common research goals

One of the goals in doing genealogy for me is to instill pride and responsibility in the coming years in generations yet to come. As my grandmother told me, "you don't know who you are if you don't know where you come from." She said this at a family reunion where the new generations no longer speak Spanish and had brought many other nationalities into our lines. She cried as she said there would not be a Mexican in the family in 50 years. My research honors her and makes sure we know our roots and sometimes humble and sometimes proud beginnings. My goal is never to loose any part of my heritage even though we sometimes seem to focus on the Spanish lines.

Daniel and I are both aware that original first and last names were taken from Indigenous and black slave lines and they were given other surnames either by the church or in honor of people they respected or worked for or who owned them or even chance. Daniel and I share the Mendez line since our Mendez gr-grandparents were siblings. We also share black slave lines and Indian lines, we just can't find thier ancestors since they lost their names to "progress." Daniel and I are both very proud of all the ancestors who got us here but to be honest it's easier to trace the Spaniards so they sometimes appear to be our only focus. I wish I had been 14 years old like Daniel (who is our youngest member) when I started researching instead of having to wait until I retired to have the time and money to pursue this passion. With Nuestros Ranchos we get to share, feel pride and share the responsibility of finding correct and truthful information even when the truth makes us uncomfortable or surprises us.

I hope we never loose or focus or common goal.

Linda in B.C.

--- On Sat, 8/30/08, Daniel Mendez wrote:

From: Daniel Mendez
Subject: Re: [Nuestros Ranchos] New
To: research@nuestrosranchos.com
Date: Saturday, August 30, 2008, 9:12 AM

I am sure Lomelini is from ITaly, about the indígenas being Lomelini, I
believe it might be since
it was custom for slaves to take on their "master's" surname, it
is possible a mulatto line. Mine aare usually registered as Español, eventhough
their italian, in México all white people would be
considered spanish eventhough their actually portuguese or italian, french,
etc. -Daniel