New cousin's trust overwhelming

I am now the proud owner of an original Spanish document dated January 27, 1911. (Thank you Lynda Medeiros E!) It is yellowed with age and the creased areas have come apart but I plan to get it copied and printed to make it beautiful again. This document was created by a Spanish attorney at the request of Victorino Silvan and lists himself, his wife (Romana) and his four children, Teodora, Felisa, Jacinto and Celestino. The certificate was required to prove they were natives of Fuentesauco and that their children were their natural children.

It revealed three new bits of information; 1) It lists Romana's maiden names as 'Martin Lorenzo,' 2) it lists the names of her parents (Pedro Martin and Sabina Lorenzo) and after staring at the dates (in shock), it states 3) Jacinto was the oldest TWIN of Celestino. They were both 5 years old---- not age 5 (Celestino) and age 3 'Juanitco' as the ship's manifest appeared to show. Romana labored 4 hours between each boy's births. This just adds another layer of sadness, since we know little Jacinto died on the trip from Spain to Hawaii of either measles or scarlet fever and was buried at sea.

The burial at sea was a traumatic affair; the baby (48 died on the ship~) was wrapped in a blanket, carefully placed on a wooden plank and then slipped from the side of the ship into the ocean for burial.

Finding more information with constant surprises sometimes leaves me weak with knowledge but full with love thinking of the hardships and lives our ancestors lived and perservered!

Today, I created the cover to Manuela's Petals and I am content. This story in the making is going to be a tribute to those before and those that come after. I can hardly wait to get to Spain to stand on their soil, on their village streets, in their Santa Maria church..... oh! And that reminds me, with the help of my cousin, (Ramona) I now have a yahoo address on the Spanish system! patianasteeleruiz@yahoo.es I used the Ruiz name (like she did) so people in Spain will recognize who I am when I send Spanish emails. Oh, better get back to cracking those Spanish books and open the dictionary ~ So those Spaniards can understand me though.....

More progress made with Feliza's descendents!

In the past week, I have received more valuable information and finding Lynda, Feliza's granddaughter has led me to another cousin, Julie. They are gathering information for me and trying to remember all the stories their Grandmother Feliza told them about her memories of Spain and Hawaii. We now have a 4-way connection that includes Vicki in San Jose, who's grandmother was Feliza's sister, Theodora. I am grinning like a fool just writing this as I am filled with such pleasure to unite all of us with our ancestral story.

And the no-longer-in-print book, Memories of Spain is now in my hands! My good friend, Jane, in Williamsburg was able to get it through interlibrary loan and it is filled with so much information regarding the research of Spain, embarkation procedures, sailing to Hawaii, debarkation procedures, quarantine and much, much more that I have lost sleep over it. It is hard to close my eyes just thinking how I will incorporate the extensive details into my story about grandma's trip.

Life in my little genealogical world is smiling.

Making progress with Manuela's Petals

Over the past week, I have created fill-in-the-blank forms for many of the new family contacts I have been talking with recently. Several suggested thee forms might work best and since I love creating forms and writing, writing, writing, I jumped right to it. I have emailed and pony express mailed the forms to several people and will prepare a packet to go to Grass Valley, CA where my uncle will have a birthday party. He turned 90 years young today -- Frank Ruiz...

I have also been writing grandma's story and just finished page 87. I am having great fun with it and inserted many photographs and copies of original documents that the family will be very happy to see. It is definitely a labor of love and it feels like I was in Spain and later Hawaii with grandma as she lived through her early years.

My story will end when grandma marries grandpa and finds she is pregnant with her first child. I have decided to do this because two family history books will carry on the rest of the story..

I AM ASKING FAMILY MEMBERS TO give me a brief biography of grandma's brothers and sister as well as their own. This can be over email or I can call to have a personal interview and type while they talk. This will add a very special touch to their SILVAN LEAVES pages and so far, the family has responded wonderfully.

It is hot and humid here in Virginia but I hardly notice as I am glued to my computer... Having a great time and sad to miss my uncle Frank's party!

And I am celebrating. As of today, I have sold 45 of my Cooking Drunk cookbooks!

