The response to my inquiry on Defunciones has been very helpful and enlightening - y'all are awesome to enter the discussion and share your knowledge. I plan to take all of your comments and compile a list (cheat sheet) to go with my notations/extractions. This has been a terrific learning experience. Thanks again to all of you.
Natalie in VA
Around 2,000 genealogists who are reported to have attended this year's National Genealogical Society (NGS) Conference --- held last week in Richmond, Virginia --- were offered a preview of the forthcoming revamped search interface for the FamilySearch site.
Family History Library representatives at their booth now project the revamped site launch to be THIS FALL.
The new system integrates information from the presently disparate databases (IGI, Pedigree Resource and Ancestral Files, etc.) and will feature linking to digitizes records.
And, even though only a small portion of the Library's vast holdings will be available when the site relaunches, content will expand rapidly and record IMAGES will become available online soon.
Efrain Conrique
San Diego, California
I also use another translation site. It is Freetranslation.com I have found it easy to use. Like Babelfish it has its limitations. If you want a good translation, it is better to keep your sentences simple. It seems to confuse more intricate sentences. Here is an example of translation:
Utilizo también otro sitio de la traducción. Es Freetranslation com que yo lo ha encontrado fácil de utilizar. Como Babelfish tiene sus limitaciones. Si usted quiere una traducción buena, sea preferible mantener sus oraciones sencillas. Parece confundir las oraciones más complejas. Aquí está un ejemplo de la traducción:
In reading my book about colonial Spain, the early days of Mexico, I came
upon something that explains why we Mexicans like to have all our family not
just living near us, but in our homes, as well. We see families shopping
together, not just mom and dad and the kids, but grandma and grandpa, too.
We visit each others homes and there's aunts and uncles, with chairs lining
the walls so everyone can watch tv together while dinner is cooking. We're
there for family and depend on one another in droves!
Well, this has its roots in Mediterranean European countries, Spain,
Portugal, France, and Italy. I know my husband's French roots well and it's
family, family, family with every baptism, birth, wedding, funeral,
graduation, sports event, you name it. Strong family ties that brings us to
live in the same town together, across the street, down the street, helping
with each other's yardwork, housework, etc. Try to distance yourself from
this, move away and have some privacy, as is the way in modern United States
society, forget it! It's impossible!
The tradition of a head of household or land owner taking in dependents who
lived with them, shared the land, etc. was transplanted to the Americas,
such as in early Mexico. Each conquistador was given land and he brought
over all his family, friends and neighbors from Spain so they could continue
to live in Mexico as they had in Spain, close to one another, working and
living together, sharing in the money earned and the food provided. And
it's still that way. I can see why the ranchos were basically made up of
family groups, this is how they lived.
Corrine
Beginning now through June 6th (D-Day),
Ancestry.com will make its entire U.S. Military Collection free to the public. For more information on Ancestry.com's U.S. Military Collection, visit www.ancestry.com/military.
In order to see the new titles added to Ancestry for this military release, go to www.ancestry.com/military
and view titles by war/conflict.
Kitty Cortez
Rocklin, CA
For years Rich and I have been trying to read the cause of death on my grandmother's death certificate. She died at O'Conner Hospital in San Jose, CA in 1924. We contacted O'Conner Hospital, but they were unable to read the handwriting and their records were stored in the basement and of course they were not able to obtain them. I then took the certificate to our own doctor and asked him if he could determine my grandmother's cause of death. It also stumped him because of the handwriting. That is when it hit me, who can read a doctor's handwriting, but a pharmacist? I took it to our local Pharmacy and the pharmacist was able to translate it to be an inflamation of the stomach lining which was more than likely brought on by the 1918 flu epidemic. She came to California with my father and his brother because her infant daughter, husband and father all died in the 1918 flu epidemic. All this time we assumed she died of diabetes since we have diabetes in our family. This same pharmacy had a bi-lingual pharmacist that helped us out with our death records out of Mexico. Check out your local pharmacy for help with your death documents. They are usually more than happy to help you.
Kitty Cortez
Rocklin, CA
I have been reading my book, Land and Society in Colonial Mexico, by
Francois Chevaliar, about the origins of the great haciendas in Mexico. I
found another passage in it I thought I would share, because it is the
earliest use of the term "vecino," and which helped me in understanding the
term better. Though, I realize, words and how they are applied over
generations can change.
"The next groups of Spanish farmers did not appear until the second half of
the sixteenth century, along the roads leading to the great northern mines.
