Dear Marge,

My great-great-grandfather Antonio Frias Jasso moved to Tepic in 1848,
shortly after my great-great grandmother Refugio Ruiz de Esparza died in
Aguascalientes while giving birth to my great-grandmother Josefa Frias
Esparza. Josefa, her brother Antonio and her sisters Refugio, Virginia and
Natalia grew up in Tepic. Then in 1870 my great-grandmother married Wilhelm
L. Strecker, a German engineer. Three of their daughters were born in
Tepic. Wilhelm Strecker and Josefa Frias moved to Guatemala City in 1878,
where their son Guillermo was born in 1879. That child, Guillermo Strecker
Frías, was my grandfather. One of three daughters, María Teresa Strecker
Cabral, was my mother. I was also born in Guatemala, but now live in the
United States. That, in a nutshell, is where my Mexican ancestry starts. I
have traced the Ruiz de Esparza all the way back to Lope Ruiz de Esparza and
two generations before him. He arrived in Mexico City from Pamplona, Spain
in 1593.

My great-grandmother Josefa Frias Esparza lived in Tepic for approximately
31 years. I've found her family records without any difficulty, some at the
Cathedral in Tepic, others at the Archivo de la Sagrada Mitra de Guadalajara
and the rest at the Archivo Historico del Estado de Nayarit. My wife and I
have done extensive genealogical research on that side of the family,
including fact-finding trips to Tepic in 2003 and 2004, to Aguascalientes in
2006 and of course to Guatemala for many year, where we have close
relatives.

I've seen the surname Najar in several documents, but not in genealogical
records. Unfortunately, I don't have any relatives with that surname, so
I'm afraid I cannot be of any help in that department. Sorry Marge.

Regards,
Bill Figueroa