Hi Gabrielle-

What a coincidence how we were both wondering the same thing about Felix Villagrana having a sister. I just got done telling my family how I had this feeling that Felix had a brother or sister or brothers and sisters; that our younger Villagrana generation did not know about.

I also wondered if Felix had other "children" we also did not know about or were not aware of...
We have all these unidentified relatives in our old family albums and my father was the only one in our immediate family who knew who they all were. My father, as you probably saw in my previous postings, had passed away in 1997. He told me once who many of them were, but being so young, I could not retain everything he said. Unfortunately, my mom suffers bouts of dementia, so it's hard for her to remember. I feel so bad how my father and I were parted for many years, but that's another story for another place and time!

Going back to what I was about to say earlier, I initially assumed that my great grandfather Felix must have been born somewhere between 1875-1880 in order to have his eldest child born in 1898. It was not until I went to the hall of records that I discovered Felix was actually born in 1850, which means he and his wife Apolinares had their eldest known child "Antonio" when Felix was 48 yrs old! It's hard to believe that someone would wait so long to have children... So it made me wonder if he had other children (during his younger years) that I wasn't aware of...

I have these pictures from my dad's old photo albums; Our family believes my dad mentioned how these were his father Antonio's cousins -Which tells me that Antonio's father "Felix" probably did have either a brother and/or sister or brothers and/or sisters who had children!

Just a side note: Antonio's cousins my father spoke of were light complected in their photos resembling Felix Villagrana. There are also dark complected people in a couple of vintage family wedding photos I have, who have the same darker complection as Felix's wife, my great grandmother Apolinares Reyes Villagrana. I'll go ahead and upload these 2 images/photos here, in just a moment...

Another thing too, was that I recall my dad telling us that we had ancestors and relatives who were in theater and/or actors. When I did research the descendants of my great grandfather Felix, I did discover that his great grandson is an actor and member of SAG (Screen Actor's Guild). I also learned he works in showbiz production, behind the scenes; We just met for the first time about 2 weeks ago!

Again I have so many relatives out there that my family lost touch with. It just so turns out that this relative of mine who is in the Screen Actors Guild ...HIS grandfather Andres (Andrew) Villagrana and my grandfather Antonio were brothers! Which means he and I have the same great grandfather "Felix Villagrana"!

I also researched more records on the internet, I found other Villagrana's (an older generation) who were in the same age bracket of my grandpa Antonio, who JUST LIKE my early ancestors, were: *(#6 is interesting!)

1. born and living in Zacatecas
2. Moved to and resided in Chihuahua, Mexico, around the same time as my ancestors.
3. They also seemed to border cross and emigrate to the U.S. at the same time as my ancestors.

4. They seemed to even live around the same area of E. Los Angeles, CA, at around the same time frame as my ancestors and relatives had lived. (The older and newer generations that is.)

5. I even noticed some Villagrana households- some of who I knew were direct decendents of Felix children...had even lived in the same area around the same time of when and where I grew up, in Pico Rivera, CA. Sadly, I wasn't even aware of this growing up-I was young and clueless :( lol!

I remember when I was very young, "this woman" came over out of the blue one day to our home. She knew so much; like just about everything about my family's heritage and genealogy. At the time I thought she was just a friend of my parent's or a very distant relative...I never saw her again...

Fast forward to now...

As it turns out, it just so happened that she had only lived the next street over and only a few blocks away from our home in Pico Rivera, CA...

After all these years, I barely discover who she was upon first searching my family genealogy about 4 months ago; I also learned that she was married to my great grandfather's (Felix) son "Andres (Andrew) Villagrana"! Her name was "Barbara Villagrana." She also went by "Bobby" according to her great, great grand daughter whom I found online earlier this year. I went to meet her and the rest of her family too, about a couple of weeks ago!

Not only did she have a thorough knowledge of our family history- she seemed to go way back in time too. When she came over that one day, I was trying so hard to keep up with everything she was saying because she was so like a walking encyclopedia with all this information and she spoke about things rather quickly. :)

Sadly I found out she passed away in 2007, taking all this vital information with her. So when I tried to talk to her descendants, a lot of what they said is sketchy as they too struggle to remember what she said!

Some of the other Villagrana households in Pico Rivera whom I'm not acquainted with, MAY have descended from perhaps the unknown brothers of Felix OR maybe not? Perhaps we just happen to have the same last name.

6. Get this, as I read their documents online, which were from around the time periods of between 1915 - late 1930's I believe, (I have to go back and verify) ...I saw that "THERE WERE INDEED VILLAGRANA'S WHO STATED "THEATER" AS AN OCCUPATION on their papers! These records were among the "The Declaration of Intent to Naturalize and The Declaration of Naturalization as well as The Census and Border Crossing documents- describing their entering and being in the U.S."

I am still researching who they descended from...but again, remember how my dad mentioned those relatives/his dad's cousins who were in acting? I really do believe Felix had siblings!

All this tells me that there is a huge Villagrana family out there that I'm not even aware of, whom I'm indirectly related to.

The Census records tell me that these different Villagrana households did not just have 2 or 3 children; they were more like basketball teams! I'm sorry I'm being silly. If I recall correctly, it was more like 7 or 8 children! I can imagine how many children their children had. They also had son's who would have carried down the Villagrana name.

