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.

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.

Matrilineal Family Tree

Petra Gonzalez De Leon (or DeLeon Gonzalez) born Feb 18, 1922- Died April 16, 2012. She had 9 children: Gloria Hernandez, Guillermo Hernandez Jr., Cecilia Hernandez (who died as an infant), and Gilbert Hernandez with Guillermo Hernandez Sr. She has a son Antonio Lerma (with Lucas Lerma), and with Martin Perez Sr., she had Martin Perez, Jr., Mathilda Perez, John Perez, and Linda Perez.This was my grandmother. Her parents are Petra Rivera Gonzalez (1882-1935) of Laredo, TX and Pedro De Leon Sr.(1877-1931) of Nuevo Leon, Mexico. In addition to Petra, they had 9 other children (Refugio, Victoria, Severa, Pedro, Pascual, Elvira, Juan, Juana, Merced). You can find their stories in this blog eventually. The family lived in the Laredo area. This was my great-grandmother. Petra's mother was Maria Refugio Bernal (1862-1950) and her father was Francisco Rivera (1862-??). Besides Petra, they had a daughter named Fortunata Rivera (1886-??). Petra Rivera (the daughter) moved to the US in 1901 where her kids were all born. Her parents remained in Mexico, in the Coahuila, Mexico area. This was my 2nd great grandmother. My 3rd great grandmother was Maria de los Santos De Anda (1841-1904) born in San Miguel de Aguayo, Bustamante NL Mexico. She married Ramon Bernal on Feb 3, 1859 in San Miguel, and together they had 6 children besides Maria Refugio; Rafael (1862-??), Jose Santiago (1866-??), Rosa (1869-??), Jose Nicanor (1872-??), Felix (1874-??), and Agapito (1880-??). They were all born in the Nuevo Leon area of Mexico. Maria and Ramon lived their entire lives in Mexico. My 4th great grandmother was Maria Damiana Crespin Mireles born in 1826 (d. 1869) in San Miguel, MX as above. She married Jose Marcos de Anda in 1841 and they had a total of 5 children in the Bustamante, Nuevo Leon area and one in Coahuila, Candela, MX. The children were: Maria de los Santos (1841-1904), Jose Antonio (1846-??), Jose Ramon (1848-??), Jose Cresencio (1851-??), Teodoro (1857-??), and Agapito (1858-??). They all lived in Bustamante, Nuevo Leon MX. Maria died in 1869 in Aguascalientes, MX. My 5th great-grandmother was Maria Petra Tixerina (Unk birth, death dates). She married Jose Guadalupe Mireles on Jan 8, 1925 in San Miguel, Bustamante, NL, Mex. They had two daughters, Maria Damiana Crespin (1826-1869) and Maria Alvina (or Albina) born 25 Dec 1830 both in Bustamante, NL, Mex. My 6th great grandmother was Maria Teodora Saldivar Flores born 1 Dec 1768 in San Miguel, MX. she married Jose Marcelo Tixerina in 1785 in San Miguel. They had two children Joseph Nicolas Tixerina Saldivar (1787-??) and Maria Petra Tixerina. They lived in the San Miguel area for thier entire lives. My 7th great grandmother was Maria Guadalupe Flores de Orosco (1740-??). Born in San Miguel, Bustamante, Nuevo Leon, MX. She had 3 siblings. She married Pedro Jose Saldivar Flores (1735-??) on 28 Apr 1760 in San Miguel. They had 7 children together: Maria de El Rosario (1761-1846), Pedro Nolasco (1763-??), Maria (1768-??), Maria Francisca(b. 1771), Jose Apolonio (b. 1773), Maria Josefa Patricia (b. 1776), and Jose Marcelo de los Santos (b. 1777).All of their children were born in San Miguel. Finally, my 8th great grandmother was Manuela Mathiana de Orosco, born in 1720 in San Miguel, Bustamante, Nuevo Leon, MX. She was married to Faustino Flores (b. 1715) on 22 Sep 1731 in the same city. She and Faustino had four children: Maria Tomasa Flores Orozco (1753-??), Jose Piloto Flores Orosco (1763-1764), Miguel Flores Orosco (1765-1767)and Maria Guadalupe Flores de Orosco (1740-??). They all lived and died in the San Miguel area. As I get updates I will add to this story. I am grateful that Ancestry has done so much work and that other relatives who have ancestry accounts have done so much work. I will try to post photos and other items of interest as I find them.