Starting in 1555, settlers in the town of San Miguel were each given a *
vecindad*, or allotment, by the viceroy's representative, either in person
or in his name. The grant carried with it the title of *vecino*, or
burgher, and usually consisted of a building lot, a garden, one or two
caballerias of harvest land, and a sheep pasture located within a six-mile
square surrounding the town. In exchange, the settlers promised to take up
residence on their land, not to sell their grant for at least ten years
(later reduced to six), and to maintain a horse and weapons."
What this shows me, is that in translating Mexican and Spanish documents and
records, just finding the English words is not necessarily going to bring an
understanding of the record, the person's life, etc. I think, as
genealogists, we are also a bit of the historian, weaving together the story
of our ancestors lives, translating words that are placed into the context
within which they were written. We may imagine the persons named in the
record, assembled in the courtroom or office, or in the church and that may
help us, as well. A vecino, like any of the terms we find in our searching,
such as artesano or filarmonico, may mean something different when placed
within the time period, the society, the family, etc. where these terms were
familiar.
Corrine
Has anyone else seen these maps that date from the 1500s? I did a search on the website of the Leventhal Map Collection at the Boston Public Library, and I clicked on the map of Mexico for 1722. You can open them full screen, and move the image around and zoom in. Even with my slow dial-up, they opened up with such detail, and I could print out the enlarged sections exactly as I saw them full screen.
The maps also have comments to describe particular features of each map such as the blurb below;
"A notable feature which does not appear on the original 1703 edition, is the delineation of the tracks of Spanish galleons showing their approach from Spain along the north coast of South America, with portions of the fleet going to Cartagena (present-day Colombia), Porto Bello (Panama), and Vera Cruz (Mexico). After loading their cargo, the ships returned to Havana (Cuba), where they congregated, sailing in mass north along the Florida coast, taking advantage of the Gulf Stream on the return voyage to Spain. Interestingly, these Spanish colonial shipping routes established patterns of interaction that have influenced 20th century migrations. Ironically, Florida, which was on the periphery of the Spanish empire and served only as a supply outpost for returning fleets, is now the magnet for immigration coming from the former the Spanish colonial empire".
Emilie
Port Orchard, WA ---
Ed,
My mother and great aunts have shared many factual stories about hardships in these very rural areas. Where my family comes from is Tlachichila Zacatecas in the municipality of Nochistlan. Mom says that when she was a little girl in the ranchos outside of Tlachichila there were no doctors in Tlachichila or Nochistlan, the nearest MD's were in Teocaltiche or Aguascalientes. Mom is 82 so this must have been between 1930 and 1940.
Mom had a brother who died as a result of an accident, a stone wall fell on him and crushed him in the chest. There were no vehicles and no paved roads. Mom said that the men of the town constructed a cot and between several men they carried him to Aguascalientes on foot. It took them over a week to carry the cot/stretcher on foot. As they traveled the word would spread and they would get more men on the way to help and every night they would spend the night at some good samaritan's home who would feed them all.
Can you imagine the pain her brother endured over several days and can you imagine the dedication of those who carried him day after day. Just like this story I'm sure there are many more similar or even more gruesome.
For the most part, people died due to lack of medical care.
Alicia
----- Original Message ----
From: Edward Serros
To: research@lists.nuestrosranchos.org
Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 9:32:12 PM
Subject: [Nuestros Ranchos] Defunciones translations
I agree with the translations but I am sure that in many of the cases they do not really tell you what the person really died of. I have reviewed death records from the late 1700's and the 1800's in Jalisco and Zacatecas and what strikes me are the epidemics of "fiebre," which can represent any number of infectious diseases---viral or bacterial. I have no idea of what the diagnosis was when they refer to "cerebral" or "dolor" or whatever. Furthermore the funeral record is being recorded by a priest, who has little or no knowledge of medicine.
I think it is safe to say that a large proportion of the population unfortunately died of infectious diseases for which there was no treatment available at that time. Can you imagine no antibiotic therapy for pneumonia, ear infections, throat infections, skin infection, infected wounds, tuberculosis, lepropsy, etc.? Can you imagine no surgical therapy for appendicitis or cholecystitis (gall stone attack) or heart disease? Can you imagine giving birth to a child where there was no treatment for eclampsia (toxemia) of pregnancy or where there were no surgical options for birth of a child who was not going to be delivered in the usual (vaginal) manner. Can you imagine no treatment for high blood pressure or diabetes?
