Agustina Hernandez, lost in plain sight

While writing my grandmother's story from Spain to Hawaii and on to California, I have studied many pieces of information, documents, looked at pictures of people, Spanish villages, churches, flowers and further investigations of newspaper articles, books and personal stories. All of this information has enabled me to write over 160 pages and I felt I was really on a roll to continue.

Until three days ago. I remembered the Orteric ship's manifest not only listed the immigrants and their family members, their sex, whether they could read or write and the relations they left behind and from which village.... but the manifest also included color of eyes, hair and any distinguishing marks, so I pulled out the manifest to look at it again so I could add those important pieces to my aunts, uncles, cousins and overall story. The manifest paper was nearly worn out from studying every name, place and vital statistic. I pulled it aside when I was finished marking down blue eyes or brown and other information when my eyes lit on the name, Agustina Hernandez. It wasn't the first time I'd seen it on that line.

Originally, I knew I'd found the right family since I knew that was my great great grandmother's name. She was the mother of Juan Francisco Silvan Hernandez. She was the grandmother of Manuela Marzo Trascasas. And she was my relative too. I stared at the name, knowing I was still missing something.....and then my eyes grew round in stunning awareness. SHE WAS ALIVE WHEN OUR FAMILY LEFT FUENTESAUCO!!! This put an entire new light on their emigration and the story. OMG, they not only left the land of their birth for the unknown, but they left their mother behind. Now I knew why Agustin and Geronimo remained in Spain. Now I knew I had to change my way of thinking and the slant of my story. I am still shaking my head.

It was a man's world so much at that time, so a mother's name would not be listed unless she was their major family member. This knowledge had been staring at me, begging and screaming for me to notice and it took me over eighteen months to see the truth. It has given me a new intense view of their entire undertaking as I put words to this new piece of evidence and bring my great grandmother into their story. Amazing how we notice or overlook such special and important information! And how exciting!