I got a monthly email from Genealogia del Norte de Mexico, so that site is not quite dead.

I took another look at it, and couldn’t find anything more than a single word, “password,” in English. My Spanish is pretty strong, but I’m sure I miss some subtle nuances, especially in technical passages. So I still hope to find an English-language genealogical website for Northern Mexico.

The webmaster at Genealogia also sent me a personal email saying he has two, or three more generations on my ancestor DIEGO ROMO de VIVAR. But he hasn’t come across with the data yet.

Is there anyone here working on the Mexican Revolution that can answer a question for me? My mother always told me her uncle was General Trinidad Rodriguez. My mother is still with me, but at 87, and with Alzheimer’s she’s not a reliable source anymore.

I remember her taking me as a teenager to meet Pancho Villa’s widow, Luz Corral de Villa, in Chihuahua. I believe I remember General Trinidad Rodriguez’s tomb was right in front of Luz’s house. My mother told me at the time that his headless corpse was interred there.

Last year, my sister and I went to Chihuahua to investigate our maternal heritage. We visited the Pancho Villa Museums in Chihuahua and Hidalgo del Parral. The museum in Parral is housed in my grandmother’s (Maria de las Nieves Porras) birth home. Villa was assassinated right outside her window. His Dodge crashed into a tree right in front of the stately house.

But, I found out there are TWO Generals Trinidad Rodrigues!
A moreno General Trinidad Rodriguez Quintanilla, who is not my relation, and a white General Trinidad Rodriguez, perhaps Rodriguez Montoya. Neither museum could shed any light on my question. They sell pictures of both generals, and say one Trinidad was an intimate friend of Pancho Villa’s, and in fact adopted Villa’s son after Pancho died. I suspect that is the Quintanilla general.

I haven’t found any birth record on either Rodriguez general, nor bio data more than a line, or two. Virtually nothing in encyclopedias. But there is a town in suburban Chihuahua, Chihuahua named after, I believe, my General Trini.

I have birth records on my mother’s grandfather, Jose Rodriguez Montoya, and his three sons. I suspect Trinidad is his fourth son, or brother. Jose struck it rich in the gold rush in the last part of the 19th century in Chihuahua, and had a ranch called Rancho Los Tres Hermanos.