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5th Great Grandfather, Francisco Xavier Chavez, Was a Famous Guy

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I found a famous person in the line... there has to be a little history with this story, which is like many stories in one. This is the 4th great grandfather of Grandma Sally. Summarized from an article by Steve Gibson, 4th great-grandson of Francisco Xavier Chaves.    Francisco Xavier Cháves (1762 –1832). The first member of the Cháves family in San Antonio was born in or around Albuquerque, New Mexico about 1762. His maternal grandfather was a Sergeant of the Royal Presidio at Albuquerque, who participated in Indian campaigns killing many Comanche’s and who was himself killed by Comanche’s.[1] His father, Ignacio was the son of Francisco Duran y Cháves and Juana Baca. The Baca Family of New Mexico also claimed to be descendents of the Cabeza de Vaca Family in Spain. His paternal grandfather was Francisco Duran y Cháves, son of Fernando Duran y Cháves, who became Alcalde Mayor of Villa de San Felipe de Albuquerque, and his wife Doña Luisa Hurtado, who he married in New Mexico...
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23 & Me

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I wanted to give you the whole lowdown of the DNA results I got from 23&Me. Its so interesting. Southern European 50.9%, of this 48.7% is Spanish and Portuguese, the rest is Broadly European Ashkenazi Jewish 0.9% French and German 0.7% Native American 39.1% Broadly East Asian 0.8% West African 3.2% (this includes Senegambian and Guinean, Nigerian, Ghanian, Liberian, and Sierra Leonian) African Hunter-Gatherer 0.7% (such as San, Pygmy, and Bantu) Angolan and Congolese 0.5% Indian and Pakistani (trace 0.3%) Arab, Egyptian and Levantine (trace 0.1%) Coptic Egyptian (trace 0.1%) North African (Moroccan Arabic 0.1%) The rest is mixed or unassigned. This is what the photo looks like and the colors match the countries in the photo above.
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Spain

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There has always been a story that some of our family from Grandma Sally's side is from Spain, which was why we had the light skin and Sally had blue eyes. But I looked for a long time and could not find the person who was rumored to be the Spaniard, Maria Something-German, who was Sally's grandmother. So to bring you up to date, I had my DNA done at 23 & Me about a year ago. I wanted to know what my genetic makeup was, and how much was going to be Spanish. So I turned out to be about 53% European (the Spanish would make sense here), 40% Native American and East Asian (Mexicans are Europeans mixed with Native Americans), and 4.8% Sub-saharan African! Yes, that is why I am such a good dancer! Anyway, 53% European is high for a one-relative Spanish ancestor, even with the Mexican Mix. So there must be more European, right? I went back to Ancestry.com (23&Me and Ancestry.com do not speak to each other. Each wants to make money on their products so in order to enter m...
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The Mystery of Maria Nicanora Ramirez

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Maria Nicanora Ramirez Flores Guererro (Grandma Sallie's mom) was born 10 Jan 1884 in El Lucero, TX. Brief research shows that it is really a "tract" or grant made to some ranchers near Encino, TX in Brooks County (near the Rio Grande). One of the mysteries of Maria comes from the fact that one database shows Maria Nicandra Ramirez, b. 10 Jan 1886 was baptised in Asuncion, Donato Guerra, Mex. Her parents are listed as Francisco Ramirez and Maria De Jesus from Mexico. BUT, I found a notation of her death in the Family Search database (a geneology database) that lists her parents as Marcario Ramirez and Petra Estimbelda. Mystery #1: Who were her parents? Secondly, there is a family story that Esther relayed to Louis that Maria's mother was from Germany or Europe. That was the explanation for her blue eyes and light skin. None of Sallie's other children remembers any specifics. Angelo does remember a story about that vaguely. Emma does not recall that story. N...
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Nasaria "Sallie" Flores Rodriguez

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Known to all as "Grandma Sallie", she was born on 28 Jul 1912 in Los Ebanos, TX, according to her obituary. Los Ebanos was a tiny border town in the Rio Grande valley that operated a ferry between Tamaluipas and Texas. It was a common border crossing area for migrants. Even today it only has 400+ residents. It was named for the Texas Ebony trees that were native to the area. We know by the 1920 census that at age 7, she lived in Hidalgo county, TX in Hidalgo county (still in the valley) with her brother Geronimo and her uncle Florentino and Aunt Gertrudes Flores. According to a family story, they lived with their uncle because their mother had "run off". Her mother's full name was Maria Nicandra Ramirez, a nd her father's name was Alberto Flores. By age 18, however, she had come to live with her mother and her new husband Domingo Guererro, in Ft. Bend County. This was confirmed by 1930 census. They also had a son Florentino Guerrero, age 12. In 1937, she met...
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Grampa Gabriel's Story of his Mother

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Contributed by Gloria Candelaria (Rodriguez) RODRIGUEZ FAMILY UPDATE: Rodriguez or Rubalcado? I remember Gabriel RODRIGUEZ when my husband (Gabriel's son) Joel Sanchez RODRIGUEZ and I visited him in Houston, Texas. I had met him and his wife, Sallie, in Brookshire, Texas, years before. This trip was special - I interviewed Gabriel about his origins. This is what he said: "I remember my mother. I was born in a little town that no longer exists - it was called La Bahia. (I explained that the town still existed, and was now called Goliad). He said he remembered his mother, and he remembered the last time he saw her. Her name was Lupita, and he remembered her clearly: she was sitting behind a man (could have been his father, Eusequio Rodriguez) on a white horse; she had a belt of bullets wrapped across her chest, and she was known as an ADELITA, fighting with Pancho Villa (circa the 1915 revolution). He cried as she rode away, while she laughed as she rode away,...
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Gabriel Rodriguez

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We will start with Grampa Gabriel. Through a lot of research, we found out that he was born in 1905 in Goliad, TX. Well, the town was eventually called Goliad, but he was born in a "mission" (an area around a mission or church that was a small town, like in the mexican movies) called "La Bahia del Mar". He was born March 25 to parents named Guadalupe Garcia and Eusebio Rodriguez. This was confirmed through records at Goliad courthouse by Gloria Candelaria (GC). There was a story that Gabriel had been born to a Rubalcado family and raised by a Rodriguez family, and took their name. But it now seems it was the other way around. He was born a Rodriguez, and according to a story he told GC, his mother left with a man on a white horse, presumably his father, when he was a small child. He remembers her leaving, wearing bullet belts across her chest (like the Frito Bandito), and laughing as they rode off to fight with Pancho Villa. I will post his story to GC in a sepa...
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