How Does This Work?

 I have been way into the research for the last week, trying to see how far back I can go, in each branch of the family, before I fill in the details.  But the details are so interesting, I get distracted and off down a rabbit hole before I get back on track.  I will try to provide a general summary of what I have found, then post the details later on.

I am starting from my particular grandparents, but if you have the same family line, for example, Petra and Willie Hernandez' kids (Gloria, Guillermo, and Gabriel),  will have the same relatives (branches) until the point they marry and have children. As long as that person has a direct line to Willie, by blood, they will have the same ancestors as I do. So all of their kids are related to my relatives on Willie's family tree.

 If they have a different grandparent than I do, they will also have that grandparent's ancestry, as far back as they have a direct blood line. So my cousin Joe Blow, who comes from Tony Blow and Mary Smith, and Tony Blow's (parents Petra Hernandez and Jebediah Blow) will have Petra's ancestry, but not Willie's, because he is not Willie's blood grandson. Even though I am cousins with Joe Blow, we have only SOME of the same ancestry, through Petra Hernandez.

Petra Hernandez had three sets of children from different spouses: Willie Hernandez, Martin Perez, and Lucas Lerma.  These will be three separate branches of the family, with shared ancestry of the kids produced from Petra and that husband.  For right now, I am following Willie Hernandez' branch.

If you have questions, feel free to ask them in the comments and I will try to explain. I am still learning also, and the ancestors are all over the place, but luckily, there are many resources, most online, that save tons of footwork, of going to the library and the state and the church and county for the records, especially in other countries, like Mexico.

The closest relatives are from Mexico.