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
