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Hey! I, just recently, found that I DO have a connection in
Totatiche........I have ancestors, Jose Leonisio Hernandes married Maria Manuela
Ramos married in Totatiche on 04/271768. Although I can't find Maria
Manuela's record of birth there, I have a record for her brother and sister:
Joseph Alvino Ramos, born 03/12/1759 and Maria Martina Ramos, born
11/14/1756.
I also
have a record for Jose Leonisio's sister, Maria Guadalupe Hernandes, born
12/26/1755.
Can I
add these new limbs to my file? I can't remember if there's
room!
Also,
this Tuxpan you mentioned, is there many, or only one "Tuxpan". My
mother-in-law, who's maiden name is Padilla, says that her great-grandfather was
from here, and she mentioned him being some sort "alcalde" or mayor and that t
here was a statue of him...was there some sort of statue in Tuxpan of a man
who's last name would be Padilla? Or is that another Tuxpan? I
really haven't researched my husbands family yet, but I enjoy talking with my
mother-in-law, who is 79, in the hopes of starting my husbands
tree.
Peggy
Oh, how wonderful this report is! Thank you for
sharing this! We need to keep this in our rancho archives!!!! I'm willing to
send a small donation for republication of Mr. Valdes Salazar's work to keep
it alive for us, despite my not having any connection with Totatiche. Why not
have him look into the Lulu publications that Joseph, our fearless leader,
told us about in one of his messages. It would save Mr. Valdes lots of moola!
Marge:)
On Jan 5, 2006, at 10:50 AM, Arturo Ramos wrote:
I just got back from two and a half weeks in
Mexico.
Though I did not spend them in "working" on
genealogy or historical research, as I did have the need to
spend time with my family and decompress at the beach for some
days, I did get a fair amount of work done.
I
arrived in Guadalajara, Jalisco on Dec. 17. I met up with my
brothers and my younger brother's Japanese host-mother to
celebrate our birthdays in Tlaquepaque with mariachis. The
singer had lived in Japan for three years and sang to my
brother's Japanese host mother in Japanese.
The
next day I attempted to visit the Archivos Publicos del Estado
de Jalisco. They were closed early because of staff
shortages due to the holidays.
I headed to
Villa Guerrero, Jalisco on Dec. 19 (where my parents have now
built a beautiful house on the edge of town where they plan to
live half-time). The next day, we travelled to Bolanos (a
mining town dating to circa 1550) at the bottom of the canyon by
the same name. The town is is serious disrepair as the
mines have been shut down for some time and there is no other
real source of economic sustenance. There are remnants of
beautiful buildings throughout, however.
From
there, we headed over the Sierra de los Huicholes to Tuxpan de
Bolanos (an indigenous wixarika village three hours by dirt
road from Bolanos) where we explored a very poor settlement
that now has phones, electricity and running water. The
locals were very shy, but we managed to speak to a woman who
spoke Spanish who introduced us to some handcraft makers.
Noticeably, there is no church in the town, as I understand is
the case in most wixarika towns.
The next day, my father,
Esteban Valdes (cronista of Totatiche, Jalisco) and Leonardo de
la Torre Berumen (municipal archivist of Jerez, Zacatecas)
headed to Colotlan to attempt to see and photograph the records
of the old Franciscan Convent that was founded there in 1591
and served as the primary base for the missionaries in the
area. We waited over an hour for the priest to show up
and then he called in to say he would not be coming in that day
and that we would not be allowed to see the records... for no
good reason. I had been forwarned that he was not the
friendliest of people. It was a real shame because many
of the records have not been filmed.
I spoke at length with
both of the gentlemen and confirmed suspicions that I had a
lineage that led to the sister of Miguel Caldera, one of the
first mestizo officials of the viceroyal government and Justicia
Mayor del Valle de Jerez y Tlaltenango. I also found out
that my mother's lineage (PINEDO) was one of the first in
Jerez, dates back to the 1580s or 90s in the area and also
leads to Miguel Caldera. There are many records in Jerez
that were not filmed by the Mormons because they were not bound
and/or were in disrepair including several decades of marriages
and all of the confirmation records. In addition there
are will/testament and protocol records to which Mr. de la
Torre has access. Thus the genealogical information in Jerez
exists to trace families back to settlement in the late
1500s.
I interviewed Esteban Valdes Salazar, who spoke about
the work of Cronistas and the lack of support for it from
government agencies. He is currently trying to publish a
new edition of his "Historia de Totatiche" which is a very well
researched and written book that was purchased by many U.S.
libraries and whose first edition has sold out. The State
of Jalisco who published the first edition is not helping him
so he is trying to raise money to do so himself. He also
has several other genealogical manuscripts on the PINEDO,
GARCIA and ORTEGA lineages which he would like to
publish. He is a prolific researcher and writer. I
will be forwarding my interview to Joseph for posting on his
site.
I told him I would approach the group about obtaining
some sort of support for him, so if anybody is interested in
helping out, especially those of you with Totatiche or Colotlan
lineages, please let me know.
I also visited
the asilo (convalescence home) in Tlaltenango, where I went to
deliver some items for Helyn Sparkman-Castaneda. The
intended recipient of one of the items (a renowned local
scholar and historian) had passed away, but my father and I
spoke at length with the home director who gave us great
insight on his life and work. Helyn had informed me that
he had a great collection of historical manuscripts and
books. These have been donated by his survirors to the
Universidad de Zacatecas in the city of Zacatecas.
In my
father's town I interviewed a great-uncle of mine who is 83
years old and has been keeping diaries of deaths, historical
events, etc. in the town for decades. He also had an
incredible amount of oral history about the family (PINEDO) and
local history dating back to the Mexican Revolution. I
knew that the family came from Jerez, Zacatecas but asked him
if he knew and he did, even though the migration happened in
1730... When I showed him the genealogies I had compiled,
light bulbs went off when he read names of people who lived in
the 1820s and 1830s, whose names he remembered from family
histories told to him by his grandfather.
I
have four hours of recordings from my meetings with him which I
plan to transcribe.
I also have pictures and
will try to post these when I get a
chance.
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