Bottom line: it was a different world. Take the diagnosis of death with a grain of salt, to say the least.
I know that there are other physicians that are part of this group who may wish to comment on the above
Edward Serros, MD
Hello All,
In my searching I have had trouble finding records of marriages and baptisms
in Pinos, Zac (AKA Sierra de Pinos) and surrounding ranches and haciendas.
Does anyone know where these records may be found? I've heard rumors that
they may actually exist as part of church records somewhere in Jalisco.
Please Help!
Regards, Rodolfo Trujillo
Hi everyone! My name is Marina Talamantes (Riley) I just joined and I am very excited to be here. I just started researching my lineage, I only have three generations so far, but hopefully I'll make it to my local family history center here in Charlotte NC soon. My family is from Valparaiso Zacatecas (this is where my parents married (Familia Talamantes-Miramontes)) and their families were from La Junta de los Rios Jalisco (Familia Miramontes-Guzman ) and Minillas Jalisco (Familia Caldera-Simental) and from somewhere in Jalisco Familia Talamantes-Hernandez.
Unfortunately it doesn't seem like my living relatives know much about their ancestry, sad to say, but I hope to change that.
Any tips for beginners are welcome!
Marina
Arturo ,
I was using an asterid in the name part and I can no longer do that .
Welester
> To: research@lists.nuestrosranchos.org> From: arturo.ramos2@gmail.com> Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 06:10:13 -0700> Subject: [Nuestros Ranchos] No more % in IGI> > > Linda:> > I noticed that some of the searches I was able to do before with wildcards are no longer possible as well. I think they have further restricted wildcard searches probably because it was taxing their servers too much.> > I will try to play around with it over the next couple of weeks, but in the meantime, I do know that as long as you have a batch number, you can do whatever wildcards you want. That makes the Films database with batch numbers all the more important.> > For any new members who are not familiar with the Films database on Nuestros Ranchos, I encourage you to try it. Many members spenta great number of hours putting it together. Instructions are on the Nuestros Ranchos User Guide that you can download from the "Reference Materials" files section.> -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- > Nuestros Ranchos Research Mailing List> > To post, send email to:> research(at)nuestrosranchos.org> > To change your subscription, log on to:> http://www.nuestrosranchos.org
_________________________________________________________________
Change is good. See what’s different about Windows Live Hotmail.
www.windowslive-hotmail.com/learnmore/default.html?locale=en-us&ocid=TX…
I know they have been doing updating on the IGI on familysearch.com. Today I found it will no longer accept
% in place of a given name, this has never happened before! Is anyone else now having this problem and if so, how did you correct it?
Linda in Everett
Regarding the causes of death in records, and I have only looked in civil
registers, I think the doctors did not use the same diagnostic terminology
that we are familiar with today. For example, tuberculosis was called
"consumption," even when my mother was a child in this country. Also,
without knowledge of cancers, various diseases, etc. I imagine doctors would
have had blanket terms to cover all bases, because they did not have the
knowledge, technology, etc. to determine true causes of death. Holding up
their hands, they might have said the cause of death was "fiebre," because
the patient had a fever, even though it was a symptom of another illness the
doctor or family members had no knowledge of at that time. Another example,
what was once called "senility," is now called dementia and alzheimer's.
Just imagine those days, the family gathered around as someone died in their
bed at home, sweating from fever, etc. The eldest son, if it was his father
who died, would go to report the death, saying his father died of fever, or
whatever the common, laymen terms were for various illnesses.
"Hydrophobia," was what they called rabies, which I have found records of
children dying of that, a horrible, horrible death. One woman told me she
knew someone who died of that many, many years ago. She said they had
tied the patient to the bed, as she thrashed about in fever before she died.
As far as the life expectancy having gone up, there is some things to bear
in mind, as was mentioned. People died of things we do not die of
today, and we are also more immune to illnesses than generations ago. We
take vitamins, fertilize the soil to make our food more nutritious, etc. We
have better clothing that protects us from adverse weather conditions.
There were epidemics, because there wasn't any knowledge as to how diseases
spread, that they were contagious, how to prevent them in the first place.
Personal hygiene, proper handling of food, etc. was not taught, nor
enforced. Wooden planks for preparing a meal or chopping meat was not
looked at as bacteria-ridden. What else were they to use, anyways, formica?