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TO FOLLOW MY BLOG: If you know anyone who would be interested in following my blog, please left click the word, Follow, at the top of this posting. It is above the words, spanishpearls, in the blue line. Once you left click the word, Follow, a box will pop up that will allow you to click your request to follow my postings.

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Please feel free to invite others to share in this wonderful trip I am taking through our family and live vicariously through my words.

Have a wonderful weekend!
Smiles,
PS

A Family Interview

Mary Silvan is a soft-spoken woman with a gentle sense of humor. She is the wife of my grandmother's brother, Celestino Fernandez Silvan. Great Uncle Celestino (Cel) was my grandmother's youngest brother and I know she was very close to him. Yesterday, Mary, a widow since Uncle Cel died in July 1973, graciously granted me an interview and added color and 'life' behind the man and the times. She also knew my father and bought appliances from him in Carmichael with the promise of a "lifetime guarantee." "Who's lifetime?" she'd asked him. "Yours or mine?" My father, Michael (Miguel) Silvan Ruiz replied, "Both, of course."

Great Aunt Mary will celebrate her 82nd birthday December 19, 2010. We are both Sagittarians, we've both lost a child through death way before their time and she made me feel like a young girl again by calling me, "honey." Our comfortable conversation made me imagine myself in her living room sharing a cup of coffee as she'd just prepared for herself. We discussed her past, her children, her husband and her life.

She basically filled in many blanks. One question was "Why was Uncle Cel's middle name, Fernandez, when the Spanish naming rules typically would have his mother's maiden name or Marzo?" She didn't know and said all of his brothers middle names were, Marzo. I can assume Grandpa John and Grandma Rita broke the Spanish name ruling for American rules where they could choose any name and consequently, he carried the Fernandez (or Fernandes?) middle name. I also learned, with sadness, that cancer is a big killer in the Silvan family; Grandpa John Silvan, Great Aunt Juanita, Great Aunt Mary Cuellar, Grandma Rita Silvan and my own father, Michael Silvan -- the only cancer-stricken Silvan I was aware of.

My files are beginning to plump up with information and I look forward to many more interviews to add color to my family history story. At the end of our conversation, I smiled when I heard the story of my father painting the front of his appliance store purple -- just for my grandmother , Abuelita -- her favorite color.

Feliza Silvan vs. ALICE

Feliza's granddaughter, Lynda E., told me Feliza's name wasn't really Alice. When she came to America as a teenager and began school, the teacher's didn't like her name, so they named her Alice. Why of why would 'Alice' be chosen over the beautiful name of Feliza or Felicia, I wondered? And I found it very strange that the name Alice stayed and Feliza was somehow lost along the way. I am profoundly relieved and happy to have found her. When I sent the letter to Dorothy Mederios, hoping she was related to our Feliza, I never imagined how wonderful it would turn out to be. And now we have added Lynda to our group and I can hardly wait for the pieces of information and possibly pictures.... to arrive.

A gracious gift of trust and generosity

This morning, I received an email from one of Cristencia Silvan Gonzalez's grandchildren, Alicia. She has graciously agreed to either copy for me or mail me her copy of the book I have been trying to find through interlibrary loan or other ways that is no longer in print titled, MEMORIES OF SPAIN. I have tried to find this book for several months after being told it includes many of the types of memories needed for 'feeling' the Spaniard's way from Spain. I am overwhelmed by her trust and generosity and look forward to reading it and referring to its contents for further research for MANUELA'S PETALS. I find that every 'cousin' I have encountered during my quest has been loving and filled with an insatiable curiosity for our ancestor's information, as am I. It is a powerful and emotional bonding.

With Linda's help, I have managed to nearly finish Juanita Silvan's leaf pages. And to add more excitement to the mix, she and John (Juanita's son) are planning to visit us in Virginia this coming October. I am smiling. Oh, and she's bringing wine too!!

Today, I plan to mail sample 'Our Slvan Leaves' pages (2) to Aunt Millie, Aunt Mary and Aunt Rita, as they appear to be the most interested in my findings. I am content knowing they will share the information and one day, all the siblings of my Abuelita will have a copy of the entire book in their hands so they can 'meet' the family that came before and get to know them as I have been over the past 18 months. It is such a joy to share this with them! And to top it off, my Uncle Frank will soon be 90... I know what I'll put in his birthday card!