Recently I sat down after a long time away from browsing the FamilySearch.com's IGI database, and after many years of searching, I found three more generations back on my father's side who were from Tepetongo, Zacatecas, and all in one sitting. I had tried looking for these people for years, but had no luck, and they were there all the time. I guess the other day their spirits were with me (I do beseech them to show themselves), and they wanted to be found. It is funny that sometimes I can find people in the IGI, for myself and others, and sometimes I can't. Shortly after learning my way around the IGI, I started really digging up stuff. By trial and error, and thinking out of the box, I discovered ways to locate my Mexican ancestors in the IGI. I guess by studying the naming customs in Mexico and the way the transcribers think, I developed a sense of how they may be listed. I think it is George Ryskamp that has an article somewhere that I recently read on how to navigate the IGI for ancestors in Mexico, and the process is pretty much what I developed for myself, but he couldn't list every clue in detail. As usual, I had to learn the hard way before I found his article. I don't know how to explain my system, but it works most of the time. How I have lapses sometimes is something I can't explain. I have to be in the right frame of mind, I guess; I just get a feeling that this is the time I will find something. Maybe the brain needs to refresh itself or something. My husband sometimes asks me why I stay so late on the computer some days, and the other day I told him that I was on a roll on the IGI and couldn't quit since I was searching a thread that contained thousands of people, making me go from one page to the next, and if I dropped the thread, I would not be able to go back to that series in the IGI since I could not reconstruct how I found it in the first place. Sometimes I go through lists of thousands to find one ancestor, but it is worth it, since the film number and place found leads me to other generations and places, etc. That is how I was able to help Helyn years ago and recently when she couldn't find someone in the IGI that I was able to find with my system One thing I can explain is that I found that there seemed to be a naming tradition in Mexico where people were given the name of a grandparent or great-uncle, etc. Then people married into the same families over and over through the generations. Then too, men married several times and their children used the surnames of their step-mothers. Also, for some reason, I realized that some letters are interchangeable in surnames. Also, most people had several first names not known to me so the IGI will not at first find them under the only names by which they were later known. For instance, I just found my Suriano ancestors. Their name is sometimes spelled Zuriano, Soriano, and Sariano. The one person I knew about was Teodosa Flores (my great-great-grandmother, the mother of my great-grandmother Rafaela Tinajero), but I noticed that sometimes she was listed as Teodosia or Theodosia Felix and sometimes Suriano. I wondered where the Felix and Suriano came in, and recently I found her parents, Jose Maria Flores and Guadalupe Suriano. Aha! That led me to Guadalupe Suriano's parents, Marcelo Suriano and Ma. Francisca Munos, and to Marcelo's parents, Paulin Suriano and Regina (surname not listed). I am anxious to send for these films and see where they lead me. Those last are my ggggg-grandparents who lived in the early 1700's! I believe that Jose Maria Flores had a second wife surnamed Felix and his children from the first marriage used her surname also. Other people I have found lately are my Olague ancestors. Pedro Olague was Rafaela's husband, his parents were Santiago Olague and Eduviges Suriano, Santiago's parents were Jose Balentin Olague and Maria Josefa de Lucio. Eduviges' parents were Julian Suriano ad Rafaela Quijas. The surnames Suriano and De Lucio sound Italian to me. Quijas is a name I have never heard before. Anyone have those names in their tree? I could not find Edubiges for the longest time, and come to find out, she is in the IGI as Maria Eduvije Sariano! Who knew? So, try reading the article (I think it is by George Ryskamp) on searching the IGI for Mexicans. It might help you, but then again, like me, you might have to learn it the hard way like I did, by trial and error, using your intuition. Use all the known paternal and maternal surnames together, paternal surname first together with maternal surname, in different combinations and possible spellings. And be patient. You sometimes stumble on a thread that contains thousands of names, but the "Find on this Page" function takes you to the locale quickly on each page so you don't have to look at each and every one if they are not in your geographical search area. (Using advanced search for a geographical area doesn't always find things and it is best not to use "exact spelling" except when using two surnames together). However, the IGI only brings up the first 5000 names in a series when using just one surname and not specifying "exact spelling". There are no shortcuts, really. When you reach that number there is a message that comes up informing you that the database is unable to download more names than that. GRRRR. Just when I was about to find that elusive Jose * Garcia *, (ha, ha). I wish the IGI could handle wild cards, but I guess it can't, can it? I know Ancestry.com databases can handle wild cards, no? Emilie Garcia Port Orchard, WA.------
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