My Ancestral History

Ancestry.com is a great website. It really has helped me in ways that I never knew possible. Aside from the little annoying emails I get trying to get me to buy some of their other products, they do provide inspiring stories they receive from people doing their own research. This story is just one of the stories that fascinates me. I personally am at the tip of the iceberg in my search. I'm only really finding facts rather than stories, but hopefully I will get to that point soon. Perhaps one day I will have an interesting story to send to the people at Ancestry.com and who knows, they may make a little article like this one.

Hello Family and Friends, As I mentioned in earlier posts, I have sort of neglected my research on my family history due to applying for Graduate School. Well it has paid off. I have (officially) been accepted to Claremont Graduate University in the spring! I start in mid January of 2011. I wish I can say that now that I've been accepted I will have some time to continue my research but unfortunately I don't think that will be the case. I will still try to gather information, but the time in which I have to do it will be slim to none. BUT...I still have till January, so let's see how much more I can get done until then....

FindAGrave.com is a wonderful site. It allows you to view graves of relatives you've just discovered online or to request a picture to be taken of relatives who are buried far away. I recently got an email alerting me that someone in Bakersfield, CA received, accepted and fulfilled my photo request for the headstone of Lupe Avila. Thanks to "Diane H" for this photo, now completing Lupe Avila's FindAGrave profile. I still hope to actually see it in person. I'm still not sure what she died of, how or where. Hopefully that will be listed on her death certificate, but for now, we finally know what her headstone looks like..."at Rest With Jesus"

Palomares Cemetery To whom it may concern, I am currently doing research on a family member by the name of Francisca Lopez Arvizu. I found that her grave is at the Palomares Cemetery by way of FindAGrave.com from a list that was done by a Mrs. Ethel Curtis in 1951 by the Pomona Valley Genealogical Society. However this list was entered in to the website by someone other than Mrs. Curtis (Sharyn Hay in 2005). My question is, does this cemetery still exist? I've read that it might have been turned into a park. Also, if it is still in existence and some tombstones still remain, is the property closed off to the public? My main objective is to visit this site and get a photo of Francisca Lopez Arvizu's marker. Any information you can offer is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance, Lynelle -------------- -------------------------------------------- Lynelle, Most all of the tomb stones in the Palomares Cemetery are missing and have been for decades, since the 1970&

I have had a lot of success lately with moving forward. I finally got around to looking further into the Lujan/Pardue part of my family. There are over 10 people who have already done the Pardue research for me (not to mention Pardue was a wealthy, Caucasian family and have better records) and I have traced most of them back to the 1400s in England!!! Let me say, there was so much to follow that after making connection after connection after connection all day, I had to finally take a break and rest.I'm still not done following the trail on that side yet. On the other side of my family, I was able to FINALLY figure out where Francisca Lopez Arvizu and Lupe Arvizu Avila were buried. Lupe Avila is buried at Greenlawn Memorial Park - Sunrise - Space 2 - Lot B - Block 2   3700 River Blvd.  Bakersfield Kern County California USA  Postal Code: 93305    Phone: (661) 324-9701  Francisca Lopez Arvizu is buried at Palomares Cemetery 2401 N. Towne Ave. Pomona L

Hello Family, Friends, and whom ever else finds their way here. As I'm sure you've noticed I've been a little absent lately. I think the combination of hitting a temporary brick wall, combined with studying and preparing to apply to Graduate school in 4 month, along with working two jobs, just made it a little difficult to continue full force with the family research. I'm trying to get back on track a little, while still juggling the other projects I'm doing (I'm about 90% done with the blouse I'm sewing). But most of the time I'm just way too tired. For instance, today I work from 9am to 12 midnight . I even canceled my gym membership because I never have time to go, and when I do I'm too tired to go. ...as for the ancestral history though, I've already begun to fill out the paper work to request birth, marriage and/or death records, since Ancestry.com has done all it can for me for the moment. My only problem is getting it notarized. Usua

Today I spent some time at the Los Angeles Recorder's Office branch in Norwalk. I was looking for the marriage records of Lupe and Mariano Pacheco & Grandma Josie and Grandpa Ernie as well as the death record of Mariano Pacheco and Domingo Arvizu. Let me just say, finding the recorder's office was a bit scary. I felt like I was in a bad horror movie. Once I found the Birth, Death & Marriage records office half way down the creepy, quiet corridor and stepped inside, the people working there were really nice. I found the marriage records I was looking for under the womens' name instead of the mens' (which I looked up first). However I couldn't find the death records I was looking for which is what I went there for to begin with. The marriage record of Grandma and Grandpa's was actually really cute. I didn't realize how close their anniversary is (June 20th). I recognized Grandpa's handwriting first, then Grandma's, Grandma's is a very

