Under Genealogy.com Research guidelines, Deciphering Documents and 
Handwriting there are a few articles:

1) Reading Handwriting
http://www.genealogy.com/00000010.html

Towards the top of this document it says:
"Watch out for double S's. The first S in a pair was often written to 
look like a lower case F."

2) Guidelines for Reading Old Documents
http://www.genealogy.com/68_sperry.html

The material at Genealogy.com is a good read if you have a chance to 
browse over there:
http://www.genealogy.com/developing_research_skills.html

Good luck,
Angie

--- In ranchos@yahoogroups.com, Joseph Puentes  wrote:
> 
> I was watching a documentary about American Slave Narratives. In one 
of 
> the stories it was talking about slaves being sold at auction and 
they 
> showed a bill of sale. the time period was about 1850. In the bill of 
> sale at the bottom it spell "witness" like this:
> 
> "witnefs"
> 
> now this reminds me of the times I've seen Castañeda spelled Caftañeda
> 
>

Serros/Cerros

Is anyone researching these surnames?

joseph

Opps... I already took the discussion offline.  Here is a recap:
 HELLO!!! ......  ;-)

Per the discussion of books, I have the second part of "Historia de 
Totatiche"  I am trying to get my hands on this book, the first 
part.  Here is a little write up on that book - 
http://www.totatichejalisco.com/Historia/HistoriaLibroEsteban.htm

Esteban Valdés Salazar is the Totatiche town historian.  He has also 
written some genealogy books.  Since I am distantly related to him, I 
generaly will purchase his books when I can.  Especially convienent 
to me when he writes on the ancestors we share.  His sister, 
Inocencia Valdés Salazar, is the town historin for Momax.  I have one 
of her books too.  Especially convienent to me that Momax and 
Totatiche are my target areas of research. ;-)

If you go to this library website - http://melvyl.cdlib.org/

Do a search by author last name of "Valdés Salazar".  And both his 
and her books will be shown.

Good Luck,
Angie

---

Congratulations.  Blood relatives are forever, no
matter how many generations have past.

Alberto Duarte
Santa Maria, California

--- Joseph Puentes  wrote:

> Donde va hacer la fiesta?. . .piñata, tamales,
> mariachis, tragitos y 
> bailando.
> 
> what a happy day it is! For more than a 100 years or
> maybe more than 200 
> years your families lost each other. People that
> loved and cared for 
> each other but through circumstances got lost and
> forgotten. Now they 
> are united and hopefully will never lose track of
> each other again.
> 
> arturoramos2 wrote:
> 
> >Angie:
> >
> >We are most definitely related.  Joseph Cayetano
> Grano's daughter 
> >Rita Margarita married Pedro Gonzalez.  I am their
> eighth generation 
> >descendant via my father's paternal line.  I will
> definitely take a 
> >look at your file.  I have Covarrubias and Jara
> interwoven throughout 
> >my genealogy so I am sure there is a connection
> there as well.
> >
> >Do you know how I would go

Wow!  Thanks.....the library thing sounds good.  I'll look around.  I live here in Southern California, San Gabriel Valley, so I'd have to check.

But thanks again!
> 
> From: "Natalie" 
> Date: 2005/07/12 Tue PM 02:52:26 EDT
> To: ranchos@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [ranchos] Speaking Spanish
> 
> 

My Spanish is terribly rusty - It may have been my first language,

I'm not sure, but when I started school it was English all the time,

and pretty much lost my ability to communicate in Spanish, and as I

grew older there seemed to be fewer opportunities. Regretably, I

didn't raise my children bilingually, though I thought about it, and

I tried to infuse the Mexican culture when I could. I lived across

the country from family, so that didn't help either.

Anyway - the purpose of this message was really to pass on the

following bit of information: The University of Richmond (VA) is

offering a continuing(adult)education class of Spanish Immersion - it

will be held in

My Spanish is terribly rusty - It may have been my first language, 
I'm not sure, but when I started school it was English all the time, 
and pretty much lost my ability to communicate in Spanish, and as I 
grew older there seemed to be fewer opportunities. Regretably, I 
didn't raise my children bilingually, though I thought about it, and 
I tried to infuse the Mexican culture when I could. I lived across 
the country from family, so that didn't help either.
Anyway - the purpose of this message was really to pass on the 
following bit of information: The University of Richmond (VA) is 
offering a continuing(adult)education class of Spanish Immersion - it 
will be held in August (so probably to late to enroll)at the U. of 
Zacatecas. I don't know if this is an annual offering or a one shot 
deal. For more info see:  
http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/scs/thinkagain/professional/imm
ersion.htm
Also, at my neighborhood branch library, a group gets together on a 
regular basis to

Thanks Alicia!
I actually have read that book as well, also, Victor Villasenor wrote another novel after that one called "Thirteen Senses" which is a continuation of Rain of Gold.  I've read that one a number of times, too.  
Thanks for the advice....I will buy my books in spanish and get to it.  I am, though, a little afraid that I won't pick it up.  When I've ordered microfilm from LDS, I was able to stumble through the translations.'

I'll be positive, though and say that, YES, I'LL LEARN!

Peggy
> 
> From: Alicia Carrillo 
> Date: 2005/07/12 Tue PM 01:30:57 EDT
> To: ranchos@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: Re: [ranchos] Juan v. Juan Jose v. Jose Francisco
> 
> Peggy,
>  
> Another great book I had mentioned a few weeks ago is Rain of Gold in English or Lluvia de Oro in Spanish by Victor Villaseñor, I read both the Spanish and English versions and I have to say that they were both great. Not only will you learn the language but you will get a lot of history and cultural