How It's Going

It's been a while since I've checked in, so I'll do a recap and see where that leads. I've fallen into a routine of working on my side of the family for a month, then on Steve's for a month. Each tree is so large that there is plenty of variety even within each family. February is my family's month, and I've been looking at my father's mother's ancestors this week -- she and most of her children were born in Arizona (my father was born in California and the family eventually settled in California), and her mother was born in Mexico as were the next several generations. I've found them mostly around Chihuahua, in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso. They are there pretty exclusively right back to the 1700s, at which point the record fades away, but in some cases extends back to Spain, and there's at least one ancestor from Portugal. 

Unfortunately, I have been unable to flesh out any of the stories, for insyance with newspaper articles, so at the moment it's a collection of dates and facts without much story. I'll have to work on that.

In a way though, it's kind of a way to take a break from some of the family branches that are crammed full of stories. I have to not spend too much time on Steve's grandfather's family since they seem to have been an unhappy bunch, lots of alcohol and violence and early deaths. Interesting, but tragic. His mother's family is less tragic, in fact they have a few stories that I almost can't believe are true, such as an aunt who appeared on Broadway at age 16 and was destined for a Hollywood career, but then disappeared. And his mother apparently got engaged to a soldier as World War II began -- but he was only a pen pal, and they had never met. Don't know what happened there, but she ended up going into the Air Force after the war and then marrying Steve's father, so that worked out okay. Wonder how the proxy engagement was broken...

But that's not the family I'm working on this month, so back to the colonists from Spain. I'm afraid there will be unpleasantness in the history -- the Spanish settlers aren't known for having been peaceful colonizers.