Nancy,
 
I feel your pain. I'm still looking for my elusive GG grandfather Prudencio Olmos' birth record, still no luck, but the hunt is half the fun. In the process I have made many other discoveries about other family lines.
My other problem is that all of my family lines come from Nochistlan and it's so easy to get distracted. While searching for one family, I encounter many other family connections and lose the focus of the one I'm searching for at that one time.
To complicate things further, my husband's family is also from Nochistlan and I find our families co-mingling with each other all along the way.
So not only am I contending with my ancestors, I'm also having to answer to his ancestors, they are all calling to me and saying, come here, find me first.
Good luck Nancy and thanks Patty for your family tree that inspires all of us to keep going.
 
Saludos de San Jose,
Alicia

From: "nbperez@att.net"
To: research@lists.nuestrosranchos.org
Sent: Monday, August 15, 2011 6:18 PM
Subject: [Nuestros Ranchos] Patty's family tree

Believe me, after more than 10 years of patiently searching for my grandmother's name
and background and finding literally nothing,my patience is running out but I haven't
yet given up. She doesn't seem to exist in any records I've searched and I don't know her maiden name, so how to find her? She was born about 1892, I believe in Mexico, but have no proof. I am now researching the surnames of Guerrero, Sanchez, Flores, in Guadalajara, based on a family group photo from about 1908. I have looked for a marriage record (not found) for Francisco Sanchez Guerrero
as I am hoping he is my grandmother's father, which would lead to breaking down
my huge brick wall. You can see a photo of my grandmother, Alma Blanche holding a
baby, the Guerrero family photo with her seated in the center row, and a photo of Jesus Sanchez Guerrero. But due to an older age, I think his brother, Francisco
might be my grandmother's father and the man in the photo. To see the photos please go to the "latest images" link on the right side of the page.
Patty, thanks so much for your info but the names don't seem to match my searches.

Had you try looking for your mother´s christening record??? with a little
bit of luck you can find there her grand parents and where is she from, or
her marriage record can also contain that data.

I know its a very simple tip but it may help.

Good luck!

On Mon, Aug 15, 2011 at 8:18 PM, wrote:

> Believe me, after more than 10 years of patiently searching for my
> grandmother's name
> and background and finding literally nothing,my patience is running out but
> I haven't
> yet given up. She doesn't seem to exist in any records I've searched and I
> don't know her maiden name, so how to find her? She was born about 1892, I
> believe in Mexico, but have no proof. I am now researching the surnames of
> Guerrero, Sanchez, Flores, in Guadalajara, based on a family group photo
> from about 1908. I have looked for a marriage record (not found) for
> Francisco Sanchez Guerrero
> as I am hoping he is my grandmother's father, which would lead to breaking
> down
> my huge brick wall. You can see a photo of my grandmother, Alma Blanche
> holding a
> baby, the Guerrero family photo with her seated in the center row, and a
> photo of Jesus Sanchez Guerrero. But due to an older age, I think his
> brother, Francisco
> might be my grandmother's father and the man in the photo. To see the
> photos please go to the "latest images" link on the right side of the page.
> Patty, thanks so much for your info but the names don't seem to match my
> searches.

Perhaps this is obvious, but did your grandmother come to the US? If so, take a look at the US census records. These will give the country of birth, and a date of immigration. However, don't take the date as absolute, it could be a few years either way. The listed age may be correct, but again, do not assume it is unless you have some supporting evidence: I've seen dates as far as 10 years off for older people, such as in their 50s!

When you search the US census you may have to be creative when searching the last or first name. The census taken didn't always spell names correctly, and sometimes had real problems with non-American names. The ancestry.com indexes are OK, the LDS ones are better. The Heritage Quest indexes aren't nearly as useful.

Try searching for the first name and location only. Unfortunately, this tends to produce many results; a birth year range will narrow the list.

Something else to consider, is that who ever extracted the name for the census index may not have been able to read what was written, and therefore did not spell the name correctly.

From the dates you give, also look at the 1930 Mexican national census. I've used it a little, with mixed results. I've found a few people I didn't expect, and not found ones that should have been there.

Possibly, also obvious: look at all the baptismal records. In the early part of the 1900s, the Catholic Church started annotating baptismal records with marriage information. Also, matrimonial investigations will sometimes have references to the baptismal records. This seems to have been more common in the small towns, than in the few large ones I've looked at.

One of the suggestions made at the last meeting of the Nueva Galicia Genealogical Society for dealing with brick walls is to write down everything you know. This will do two things: (1) makes the gaps clear, and (2) possibly make suggestions for where to look or suggest conclusions that weren't apparent.

Sometimes following up on a hunch or guess may lead to success.

I know the frustration! Be persistent! And finally, sometimes it is just luck. It took me a long time to find Alejandra Saldana's family. The birth year I was given by her children was wrong (although the month and day was correct), the place of birth was wrong, and her father's age in the US census was 10 years off!

George Fulton
Pleasanton, CA