Grandpa Francisco Ruiz - A Math Tutor

Oh my. Today was an information-filled day; it pays to whine. I had a surprise call from my Aunt Rita F. with possible contact information for the Ruis (spelled differently than the American Ruiz line) and an email from Janet M., a distant cousin who lives in Oregon!

Janet sent me the Family History Sheet filled in lots of genealogy blanks ~
Her mother was Josephine Ruiz Martin, the older sister to my Grandpa Ben Ruiz. We exchanged pictures, documents and stories. The best was learning that Great Grandpa Frank Ruiz was a math tutor in Spain. Math? Well, the genes stopped there or at least they didn't follow through to my brain. Math was always (and is) my worst subject. If only I had him to help me when I was in school. Oh! There was the language barrier and timeline problem...that would have made that impossible, of course, but knowing that little nut of family history made me smile.

Nope, it doesn't take a lot to get me excited all over again. While looking at the ship's manifest from the SS Wilhelmina from Hawaii to San Francisco for May 8, 1917, I found another name I am trying to decipher and link to our family. Francisca Garcia Castillo and her 5-year old daughter (Ana Maria Garcia) sailed with them, left the same friend in Kilauea, Kauai named Jose Badanado. We do not know how (if) she was related to the Ruiz clan. Every answer seems to generate more questions but that's what I am enjoying so much!
More soon.....