Rafael & Antonia Estrada (my Great Grandparents), and Ed Palomares

We know Guillermo Sr. "Willie" Hernandez (my grandfather) was born on 1 JUN 1914 • Jaral de Berrios, Guanajuato, México, and died 6 NOV 1946 • Harris, Texas.  He is buried at Houston's historic Hollywood Cemetery, but does not have a grave marker. If you wanted to visit, they could look up the location for you, approximately. It would be so cool to take up a donation and put a marker there for him.

He had three kids while here and married to Petra, they lived in Houston at the time. Gloria is the oldest, then Bill, then Gilbert.  Petra was still pregnant with Gilbert when Willie died.  They lived at a house in Houston on McKee St. I am not sure if it was a boarding house or a one family house where several families lived, but there were multiple families there according to the death certificates of Willie and his half sister, Euphenia, who died of tuberculosis three years after Willie died. Her and her parents' address is the same as his, and his parents, 814 McKee St. I have even driven by there. There are houses and businesses, but I am sure they are not the original house they lived in.

Of note, Willie and Petra also had a daughter in 1945, Cecelia, who died at 18mos from meningitis.

Willie's father was Rafael Hernandez (my first great grandfather), born 1890 in Mexico, and dying in 1914, two years after Willie left for the US. He died in Jaral de Berrios, Guanajuato, México, where Willie was born, of what looks like "hemorrhagia" or hemorrhage. There is no other information on cause of death.  

Records show he married Antonia Estrada (my Great Grandmother) in Jarral de Berrios also, which at the time was a Hacienda. This was like an estate, or small, self-contained town. This one was known for its Mescal production, and still is!  

Antonia was born in 1894 in Mexico, but we do not yet know a city.  Rafael and Antonia married in 1913, and had only one child together who we could find records for, Guillermo (Willie), who was born about a month after Rafael died, in 1914.  All these events took place in Jaral de Berrios, Guanajuato, México.  Antonia also came to the US in 1914. 

By 1920, Antonia (and presumably, Willie) were in Colorado County Texas, where they were on the 1920 census and lived in Fayette, TX with her uncle and cousins. The same year, she married again, a 25 year old Eduardo Palomares. She was 19.  By family stories he was a native American, but he was born in Chihuahua, MX by his records. Together, they had 6 children between 1921 and 1934. This photo is of Ed, Antonia, and 3 of their kids. 

Ed died at age 50 due to suspected malarial fever. Antonia lived until 1992 when she died in Houston at age 98 of unknown causes. (No death certificate yet).  

Antonia's oldest daughter, Rafaela, lived to the age of 70, and had 8 children with her husband Dave Andrado. They also spent their lives in the Harris County area. They probably lived in the same house as Willie Hernandez, her son by Rafael, and his wife as of 1946, because her daughter Euphenia (Willie's half-sister) would die at age 21 of tuberculosis, the same illness that killed her brother Willie, 3 years earlier.

Antonia also had a daughter or son (Trena or Irena) who died at 18mos of age from pneumonia. They lived in Weimar at the time. Her son Eulalio "Lalo" was in the military, although there are some records that state he was a Marine and one that states he was in the Army. He married and had 3 kids, and lived in the Houston area. He died at age 61.  Her youngest son, Quirino, lived to age 79, and raised 9 children in the Houston/Harris county area.

As well as having 7 children, Antonia had a number of siblings, and half siblings (17 total! ). Most of them were born in central Mexico (Guanajuato and Zacatecas areas), but ended up in the US. I was able to find a photo of one brother, Asencion Estrada, who was a farmer in the Dimmit County area of Texas where he married twice and raised 8 children.