancho de Animas and migrated Northward to Northern Mexico and
some into the US. I just wish I was a mega millionaire as I would have
a large staff of folks seeking out my "oral history" and doing the
things that need to be done but are way to much for one person. Alas I
do what I can, but it comforts me to have this group of 70 that seem to
be kindred spirits to motivate me on to continue in the pursuit of the
hidden treasure of my history.



thank you all for your love of your own history. . .as I said before it
motivates me.



joseph



Santos Luna wrote:

cite="">

A number of years of ago, in the midst of working
on a business plan; I opted to work for a temporary employment agency
to have some cash flowing in. One sunny Friday morning, I received a
call for an assignment; I was advised that it would be in the immediate
area.

 

However, late in the day, I was notified that the
assignment would be in the middle of the most heavily traveled
corridor, my first thought was to gracefully decline, but on second
thought, I knew it was best to honor my commitment.

 

In th following weeks, I would encounter a young,
soft-spoken man, Manuel, who I would meet at the door as I was
attempting to dash out in the evening to get that two minute lead on
traffic, and thus get to the gym, then home to work on my project. Our
conversations were always short, and went something like this:

 

Manuel: In a few days I will be
going to Cuidad Obregon, Sonora, to bring my parents to San Jose for a
little vacation.

 

Helyn: My mother had a half
sister, that she never met, that lived in Obregon

 

Manuel: What is your aunt's name?

 

Helyn: Antonia S. I have some
photos of her when she was in her early 20's; do believe she was born
in 1929. The only lead that I have is a Christmas card she sent my
mother over 20 years ago before her passing

 

Manuel: I could try and locate
her with the address on the envelope

 

Helyn: You have not seen my
messy stack of photos, and papers that I have been attempting to
organize for several years

 

Over the next few conversations, Manuel continued
to pursue me with questions,

looking back, I do not know why I was being so
evasive

 

Manuel: This is your last
opportunity; I will be taking my parents back to Obregon in a few days.

 

That evening, I skipped going to the gym, and
went straight to my disorganized stack. Well, lo and behold, staring me
in the face was the Christmas card.

 

Upon his return, Manuel summoned me to meet him
in the cafeteria. When I arrived, he suggested that I better sit down.
Then he presented me with some photos he had just developed, and I
instantly recognized the lady in the photos as my mother's sister. My
heart skipped a beat.

 

Manuel proceeded to tell me that while he was at
his father-in-laws home, he had told the family to excuse him as he was
going to go out to attempt to locate an aunt for a co-worker. Manuel
said that his wife asked for the name of the lady and he replied that
she was a much older woman and he did not think that she would know
her, but that her name was Antonia S.

 

Manuel said that his wife gasped..."what do you
mean...she took care of us..she was my second mother".  With that, the
family sped off in pursuit to find Antonia. The had several detours,
but with the help of neighbors they finally found her.

 

On Saturday, I called my Tia Antonia, and I
immediately wanted to go and meet her and her family however, I was
told to stay away from the hot Sonora sun and to come when the weather
was a bit cooler.  I was delighted to hear that in a few months her
grandson would be getting married, and that her older brother, Tomas,
would be attending the wedding.

 

So off I went with a camera, recorder, pens and
notepads.

 

I returned with a treasure of Oral History from
Tio Tomas, which is priceless. Also, I was given a photo of my great
grandmother, Dionisia Magallanas, her name, I had never heard.

 

I was told the story of how their mother,
Efedelia Herrera, ended up in Tepic, Nayarit from Tlaltenango,
Zacatecas. I felt a bid of sadness that my mother never knew the other
side of the story.

 

Talk about fate, and 6 degrees of separation.

 

Sadly, Tio Tomas passed away a few years later.

 

Oh, by the way, my newely found cousin had been
engaged to marry the brother of Manuel's wife when they were young.
Actually, this is a very long story with lots of twits and turns, but I
have attempted to make it as brief as possible. And yes, I finally met
Mrs. Manuel, a very special lady,...it was as if we had known each
other for a long time...she said that she still get chills when she
recants the long story.

Helyn de Castaneda

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

Do you Yahoo!?


href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/taglines/mobile/*http://mobile.yahoo.com/maildemo">Take
Yahoo! Mail with you! Get it on your mobile phone.

hey important is an understatement. . .crucial, critical, necessary. I
have on more than one occasion been able to better understand the
written records because of the oral history. Like the story my Aunt
told me about Marcos Chica and Marcos Grande. Turned out that the
records indicated there were two sisters that were both named Marcos.
Plus when you have it in the records and then have it orally you really
really "Have It" no doubt. Verification to the max!



I only wish I had some grandparents to interview, but the stories these
Grandparents told are still floating around. . .interview the younger
ones as they can remember some of those stories too!



joseph



Al Duarte wrote:

cite="">

Oral
History:

Oral
history can be very important.  

 

A
cousin came back from Jerez last year and told me that she was told
that all the Duartes were related to the Garcia de la Cadenas.  At
first, I found this hard to believe since she was told by a 92 year old
lady who was starting to lose her memory. 

 

Approximately,
2 years later I obtained information on the first Duarte (my
great-----grandfather Juan Manuel Duarte Rincon) that came to Jerez in
1736, who married Maria Garcia de la Cadena Casas!  So oral history has
been handed down from generation to generation for almost three
hundred years.

 

Is
oral history important? I would say yes.

 

Alberto. 

face="Tahoma" size="2">-----Original Message-----

From: Mambo King!!!! [mailto:javier_m_barrios@...]

Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2004 12:50 AM

To: ranchos@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [ranchos] ORAL HISTORY

I did an Oral history on my family's geneology and

believe me, it's something to hear.  It's  very nice

to see and hear the elders of the family speak like

it's nothing.  If you do have elders still around, get

a ideocamera and a few blank tapes and set it up and

just let it run.  The nice thing about that is you can

get their knowledge and history and you can also get a

good videotape of them BEFORE they pass on and the

best part of that is they are telling the family story

to you and to whoever is watching.



Paz

--- yolanda medina-perez <windrocklili@...>

wrote:



>

> Recently I went to the library at UTEP in El Paso

> and discovered two

> interesting projects, one which deals with oral

> history and

> basically dealing with their memories of life in El

> Paso and of

> course how they lived back in the early 1930s, 40s,

> etc.  My cousins

> grandmother was interviewed and recorded. The

> conversation was later

> transcribed and is available to the public. The

> second discovery

> were the files of Cleofas Calleros. During the

> 1940s, people who

> lived in in the US and were originally from Mexico

> would go to his

> office for documentation if they needed to go into

> the interior of

> Mexico. In these records I found pictures of my four

> grandparents,

> uncles,aunts,cousins and inlaws. Some of the

> documents give place of

> birth, place, parents, spouse and their prsent

> adddress. They even

> include a brief physical description.  WOW! what a

> find, they also

> made copies for me. Just visit the 6th floor at UTEP

> Library but be

> prepared with list of names and plenty of time. The

> one draw back is

> the very sad fact that the files from A-E FILES WERE

> DESTROYED

> before the new owners offered the collection to the

> University.

> Thanks to UTEP I now have a little more info about

> my family and

> some very treasured pictures, Oh and by the way they

> allow you to

> take a digital camera in and take pictures.    

> Now my QUESTION????

> Have any of the ranchos members done any oral

> history work and if so

> what would be a good format for genealogy/family

> purposes?  Help

>

>

>

>





=====

Javier M. Barrios