It started with a simple scribble on a piece of college ruled paper in 1997.
My grandfather, Guillermo, passed away two years before that scribble. My great grandmother, Gaspar, died three years before. My great grandfather, Aparicio died four years before.
With each death, I found myself surrounded by people I hadn't seen in years (except for Gaspar's...I didn't make it to Hermosillo, Mexico for that one). Many of whom I didn't recognize or hadn't even known existed.
These are people I could have passed on the streets and I would never have known we shared DNA. Yes, a few shared familiar features--the Gamez eyes (big, brown, expressive), Alvarez ears (huge!), a musical ear or artistic talent, similar voices or smiles, the same gait, booming laugh, or vocal quirks. How much of this was chance? How much of this was DNA?
I scribbled out a very simple family tree starting with myself and working my way back. It didn't go very far back. Me, my parents, my grandparents and the great grandparents I knew of, as I wasn't even sure of those names or even many birth dates. I was surprised at just how much I didn't know I didn't know. A good number of the older generations had already gone long before I even thought to ask questions. At that point, I was sure family secrets, family stories, both funny and tragic, likely died with them. I decided to start digging for answers before anyone else died.
This was before Google made my life soooo much easier. This was before Ancestry.com and the little leaf hints. I am thankful for my stubbornness. I am thankful for my determined and *slightly* obsessive nature. Unanswered questions drive me up the flipping wall. If I need to know something, I will keep going until I find a satisfactory answer. That determination has led me through 20 years of frustration, anger, incredible highs, brick walls, breakthroughs, mysteries, discoveries and more. I've expanded my family tree exponentially since that 20 year old scribble...and learned enough to fill a library ... or at least a large book or two, I'm sure.
Maternally, I've taken the tree back to my 5th great grandparents, Antonio Montes Vidal and Josefa Durazo; and Juan Pablo Huandurraga and his wife, Maria Juana Robledo in 1700's Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. DNA has connected me to a distant cousin who shares one of the same 5th Great Grandmothers. My paternal line goes back to my 7th Great Grandparents, Joseph Zoto and his wife Bernarda Chaparro (born abt. 1720). Their daughter, my 6th great grandmother, Juana Zoto, was baptized on 30 December 1749. In that record, Juana referred to as a "mulata." What does that mean? She was considered a mulatto. So, I've learned that I do have connections to Africa and DNA testing has confirmed what I've found.
I've learned about family connections I had no idea existed. connected with distant cousins through sharing what I've found. This hobby has been eye-opening, and at times an emotional roller coaster. You learn about someone's life and you glimpse it in its entirety. There's a beginning, a middle, an end. Some lives are abrupt and tragic. Others lives could be easily turned into a mini-series or series of novels. Each life, a story. Each life in a way is a piece of my life, too.
With my marriage to DH in 2006, and the births of our children in 2010 and 2013, I added entire new sets of branches to my family tree--each reaching back (on paper and records) over 10 generations. Let me blow your mind. When you reach back into the past and document your tree, you expand it with each generation found. Eventually, when you go back 10 generations, YOU are (possibly) a DIRECT descendant of 1022 people--if you want to get technical, numerically that should be the case, but often family trees...have a habit of merging...the branches kind of loop back...relatives married relatives.
All of this time doing research has essentially turned me into a bit of a genealogy detective. I find it thrilling to solve a mystery. I've documented family trees for three of my closest friends, taking those trees back to Europe at various points--one in the early 1600s--pretty darn close to Salem, MA; to Poland, to Ireland, to England, to France. Finding historical documents is a high like no other! Passport applications! Naturalization paperwork! Military records, Census Records! Death Certificates! BIRTH CERTIFICATES! I currently have two "cases" I'm involved in at the moment. Both involve adoption and an attempt to connect someone to a biological family. (Update: one case is ongoing, and likely will be as the link to the mystery has died...and the other case was solved in an unexpected way--more on that later.)
That's the core of what I do. I'm going to share some discoveries and offer advice here and there. :) Enjoy! --Miele
These are people I could have passed on the streets and I would never have known we shared DNA. Yes, a few shared familiar features--the Gamez eyes (big, brown, expressive), Alvarez ears (huge!), a musical ear or artistic talent, similar voices or smiles, the same gait, booming laugh, or vocal quirks. How much of this was chance? How much of this was DNA?
I scribbled out a very simple family tree starting with myself and working my way back. It didn't go very far back. Me, my parents, my grandparents and the great grandparents I knew of, as I wasn't even sure of those names or even many birth dates. I was surprised at just how much I didn't know I didn't know. A good number of the older generations had already gone long before I even thought to ask questions. At that point, I was sure family secrets, family stories, both funny and tragic, likely died with them. I decided to start digging for answers before anyone else died.
This was before Google made my life soooo much easier. This was before Ancestry.com and the little leaf hints. I am thankful for my stubbornness. I am thankful for my determined and *slightly* obsessive nature. Unanswered questions drive me up the flipping wall. If I need to know something, I will keep going until I find a satisfactory answer. That determination has led me through 20 years of frustration, anger, incredible highs, brick walls, breakthroughs, mysteries, discoveries and more. I've expanded my family tree exponentially since that 20 year old scribble...and learned enough to fill a library ... or at least a large book or two, I'm sure.
Maternally, I've taken the tree back to my 5th great grandparents, Antonio Montes Vidal and Josefa Durazo; and Juan Pablo Huandurraga and his wife, Maria Juana Robledo in 1700's Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. DNA has connected me to a distant cousin who shares one of the same 5th Great Grandmothers. My paternal line goes back to my 7th Great Grandparents, Joseph Zoto and his wife Bernarda Chaparro (born abt. 1720). Their daughter, my 6th great grandmother, Juana Zoto, was baptized on 30 December 1749. In that record, Juana referred to as a "mulata." What does that mean? She was considered a mulatto. So, I've learned that I do have connections to Africa and DNA testing has confirmed what I've found.
I've learned about family connections I had no idea existed. connected with distant cousins through sharing what I've found. This hobby has been eye-opening, and at times an emotional roller coaster. You learn about someone's life and you glimpse it in its entirety. There's a beginning, a middle, an end. Some lives are abrupt and tragic. Others lives could be easily turned into a mini-series or series of novels. Each life, a story. Each life in a way is a piece of my life, too.
With my marriage to DH in 2006, and the births of our children in 2010 and 2013, I added entire new sets of branches to my family tree--each reaching back (on paper and records) over 10 generations. Let me blow your mind. When you reach back into the past and document your tree, you expand it with each generation found. Eventually, when you go back 10 generations, YOU are (possibly) a DIRECT descendant of 1022 people--if you want to get technical, numerically that should be the case, but often family trees...have a habit of merging...the branches kind of loop back...relatives married relatives.
All of this time doing research has essentially turned me into a bit of a genealogy detective. I find it thrilling to solve a mystery. I've documented family trees for three of my closest friends, taking those trees back to Europe at various points--one in the early 1600s--pretty darn close to Salem, MA; to Poland, to Ireland, to England, to France. Finding historical documents is a high like no other! Passport applications! Naturalization paperwork! Military records, Census Records! Death Certificates! BIRTH CERTIFICATES! I currently have two "cases" I'm involved in at the moment. Both involve adoption and an attempt to connect someone to a biological family. (Update: one case is ongoing, and likely will be as the link to the mystery has died...and the other case was solved in an unexpected way--more on that later.)
That's the core of what I do. I'm going to share some discoveries and offer advice here and there. :) Enjoy! --Miele
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| A branch of my family, The Rivera/Grijalva/Quijada Family, Arizona, Circa 1920. |
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