Michael Rodriguez

[Brian Houston]

Michael,

How do you log onto ancestry.com to see the tree you have so far?
Do you need to be a member?

I will send info about my family minus DOB's of the living of course. Please pass the names on to Richard.


Richard,

Trying to post a picture next to my user name. Mine is too big. Do you know how to make one the size it needs to be so that it will accept it?


Michael & Richard,

Mom said that Uncle Helo had a child from a previous marriage but he and Carmen did not. Do either of you know names of wife and child?

Do either of you know anything about Great Aunt Sara (Lazaro/Maria's daughter)? If so, did she marry and did she have kids?

Bollina making for christmas is just around the corner. My mom will be teaching my wife and daughter how to make them. I don't know if y'all have had them but I love them and can't wait. I will post mom's recipe to that section.

Brian

[Brian Houston]

Michael, Richard,

My mom said that she had one photo of Lazaro with my older brother David. It is in North Carolina with my other brother where she lives so not too handy. She has a mission when she goes home.

Do either of you have any photo's of Lazaro, Maria, and family you could scan and share?

I'll send a copy of the Lazaro pic when I get it.

Brian

[Bob]

Wela is really güela, Asturian for grandmother (and cognate to the castellano abuela). The diminutive used in my family was güelina. Similarly, Welo is güelo, grandfather (abuelo in castellano).

The newspaper La Nueva España has a very good on-line Asturian dictionary at http://mas.lne.es/diccionario/ Be sure to enter the word to be searched with the proper diacriticals. Use l.l for the che vaqueira and h. for an aspirated h.

[Rich]

Hey guys-

I have been able to dates of birth, death and arrival in the US for most everyone back to Lazaro and Maria. It is just a matter of me posting the info on the web for all to see. We've been busy at work, so not much time to get it done.
Ok, now some answers to the questions.
As far as keeping in touch with the family in Asturias, my grandfather, Conrado, used to go over every couple of years. I remember him bringing back a whole bunch of saffron sewn inside the linine of his jacket. If I remember correctly, as family died in Spain, he was eventually left with the family farm or property. I'm not sure which. In any event, when he died, it went to my dad, but he never looked into it. Could be a lead there.
Maria Alonso is burried in Kansas. Cherryvale, I believe. There are also other family members buried there, but I'm not sure exactly who they are. I haven't gotten that far yet.
Concerning search sites, I joined ancestry.com. The information I gathered from there is what I will be posting. Michael, there is some info for Aunt Tomi as well. I think you will both be pleased with what I've got so far. There are also quite a few images I have- passenger lists and so forth. Hopefully in a week or so I will have it up.
Brian, I can't remember exactly what I used to crop and resize that photo. Either paintshop or photoshop. You can try any number of programs- there are even free sites on the web to do it for you.
I have a few old pictures of family which I will also share with everyone. My dad's sister- my Aunt Emily- and her family lived with my grandparents. When she passed away a few years ago many of my grandparents old belongings were, ah, well- let's just say 'lost'. I'll leave it at that. It's a bit of a sore spot with me.
And the Wela/Welo I always assumed were just shortened from Abuela/Abuelo. Sort of like calling your grandmother Gram instead of Grandmother.

[Brian Houston]

Richard & Michael,

My mom said that she remembered there were three brothers of Lazaro. One named "James" stayed in Spain. One unknown name went to Mexico City(?). And of course Lazaro in the U.S. Connecting James and Lazaro may help. Haven't talkd to Uncle Art yet so don't work too hard on that Angle yet.

My mom said that she used to correspond to a cousin in Madrid when she was a Teenager. Don't know which side though and that migration may have been a more recent and nothing to do with roots. ???

I have heard stories also that Maria & Lazaro came over with Saffron. I wonder if there is a certain region in Asturias that is know for growing that?

One last clue...Mom remembers a Township address from some of the other correspondence..."Cordola"...hmmm. Must call Art today.

Yeah, family artifacts and photo's generally end up with one person when people pass. I have never even seen the one photo my mom has of Lazaro w/ bro. David. Thank you so much for sharing what you do have. At this point I will gladly take copies of anything. My wife has many historic family photo's on her side but wants to display some for me as well.

