Greetings and Introduction

["sgapodaca" <sgapodaca@...>]

I was invited to this group by Joseph Puentes. I think it is a great 
idea to create a group not only focused in genealogy but in a 
specific area.
My name is Steve Apodaca. As you can see in the family tree that I 
recently uploaded, I am in my early 20's. Until last year I was a 
college student, but dropped out because of lack of cash. Now I am 
working and saving money so that I go back to school. During my free 
time, I do my genealogy research. I started my research a couple 
years ago, but because of school and work and other 'duties' I 
haven't researched as much as I wished. I have not found ancestors 
in Zacatecas and Aguascalientes, yet. All of my ancestors come from 
the state of Jalisco. These are the towns and surnames that I am 
researching.

Amacueca: Aguilar
Atenguillo: Curiel, Pena, Diaz, Cazarez
Barranca del Espiritu Santo: Frias
El Crucero: Ramirez, Gamino, Ursua, Ornelas
Guadalajara: Tapia
San Marcos Evangelista: Cervantes
Santa Catarina: Apodaca, Bonal
Sayula: Apodaca, Ayala
Zacoalco: Apodaca, Martinez, Frias, Rodriguez

By the way, Barranca del Espiritu Santo, El Crucero, San Marcos, 
Santa Catarina, and Zacoalco all belong to the municipio of Zacoalco 
de Torres, so this is my main area of research.

The branch that I have researched the most is the Apodaca family. 
The earliest ancestor I have found is José Domingo Apodaca, born in 
Zacoalco, Jalisco (I am still looking for the date), and married in 
the same town on November 30, 1784 with Gertrudis Aniceta Bonal from 
Santa Catarina. Finding these ancestors was relatively easy because 
of three factors: First, the surname Apodaca is not that common in 
this area of Jalisco and the Apodacas that I have found are one way 
or another related to my family. Second, I found that this family 
has stayed in the same area for at least 220 years. My father, born 
in Santa Catarina, still lives in Zacoalco, and several of his 
brothers and sisters have their families in Santa Catarina.

However, I have not been very successful with all of my family 
branches. For example, my maternal grandfather Andrés Tapia. He 
married my grandmother in 1947 and their marriage lasted about 5 
years because he died in a terrible truck accident in Escuinapa, 
Sinaloa. My family lost contact with his family and that's why it 
has been difficult for me to find more about him. From researching 
documents and interviewing my grandmother, I know that his real name 
was José Luis Tapia (his baptism name), that he was from 
Guadalajara, and that his parents were Andrés Tapia (I don't know 
nothing more about him) and Macaria Hernández (the only thing I know 
about her is that she was from `Santa Rosa', no idea which state or 
municipio). Even though my grandmother swears that my grandfather is 
from Guadalajara, his son (my uncle) insists that he was actually 
born in Los Altos, somewhere between Atotonilco and Arandas. Now 
what I need to do is to order the baptism microfilm for the church 
of Mexicaltzingo in Guadalajara around 1925 and that will probably 
give me more clues about my Tapia ancestors.

Well, I hope this introduction was good enough. I hope that we can 
find a link, if not today, in the future. Also, the file that I 
submitted does not include all of the individuals in my file, but 
only my direct ancestors. I will add updates as soon as I make 
changes.