I think to determine more accurately the rise in life expectancy, we must
look at what age people were when they died of natural causes, not illness,
injury, or snakebite, etc. What would the age difference be then? But, I
guess what "life expectancy" really means, is how old can a person "expect"
to live in their day? Long ago, a person could expect to live into their
forties, barring snake bite, scorpion bite, drowning, rabies, malaria,
smallpox, tuberculosis, yellow fever, gunshot, sword wound, infection,
burns, pneumonia, and on and on. Today, a person can expect to live into
their seventies, barring bee sting, pit bull attack, gang shooting, car
accident, air plane wreck, terrorist attack, bombing, cancer, suicide, and
on and on.
Corrine
Who will fall asleep one night and never wake up, when she is too old
to mind anymore!
Not everyone owns the same word processing or publishing software (Microsoft Word, Corel's WordPerfect, etc.) or the same fonts you may choose to use in your files. So unless you know that all of your recipients have systems compatible with yours, converting and sending documents as PDF files may make it easier for the recipients to open and read the documents as you intended them to be seen.
Adobe PDF is the global standard ued by government agencies, publications, law firms, genealogists, and others to distribute and view documents that are print-ready. This format preserves the fonts, images, colors, graphics, and formatting of an original application file. It is platform-independent and can be viewed, shared, and printed by Windows, UNIX, and Macintosh, and OS/2 Warp users.
Adobe Acrobat (newest Version 8.0) is a computer document sharing program that lets you convert documents, family trees, pedigree and descendants' charts, etc. into the Portable Document Format (PDF) so anyonre who has a copy of Adobe Reader software can see the files as they were designed, without having to use the likely different fonts and inadequate graphics used by the reader's computer. It is easy to use and very powerful and offers all the traditional document publication features such a text search and cut and paste.
Adobe Reader is a must have free software that lets you open, view, search, and print Portable Document Format (PDF) files. To date more than 500 millon copies of Adobe Reader have been distributed worldwide on 23 platforms and 26 languages.
Adobe Reader 8 can be downloaded free at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
Happy data sharing!
Efrain
San Diego, California
I had trouble trying to acces Efrain Conrique´s file. I simply can´t open it. What could I been doing wrong?
Hello,
I want to introduce myself. My name is Alexey Valdivia and I just joined at this forum.
I am looking for any information about these families:
+ From Tuxcueca, Jalisco:
Sosa, Oregel, Gomez Gutierrez and Cabezas (Maternal side).
In my research, I was not able to find information about my great-grandfathers:
Ramon Gomez and Tiburcia Gutierrez Cabezas.
Luis Sosa and Natividad Oregel
I am looking for also any information about my grandfathers from Villa Nueva, Zacatecas:
Brigido Valdivia Valdivia and Angela Reyes.
Thanks
>
> Esperanza,
Your story reminded me of an almost identical experience when I was about
the same age--14. I got a bad case of the flu and couldn't even get out of
bed. After a day or two, my mother's comadre came over and rubbed an
ointment just like the one you described all over my torso and they wrapped
Saran wrap around me. I slept for about 24 hours and woke up completely
cured too! There was no chanting or praying in my case, but the grainy
greasy ointment worked.
Maria
Message: 10
> Date: Fri, 18 May 2007 19:22:17 EDT
> From: Latina1955@aol.com
> Subject: Re: [Nuestros Ranchos] Defunciones translations
> To: research@nuestrosranchos.org
> Message-ID:
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
> I remember when I was 14 and in Mexico, I became
> frightfully ill...something
> related to my stomach, as I had constant diarrhea and lost an enormous
> amount of weight (which suited me just fine).
>
> Anyway, I was in Tepatilan, Jalisco visiting elders from my "adopted"
> family...and I came down with a crazy fever (half my body was ice cold and
> the
> other hot), and I had become somewhat delirious. The "elder women" were
> called
> in to help...and I remember that they rubbed all over my body what
> appeared
> to be lard mixed with salt (it was grainy). Then they wrapped me up in
> blankets whereupon I slept for more than 24 hours. As I was falling
> asleep, I
> heard their prayers mixed with chanting...and when I awoke...I was
> completely
> cured.
>
> Years later, as I was talking to an MD, he thought this cure
> fascinating...he said that Native Americans have been using "fat" to
> insulate the body for
> years, and that it made sense to use "fat" to try to break a fever.
> Sometimes
> old "remedios" did indeed work!
