Dear Isidro

Don't give up. Here are a few dead ends that ended up not being dead ends.

Close to forty years of genealogy has brought many frustrations at times. I was stuck on some seemingly deadends that I thought would stay just that. My fathers ancestor Salvador Clemente de la Torre was a deadend for close to thirty years until I found a marriage dispensation that Claudia Casillas had posted on her Guadalajara dispensation index. I have found information in the information matrimonial that was not in the marriage record. A couple of times the marriage record ended in a deadend with the marriage record saying that the bride and groom had no blood relationship but I later found a dispensation stating that after they were married someone came forward and stated that they were indeed related and a dispensation was granted way after the marriage.

Another time I was searching for Duran in Zacatecas and the dates did not seem to match so I tossed many of my notes aside because the pieces of the puzzle did not fit. It turns out that the pieces were the correct pieces and most of the dates were correct but that my search for a certain marriage date threw everything off The situation was clarified when I found a document saying that the first five children were born before the parents were actually married. Because of the kids birthdates I had assumed that the parents couldn't have been the ones I was looking for since their marriage was so much later than five of the siblings.

Many many years ago I became stuck on my mother in laws lomelli line. I had thought that I had possibly found the parents to my mother in laws Lomeli ancestor. I was invited by Mike Gutierrez to meet with his genealogy group. Mike introduced me to Steven Hernandez and other dedicated genealogists. While they were positive and complimentary of my vast research, they pointed out that they disagreed with two of my possible conclusions. Though I knew that I had those lines in my tree only as a possibility it still hurt to hear that they could not be possible because of information that they had in their possession. It turned out that they were right on this Lomeli line and ii was deadend until a few years ago when I found a document listing a brother This document gave some information, clues to his father but no name. It wasn't until I tried to help you out with your Soria line that I came across a document that names the father of the brother. I took a break from looking up your information and found a document that I had been looking for many years. Since the previous document that I had found a decade ago stated that they were full brothers, the line has now been extended over a century to Carlo Lomelin. It turns out that I had unsuccessful searching through the brother because I had found too many marriages of someone with the brothers name and I had to put them aside since I could not tell which one was his brother. It turns out that the brother was married four times and the four marriages that name him are naming the same person. Their parents weren't married so it was only through the brothers records where he misrepresents his parents marital state by stating he is their legitimate son that I have been able to confirm the identity of the father.

This Lomeli line is very important because my previous success in researching the Lomeli lines had been through my ancestors. This new line is my mother In laws and since this is her maiden name it has added significance to her and her siblings I can now trace them to Carlo Lomellini.

The other line that the Orange County genealogists said wasn't possible because of their information I put aside for many years until I later took another look at it and found that the line that I had originally researched was possible and more probable than the line that they claimed. Remember to write down all your sources so you can go book and look at them later. Many times something that seems insignificant at the first reading becomes very significant on subsequent readings. One of the reasons that they had given for disagreeing with my proposed line was because I had mistranslated a word. Right away I agreed with them that I had mistranslated the word and tossed the line aside. It turns out that they were correct about the mistranslation but they were incorrect about its significance. It was a very significant term on subsequent readings and when combined with other information actually reinforces the possibility of the line that I was proposing. But it was only with the added information from another source that the term took on a new life. This line still hasn't been confirmed but it is supported by Jaime Holcombes work.

Good luck comes through hard work. Sometimes the good luck takes a long time. Sometimes it comes like an avalanche.
Good luck,
Rick A Ricci