This week I took a little break from my "investigating" - I did however receive a phone call from Mary Shomber with the Azusa Historical Society. She told me that she found the obituary I requested but was not able to take a copy of it since the newspaper was in poor condition. She was however able to copy word for word what was said: "Death Doings The Pomotropic Azusa Cal - Friday Feb 23 1912 One of the oldest Mexican residents D. Arvisu (sic) was buried from the Cathilic (sic) church 'Wednesday Afternoon' he is said to have lived in this section from 40 to 50 years, and had reached the age of 90, he was highly respected by his neighbors, the Americans, and the funeral procession was one of the largest ever seen in Azusa. His home had for many years been on Azusa near First Street." Aside from the spelling errors and the longest run on I've ever seen (don't know if that was the reporter or the transcribers doing) that is a pretty interesting article

I've decided to take a break from Grandpa Ernie's mother's side. The whole point to this research to begin with was to find out more about his father. Unfortunately, I don't know anything more about his father than when I started. Here's what I know so far: Name: Andres (or Andreas) Avila Siblings: Maria (B: 1881), Antonio (B: 1882) and Clara Nephew: Jorge or George (Maria's son) (B:1914) -Maria, George, Antonio and their mother Gariala (typo?) (B: 1841) lived in Gallup, New Mexico according to the 1930 census. That's pretty much all I know so far, which isn't much. I mentioned before that I'm requesting the Ernie's Birth Certificate to see who is listed as his father as well as a marriage record between Lupe and Andres. Hopefully that will reveal something more that I can go off of.

Speaking of my past...I recently found an old picture of myself from about 5-7 years ago. Although I could have afforded to lose more weight at the time, I of course was significantly thinner than I find myself today. I made a plan and a deal with myself to go to the gym and while I was ready to go after work yesterday, my more distant past pulled me to something else instead. Instead of working toward a me I knew a long time ago, I jumped on the 605 headed north to the Azusa hills towards the Azusa City Library. It's the only place that holds both of John Arvizu's books and having found out yesterday that my great grandmother's picture is in the book, I decided to skip the gym and seek out my more interesting and unknown past. It took me quite a while to get there but I eventually did. While I drove through the old part of Azusa I wondered how it looked when my relatives lived there. I was a little upset that I couldn't remember the address of the house t

This weekend, mom, Camile, Makayla and I took a trip to Glendale, CA to visit the grave site of Domingo Arvizu . That in itself was an adventure. Getting to the cemetery was easy, finding the burial plot was a challenge. We eventually found Space G and a huge tombstones among other smaller and more battered tombstones. It simply read:Domingo Arvizu Fellecio (passed away) Febrero 20, 1912 EDAD (Age) 83 Anos Nativa De Mexico When I spoke to the record department the week before, she told me that unfortunately not much was said about him except that he was buried on the 21st ( immediately the day after he died) that he was Mexican and that he was buried with 3 other people who were unnamed. I figured those names would be listed on the tombstone but they weren't. I know that Domingo and Francisca had 2 still borns and 2 children that died in infancy. I originally thought that maybe Francisca was buried here with her husband and 2 infant children, however, it hardly

It has been a while, but I've been so distracted with the vast amounts of information I've been finding that I haven't had time to update the blog. The information I've found in the past couple of days have been so exciting I have to get it out. I recently discovered an interesting resource on ancestry.com. They are message boards dedicated to specific last names. I decided to browse them in the names of Lujan, Avila and Arvizu. The latter proved to be fruitful. I found a message responding to someone's inquiry about Domingo Arvizu. This person claimed to be a great great grandson of Domingo and suggestioned searching somoprimos.com for more info. I was very very confused by the site and thus turned of by it and gave up. The message also said that Domingo was buried in Glendora, CA. Seeing as this message board is over 7 years old I decided not to reply and ask for info. I didn't think it would help. So instead I googled cemeteries in Glendora and called t

Note: *Click throughout entries to view documented proof* My research gathered over the last 4 days have been both plentiful and frustrating. On one hand I've found so much information on certain sides of m family, on the other hand the side of the family that I originally start this quest for seems to have disappeared after the 1930s. Here is what I started with and what I know thus far: Mom's Side: Grandma Josie's side: Conrado Segrua *Line 22* and Anastacia (Rojas) Segura *Line 26* migrated to Morenci Arizona on November 24 19 08 from the El Paso , Texas Border. They previous lived in a town in Mexico called Lagas -although having been written twice in handwriting it could be Logas and a number of other possibilities. Either way the town does not sound familiar, but then again I know nothing about Mexico except for TJ and Rosarito. Moving on - It appears that Ana's father's name was Magdeleno Rojas *Line 26* and Conrado's father was

To get right to it, this blog was created to document my research into where and who I came from. I've always wanted to conduct a personal history of my family, but never actually sat down to do it. I can't tell you what made me decide to do it now. Maybe it was a combination of things. Maybe it has something to do with my Grandmother, Josephine, passing this past September. I'm not really sure why but the most important parts about this is I plan to find out information that I never knew before, to satisfy my nature of always asking "why, how, who, when, and where" - Equally important, I'm doing this for my parents. I can't understand why they never asked these questions before but they want to know now. Before I get started I guess I should tell a little bit about myself. I was born to Lynn and Luanne Lujan on February 5th 1983 in La Mirada California. I grew up in Pico Rivera, California where I currently reside at the age of 27. I went to Whittier Coll