Nothing much has happened in the past 2 years. Now I am sitting down during the Covid pandemic, over the Thanksgiving holiday, because, well there is not much else to do. I go into my ancestry account and BAM, they have done a lot to help carry my ancestry back several generations! I also have a 23 and me account, which has put me on notice of 1500+ DNA relatives out there in the world. Where to start? So the first thing I want to relay to you all is that I am now able to trace my matrilineal (from the mothers' side) tree back to my 8th Great Grandmother!!! That's right, great x 8! She was born in Mexico in 1720, and her name is Manuela Mathiana de Orosco Flores. She was born in Bustamante, Nuevo Leon Mexico, and had only 4 children. I am also working back to my 8th Great Grandfather (her husband) Faustino Flores, from the same area. I will start posting information as I get time so I can share it all with you, but in case you want to see the tree itself, you can use this link: https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/pt/RSVP.aspx?dat=MTY5MDE5ODc7OzAxNjc5ZjQ2LTAwMDItMDAwMC0wMDAwLTAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMDsyMDIwMTEyODE1MTE0ODsx&mac=nol1+oaNhYnnCWAr28qAug== Enjoy!

Pascual DeLeon, PFC

Pascual Deleon was born in Pescadito,TX on May 17, 1918 to Pedro De Leon, Sr (of Mexico, Candela NL) and Petra Rivera, also of Candela. He enlisted in the army 15 Jan 1941, and was killed in action during WW2 on Jan 22, 1944 in Italy. The next of kin was listed as Severa Flores, of Laredo, TX and he is buried in the Catholic cemetery in Laredo, TX. There is an article in the San Antonio Light from April 29, 1944 which listed him as missing in action, however, his remains were eventually returned to the family and he was buried in Laredo. The following documents are available on his ancestry page on ancestry.com:

-1920 census -1930 census -San Antonia Light article 4/29/1944 -US Rosters of War Dead 1939-1945 -Enlistment Records -Death Certificate

Juan De Leon

Juan De Leon was the eldest son of Pedro De Leon and Petra Rivera. He was born 28 Jan 1904 in Mexico (if the records are right, in Guadalajara) and died in Texas in 1 Aug 1971 in Laredo Texas at age 67.

The 1920 census shows Juan at age 16 living in Webb Texas with his father, Pedro, and five of his siblings, Juanita 12, Severa 9, Victoria 8, Pedro 6, and Pascual 2. It lists his mother's name as Refugio, but his mother's name was Petra Rivera. This was some kind of error which happened often in census' taken especially by anglo census takers. By 1920, she would have been age 19. I do not find her in the census for 1920 anywhere else, but the chances are this is Petra Rivera, as she is listed as age 36.

The 1930 Census for Webb County, TX has Juan living with his wife Lilia 22, son Rodolfo 5, Olivia 2, and Edwardo age 1. It lists his occupation as truck driver for an oil company. His age is 24. It also states he and both of his parents were born in Texas. They had another family living with them at that time, listed as boarders: Simon Perez (age 25), Victoria Perez age 16, and Roberto Perez aged 6 mos.

In 1923, there is a record of a border crossing from Mexico to Texas by Juan De Leon aged 19. States he was born in Guadalajara. But this may be a different person because because Juan was born in the states.

Juan and Lilia had 9 children altogether; Rodolfo DeLeon (1925-1990), Amada DeLeon Webb, Olivia DeLeon (Deceased), Eduardo DeLeon (Deseased), Juan DeLeon (Deceased), Mario DeLeon, Elva DeLeon Bivings, Lauro DeLeon, Elsa DeLeon Garza.

More information is needed about Juan's family and more photos.

Refugio "Cuca" De Leon Pena

"Cuca" De Leon Pena was the eldest daughter of Pedro De Leon and Petra Rivera. She was so much older, she served as a second mother the the younger kids, and Cousin Mary Margaret Garcia says she learned a lot about life from tia Cuca.

She was born 23 Oct 1901 in Webb County, TX (which is where Laredo is, and where most of the other kids say they were from, Mirando City). There is one record of a Refugia Pena crossing the border from Mexico in 1913, at age 12, but it is unclear if this is she, because this person she was alone at the time and Cuca was born in the US, so why would she be crossing the border from Mexico into the US alone?

There is a 1910 census which shows a Refugio Pena, age 9, living in Guadalupe, TX with her mother listed as Anna Pena, and little brother Pedro, 4. Cuca has a brother Pedro, but her mother was Petra Rivera, so that may not be the right person.

In 1930 census, however, there is an entry in Harris County, TX for Refugio, age 26, Pedro Pena (spouse age 25), son Juan age 5, Gonzalo age 2, and Maria age 4 mos.

I cannot so far find records of her marriage to Pedro Pena.

Cuca had 5 children, her son Juan "Johnny" Pena was born in 1925, Gonzalo "Chango" b. 1927, Mary Pena b. 1929, and Jose "Joe" Pena year of birth unknown. Pedro "Pete" Pena, birth date unknown.

Cuca passed away in Harris County, in 1982 at age 81.