My second wind as the quest continues.....

Hello! Miss me? The past couple of weeks I have spent time in my garden here in Virginia with some mini-projects and one major piece of work where I created a dry creek bed. Digging the ditch and hauling rocks to fill it afterwards was not exciting but now that it's finished, I am proud of it, can hardly move, and I am ready to sit here at my desk to continue my genealogy quest.

My new-found cousin has just returned from a vacation and she has spurred me on once again as we study history, look for documents and cement the relationship of our grandfathers, who were brothers, Juan Francisco and Victorino.

In the genealogy world, I have learned nothing is easily found but when it is before me either accidentally or ordered specifically, I sit and stare, adding more pieces to this wonderful and exciting puzzle of my ancestors. IF ONLY I had asked my loved ones the questions that burn in my mind now before they died. But, for now we wonder if they are all watching us and trying to push us in the right direction, pointing, nudging and praying we find our way. Yes, fanciful am I.

With the help of other genealogy questers like me, I have written (in Spanish with the help of the Bing translator) to the Diocese of Madrid to find out where the documents are stored for my grandmother's family.... in Fuentesauco? In Toro? In the archives in Madrid? In the church? In the court house? I learned the civic offices are call the Ayunamiento. No answer yet.

I wrote to the historical society in Hawaii, the Diocese of Honolulu and the Archives of Hawaii at the college as I try to find out what life was like during the 1900-1920 years for Spanish and Portuguese, where they lived, what their houses were like, what the school was like, how they got to the fields, what they did when they got there? I found out that the workers often had a BANGO number vs. using their names since they HAD SO MANY NAMES!! It has been the bane to my existence trying to figure it out since many 'chose' which name to use when they became anglicanized. A father's surname was their middle name and their mother's surname was the last name ~ in Spain. When they arrived in Hawaii and later in America, they could only have one surname, so hence the name anomolies. Without their bango numbers, I can't find out which plantation they worked on UNLESS I GO TO HAWAII. Hey! Good idea. If only.... but then again, Spain is my first choice and I'm still hugging my mind around September...