>
> Esperanza
> Chicagoland area
>
>
http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.mexico.zacatecas/1842/mb…
joseph
====================
Joseph Puentes
http://H2Opodcast.com (Environment Podcast)
http://H2Opodcast.blogspot.com/ (Blog for above)
http://NuestraFamiliaUnida.com (Latin American History Podcast)
I have been reading a film of DEFUNCIONES (a document form I had never bothered to read before), and had questions on some of the causes of death, which were not listed in my small dictionary. Can anyone provide a description for any of the following terms?
- affecion organica del corazon
- congeston cerebral
- eclampsia or eclamsia (I think these are the same thing; this seems to occur in newborns, mostly under 6 hours after birth); I am aware of a condition in pregnant women called pre- clampsia (not sure of spelling)
- entesites
- fiebre poludica
- los ferina
- hemotisis
- lepra
- parto
- pulmonia
- pristula maligna
- piguete/piquete de alacran
These spellings are based on what I figured I was reading - not all of the handwriting was easily read.
These causes of death were on records from the year 1900.
LDS film # 1081927: Registro Civil, Valparaiso, Zacatecas, 1900-1903
FYI: I was searching for persons surnamed CASTRO and DUEÑAS
Thanks,
Natalie in VA
I dont know if you all got the news but On April 29, 2007 at 4:30 PM. Princess Letizia of Asturias gave birth to her second child with Prince Felipe. They named her Sofia after her grandmother Queen Sofia of Spain. She currently is my 19th cousin through the Mendozas of 1530's Mexico as far as my grandfather states since he's been doing genealogy for a longer time than myself. Is anyone else related to the Hurtado de Mendoza family? I have checked and they do descend from the Kings of Navarra.
I would like to introduce myself to the group. My name is Rodolfo Trujillo,
however most just call me Rod. I live between Dallas and Fort
Worth in Texas. I've been working on my families ancestry since 2002 and
would say that I've been quite blessed to find even a small portion of my
families history. I get very excited every time I uncover the slightest bit
of information. For about two years, I was able to execute my search full
time. Since then, I've been doing it as time permits. I look forward to
getting to know people in this group and hopefully find a primo to two.
I have recently added my research in the GEDCOM section. 1793 People in 613
families.
Regards,
Rodolfo Trujillo
I dont know if you all got the news but On April 29, 2007 at 4:30 PM. Princess Letizia of Asturias gave birth to her second child with Prince Felipe. They named her Sofia after her grandmother Queen Sofia of Spain. She currently is my 19th cousin through the Mendozas of 1530's Mexico as far as my grandfather states since he's been doing genealogy for a longer time than myself. Is anyone else related to the Hurtado de Mendoza family? I have checked and they do descend from the Kings of Navarra.
I dont know if you all got the news but On April 29, 2007 at 4:30 PM. Princess Letizia of Asturias gave birth to her second child with Prince Felipe. They named her Sofia after her grandmother Queen Sofia of Spain. She currently is my 19th cousin through the Mendozas of 1530's Mexico as far as my grandfather states since he's been doing genealogy for a longer time than myself. Is anyone else related to the Hurtado de Mendoza family? I have checked and they do descend from the Kings of Navarra.
The article below is from the latest Rootsweb Review. My new computer didn't have a floppy drive and much of my data and photos is on diskettes. I bought an external floppy drive, but haven't learned how to hook it up and transfer the info to the CDs. Now I wonder if it wouldn't do any good to transfer my info to CDs. Does anyone think memory sticks are better?
Emilie
Port Orchard, WA --
More on Archival CDs
By Ron Mesnard
Last edition's suggestion on buying archival quality CDs made of 24k
gold (rather than with dyes) was both accurate and useful. Many
persons believe once their valuable data is on a CD it will be good
forever; however, it will not.
Old-style CDs that burned pits on metal foil to record the data have
the best life. I have gold foil CDs that are about ten years old that
read fine the last time I accessed one. I also have eight- to
nine-year-old new-style disks that read fine. The newer media burns
much faster and is much cheaper. If you are using non-archival-quality
CDs, remember that the dye used for normal CDs and DVDs is photo
sensitive. Any light, but especially direct sunlight, can dramatically
age the dye on a disk. Keep this in mind when you use and store your
disks. One other advantage of the foil disks is that if they get too
scratched or the plastic clouds with age making them unreadable, they
can be resurfaced. I do not think this helps a normal CD-R.
My experience with CDR-Ws suggests to me that they are a great idea
that never worked out. Use memory sticks instead. They are as reliable
as the CDR-Ws are not.