Willie, the Grandfather I never met

I started researching Willie (Guillermo Hernandez, Sr.) as the father of my mom Gloria, Uncle Bill (Guillermo Jr.), and Uncle Gilbert Hernandez. I remember when Grandma was being moved from her house into the nursing home, we went to her house to help with the packing up. We were talking to Uncle Gilbert, and my mom mentioned she did not remember her birth father as he died when she was 4 years old. Gilbert had a portrait of Willie that my mom had never seen before. She did not remember him. 

He died in Houston at age 32 from pulmonary tuberculosis. My mom was the oldest, then Uncle Bill, then a daughter was born named Cecilia, who died at 2 years of age from meningitis. Uncle Gilbert was their youngest child, as Petra was pregnant with him when Willie died. 

 Another interesting thing at that time, was that there was someone else living at that address, who also died of pulmonary TB. I found out it was Willie's cousin, Euphenia Palomares, who died 3 years later at age 20. It must have been so sad to have multiple people getting sick from each other in the family, and some of them passing away. It seems a lot like now, with COVID 19 affecting households like that in many circumstances. 

 Willie married Grandma Petra in 1944. He was from Guanajuato, Mexico, which is smack in the middle of the country. If Mexico was a leg, Guanajuato would be the knee. His parents were also from Guanajuato, and it seems that his line of relatives came from there for a couple of generations. His father, Rafael and grandfather Santiago Hernandez, were both from the area. His mother, Antonia Estrada was born in the Columbus, TX area. His grandmother, Severiana Garcia, comes from la Noria, Zacatecas, MX. (more like the thigh of the leg that is Mexico). 

Only one, so far, is from the southern area, Oaxaca MX. One thing to remember, there are now a lot more people on Ancestry.com with family trees, and the bulk of the information I am getting, well at least 1/2, is from other family trees. We have lots of relatives out there, and I continue to be amazed at how many kids these people had! The record is 15 so far, but there were a lot of kids born in most of the families. Part of that, I am guessing, is from the Catholic church forbidding birth control, but also, they just did not really have birth control. Many had lots of kids to have help on the farm. That is not scientific, but just my guess. So far, I have traced Willie back to his 5th generation on his father's branch, back to about 1800. The mother's branch looks to go back further, so that will be another story, in time.