Greetings from a new member

Holá, mis amigos.

My name is John Karr Wolfe, usually called Karr, and I am an American-born
son of a Mexican immigrant mother, a Romo from Guadalajara/Tepatitlán. My
father is from the American Midwest. In order to try to link my family back
to the origins of the Romo de Vivar clan, I joined Nuestros Ranchos a month
ago, but then got called out of retirement to do some consulting. I’m back
home now and eager to learn more about my family history.

I am relatively new to genealogic research and have used family
documents/photos, ancestry.com, and various internet sources to get started
on tracing my roots on the Romo side. I have come to an impasse with my GGG
grandfather José de los Santos Romo de Vivar, born in Villa de Encarnación,
Jalisco (later known as Encarnación de los Díaz). The town was also known
as La Villa de Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación de Macías until 1824, and
even earlier, as el puesto del Sauz de los Macías, a wayside stop at what
was most likely a cattle-ranch, “Rancho Viejo” on the Camino Real between
Mexico and Santa Fé, .

According to his granddaughter, Don José de los Santos Romo de Vivar was
born on 2 Nov 1837 to Pablo Romo Villalobos and Ascepción [sic] Cornejo
Díaz. He married María Guadalupe Pedroza (most likely in Encarnación) on 29
May 1861 and eventually moved to Tepatitlán de los Morelos, Jalisco, where
he established the town’s only botica (apothecary shop). He is said to
have been instrumental in starting construction on the Santuario de
Guadalupe and in the development of sewage and drainage systems for the city
of Tepatitlán. Upon the death of Santos (year unknown, but after 1877), his
wife, M. Guadalupe Pedroza, took over the apothecary shop and ran it until
she died, leaving it to her daughter, Guadalupe “Lupe” Dávila (born to M.
Guadalupe’s second husband, Alberto Dávila, whom she married on 29 Sep
1884).

There is a street in Tepatitlán called Santos Romo, which family tradition
claims is named after my GGG grandfather. Although several relatives have
testified to this, and I have a photo of a street sign, no-one has actually
confirmed the authenticity of the claim by examining records in “Tepa.”

I have a copy of a letter written by his wife, listing their 8 children,
born between 1863 and 1877. My great grandfather, José de Jesús Romo, was
the third son and fifth child. He was born in Encarnación on 14 Oct 1871
and was a rancher. Although he is said to have continued to own the land
near Tepatitlán and run the family business, at some point he moved his wife
and children to Guadalajara, Jalisco. In 1917, the family emigrated to
Fresno, California, apparently leaving most of the ranch in the hands of the
eldest son, my grandfather Moisés J Romo, who eventually sold the family
business and followed his father and siblings to Fresno. Unfortunately,
there is no record of the name of the rancho.

Curiously, the name Romo de Vivar pops up irregularly in the family,
presumably because some family members were more interested in tracing their
lineage to Spanish nobility than others. My branch of the family has been
called simply Romo for at least 3 generations.

I would appreciate any information anyone has uncovered about this family,
including the names Romo, Romo de Vivar, Villalobos, Cornejo and Díaz, all
apparently residents of Encarnación, Jalisco during the first half of the
19th century. And I will pass along any more information that I uncover, as
well. I am building a public tree on ancestry.com, which will show you
everything I have learned so far about these families. It is the
“Romo/Vázquez Family Tree.”

Thanks for your time!

Karr Wolfe