That
first night of searching on line introduced me to Ines Gonzalez and Elena
Longoria. Finding one set of my dad's grandparents really struck
me. I always assumed my great grandfather's last name would be Gonzalez, but I had no idea
about her. I think that is why she fascinated me the
most. It may have been the "ease" in which I found her.
All I can say is thank goodness for the Spanish tradition of women keeping
their maiden names! Subsequent searches on Archives.com did not yield
much in the way of Ines, but I quickly found a baptism record for an Elena
Longoria. But, as I am quickly finding out, in Mexican records can come across
the same name for different people over and over again. How am I to prove that I am on my
Elena's trail?
I
had heard of the Longoria name before. But not before Eva Longoria graced
our TV's starring in Desperate Housewives. And now, I may be related to
her somehow?
But
it wasn't Eva I was fixated on; it was Elena. I just loved the way the
name sounds. Following the link to Elena's baptism record on Archives.com led
me to her parents, and then her grandparents, and back another 6-7 generations
of Longoria's. All the way back to a Lorenzo Longoria born in Spain in
the 1500's. I was floored! Could this be part of my family
tree? The "tree" I thought could never be
documented.
The
seemingly pre-built tree on Archives referenced that the tree actually came from
a site called FamilySearch.org.
I had to check this out. FamilySearch.org is a site run and maintained by
the Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons). It is free to join and
an amazing source for finding records of your Mexican Heritage. (And
other regions of the world too.) The indexed record for Elena baptism on
FamilySearch listed her parent’s names and her grandparent’s names.[1]
And
this time it was sourced. I had to see the original record!
From the main page, I
followed the search link to Mexico, then Tamaulipas, then Matamoros until I
came to the list of Catholic Church records for this area. I chose the
appropriate record for 1881. After getting the hang of "turning the
pages" I finally to got the 1881 records. I should point out, I do
not speak Spanish, and I certainly can't read it. I do know numbers and
calendar months, so with my limited knowledge, I figured it out.
Elena's baptism record[2]
from 2 July 1881 at Nuestra Señora del Refugio in Matamoros, Tamaulipas,[3]
Mexico would be the first of many Mexican records I would eventually find.
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