It made me think how many Villagrana's out there I could be related to directly and indirectly. It used to be where I'd see another Villagrana in our town telephone book and I remember telling my mom as a little girl, but she'd just tell me that just because we had the same last name, it didn't mean we were related. It turns out that the ones in our town WERE descendants of these Villagrana's that were actors or in theater!

I recently came back from a trip to California where I went to look up and meet relatives I never met before. It was such a beautiful experience! I met about 6 different households of Villagrana's and descendants whom I just found I was related to including a long lost aunt I never knew existed, now in her mid 70's!

My father Manuel Villagrana and his 1/2 sister Cecilia Villagrana (Same father, different mother; see my photos I uploaded here on site) became separated or distanced while youths growing up and now after all these years I met her! It made me cry because before I left her home, she told me to wait and she took out a beautiful heart-shaped gold locket with engravings, from the 1940's that my father had given to her as a gift before they got separated and she gave it to me instead of passing it down to her own daughter like she intended.

The reason she gave it to me was because she knew how much I missed my father since he died and she told me "Now you have something that your father held in his hands when he was alive"! I thought that was just the most beautiful and sweetest thing!

She also said that my father had given it to her right after coming home from the war or service. (He was in the Army during WWII in the South Pacific, in Guadecanal and these other islands) So that really touched my heart so much...Someone in my family did suggest that perhaps the reason he had given her that locket was because while in the service, he received a Dear John letter from a girlfriend. I heard my father was devastated that this woman did not wait for him. The way it sounded was like he bought her this locket, which he held onto to give to her. My dad had no trouble with getting girlfriends. People told me he was so handsome that he had girls flocking around him, so I was surprised to hear he got a Dear John letter. LOL :)

I am still working on the Villagran/Villagrana tree but I'm stuck right now because I can't seem to go back any further than Felix Villagrana and the year 1850. Also, I can't seemed to find any more information about his wife Apolinares Reyes (also spelled Relles by her daughter).

The Villagrana genealogy record I posted online here is not complete. I am going to go back and add more people to it and post all that I know here. I know there are a lot of people missing whom I have no knowledge of.

Oh yes, Felix Villagrana's death record indicated that he lived to be 96 yrs old and was already widowed by the time of his death in 1946 in Los Angeles, CA. I also found out through another source that upon coming to Los Angeles, he obtained a "lot" or land and built his own house in East Los Angeles, CA. The house still stands today.

Oh, you were asking about his parents and where they were from? The record says that his parents were both from Zacatecas, Mexico. I was disappointed to find that the record obtained from Norwalk, CA, listed Felix father's name as "unknown" and his mother's name is listed as "unknown(Maria)". I didn't know if this meant her maiden surname was Maria or if her first name was Maria.

I hope all this helps...

-Alexis Villagrana : )

Wow, thank you so very much for your reply to my post! I really appreciate all the replies giving to me and I am learning so much...It's like putting pieces of a puzzle together. Is there a way to post photos to share?-are we allowed? I came across photos found of my ancestors such as my great grandparents on both sides. I have to say I was a little perplexed when I was reading their descriptions on their different documents found online. I began to wonder if I was reading about different people with the same name. Even different relatives give different accounts of the color of eyes my grandfather Antonio Villagran(a) had. I was told blue, than I was told green, then told hazel. Hope they weren't color blind, lol, but even documents gave different eye colors as time went by! This may be a silly question, but does eye color change as we mature?

I was so excited when I found photos of my great grandfather Felix Villagran(a) and his wife Apolinares Reyes Villagran(a). I even saw a different spelling of her name as being Relles. My great grandfather definitely looks European. His wife looks darker complected.

Interestingly, in relation with the comments posted, I've had many people approach me and tell me I look Mediterranean; I've even been approached by Native Americans and told they recognize Native American in me and the same thing with Afro-Americans too. Of course Spaniards recognizing I am also a Spaniard.

My late father Manuel Villagrana, whose parents were Antonio Villagran(a) from Zacatecas, Mexico and his mother Antonia (Delgado) Villagrana also from Mexico (I'm still verifying what part she was from)
had said that while he was overseas serving in World War II, he was yelled at by an angry Japanese man who called him a traitor because the man thought that my dad was half Japanese! Hmm-go figure!

So it is interesting to trace the steps of our ancestors!

-Alexis Villagrana

Thank you so much for your reply with all the information and links for me to read and study!!!

Yes, there are a lot of myths floating around out there... There was a rumour among the Villagrana family that we were related to Poncho Villa. It was also speculated that our name started off as being Villa and as time went by, the "gran" and the "a" were later added, hence making the speculation we were related.

I quickly found out that José Doroteo Arango Arámbula was better known by his pseudonym Francisco Villa or its hypocorism Pancho Villa.

It was later on that I was able to look at The Villagrana Family Crest-Coat of Arms sign my brother had purchased and view the origins of our name.

You know how in my post I mentioned about a Romo on my mom's side of my family being a Bishop or some spiritual person? Well a relative told me today that this Romo was a saint who has a shrine in Encarnacion de Diaz. So I just wanted to update...

I am still reading on all the information you provided but wanted to contact you back right away to thank you so very much for the wealth of information you provided me... I will definitely post back after reading all you provided!

-Alexis Villagrana