Happy almost Fall everyone! I’ve been out of the loop for a while. I had a great summer with my little family.

I have to admit that my family history research was put on the back burner this summer. Gasp! As of right now I do not have anything to report immediately, so I thought I would kick-start my research by putting some names out “there” into cyber space.

I was very fortunate to have a cousin do a random search about her family via a search engine. She found my blog. We are developing a relationship as family. And our respective family branches haven’t chatted since 1919. Almost 100 years ago.

I figured that I would make a shameless plug to get some names “out there.” It’s all about researching smarter, not harder. I would be very interested in hearing from some family members:

It would be neat to hear news about Guadalupe Navarro de Escalante’s  family. She is descendant of Joaquin Navarro and Guadalupe Gurrola de Navarro. They were from Suaqui Grande, Sonora, Mexico. I have chatted with a Navarro granddaughter, but she never remembered Tia Lupe.

I’m looking for Bustamante descendants. My great-great grandmother was: Mariana Bustamante de Escalante (then de Ramirez). Her dad was Antonio Bustamante, son of Juan de D Bustamante. Juan also had a second son named Marcial. They were from Hermosillo, Sonora.

My Tia Maria’s first husband was Hipolito Sepulveda. Two of his children went with him. Elena Sepulveda (born 1917 in Santa Ana, CA) and Maria Luisa Sepulveda (born 1919). Maria Luisa visited her dad’s half-sister, Elpidia Villalovos, and grandmother, Maria de la Jesus Portilla, in the Wilmington area.

There are the Valenzuelas I’m looking to connect with as well. Rufina’s parents were Guadalupe Valenzuela and Francisca Moreno, who apparently had a ranch in Santana, Sonora. Her brother was Jose Maria Valenzuela (married to Armida Palacios). His sister is Guadalupe Valenzuela de Garcia (married to Manuel Garcia). They lived in Calexico and Mexicali. This has been a difficult thing to find out. Escalante’s have lived in Imperial Valley since 1920. These two families drifted apart in a 15 mile radius.

Romo family members from Ures, Sonora, are probably cousins! Any and all can email me.

And then one more family I’m looking into is the Imperial Valley Romo’s. Victoria Romo de Pesqueira (and then de Romo). She was sister to Dolores Romo de Orduño. These ladies were descendant of Ruperto Romo and Dolores Romo de Romo. Cross my heart, these are not typos – they appear to be cousins.

If anyone can give me historical information – preferably with patient file access – about La Rumorosa Mental Hospital, between Tecate and Mexicali, I would be very appreciative.  San Pedro Palominas in Sonora is another deep mystery. Rufina and her son, Jose Maria, were born there. It is supposed to be in the Elias Ranch area. I have only found one reference to it on a map, and that includes maps at the University of Arizona historic maps collection.  I really have been doing this a loooooong time.

That’s about it for now. Maybe I’ll add more to the mix at a later date. Here is too hoping someone gets a bee in their bonnet, searches for something from above and finds out they are stuck with us. Yes. That would be perfect.