Here's to raking the family leaves and shaking the tree.

Brian

[Brian Houston]

Bob or Art,

I think one of my great-grandfather's brothers (Lazaro Rodriguez) was named James. I live in south Texas and have always thought that Santiago is a form of James. But mom insists his name was James not Santiago. At the same time she new her grandmother as Mary not Maria. Are there any other possibilites that would closely resemble the name James?

Brian

[Bob]

Santago would translate literally as Saint James. Jaime and Jacobo are also forms of the name James.

[Eric Smith Fernandez]

How about Diego?

[Bob]

Yes, Diego too. Think Jacob, Iacabo, Jacobo, Giacobo, Giacomo, Iago, Diego, Santiago, and other such variations in western European languages.

[michael306]

i can give you some info on your tomi, she was born in makeweli, kanai, hawaii. her father and his brothers moved to hawaii to work in the pinapple fields there. they of course were from okinawa, japan, but i think there might have been some mainlanders too. any way i cant spell her dads name but her mom was uto. her siblings were keichi, tomatsu, nabaru, sumiko, haruko, and thee were a couple more that died young. my uncle tamo died here not too long ago but his daughter cindy or his other daughter vicky did a family tree while they were in college quite the same way that brian is doing. it is big and full of names and i am in the process of getting it from my aunt eloina. but my grandmother met welo in pearl harbor and came back here to donora like you said. great lady, i loved her.

[michael306]

ok try sigmundo for james. my aunt and i kinda thought that it might be that. richs dad had a brother that died at like 15 or something and she thought that he got his name from an uncle of julias. also she told me that your grandparents only ever spoke in spanish to your mom and therefore she didn't really want to speak english when she started school. i sent you a link to my family tree and when we get richs we can compare. i have you listed as a contributor not a viewer so you can modify it or even print it or add to it. also it is maria alonso not mary so when you are searching that should help. she was from oviedo as richard has said. as for the wife and child of angel, well my aunt el cant quite remember, but she said that the daughter had a child of her own and that they showed up at lazaro's funeral. my aunt was like 17 or 18 then and she is like 57 now so the daughter must be in her 60's, and i am guessing that maybe the previous wife has passed on as well. you mom is right about the rodriguez/rodriguez connection, but it was an uncle/niece thing. i will write that on a email, as to save the jerry springer commentsfrom viewers. i did have a picture of lazaro art and my dad but where it is who knows. they were out in front of lazaros house in donora. sure hope i can find it. aunt sara's last name was vega. she was married to oscar vega and if you read rich's post you can see more. the owned the el chico bar in donora. the town of donora was separated into ethnic areas, greeks, blacks, jewish, spanish, italians, etc. they tried to stick to their own but oscar and sara would serve anyone no matter what others would say. that was a story from my dad. but we named the family boat el chico in their memory. aunt sara is my sisters namesake. she was a favorite of the kids and my dad wanted to name my sister in her honor. shame that she died so early. but i do know that she died of cancer and it made my dad sad. donora was one of those town where you stuck to your own pretty much. after ww2 and during korea they gave ray and tomi a hard time because she was japanese. all looked the same to them i guess. but there were restaraunts that wouldnt serve him because of her. he wasnt too fond of that. but they perservered. any way, i will split from here and get to ya in an email.

[Rich]

Hey guys-

Started to post the family tree info I have. Still got alot of work to do, but you might want to have a look- http://mrdrod.angelfire.com/

[Brian Houston]

Michael & Richard,

We have now joined ancestry.com as well. We have located GGF Lazaro's Obituary. It lists his DOB as May 22 1884 and the Social Security death index lists it as June 15 1884. Ah, yes different from his WWI draft card. I guess it was whatever day and month he felt like at that particular moment. I'm sure there was a reason for everything back then. I am reading the archived papers for more info on both sides of my family and have found the ladies were quite proper and very involved in their community. I am just collecting at this point and will get them up for all to see sometime in the next few weeks. Have a great christmas.

BKH

[Art]

I wonder if his birth dates and baptism dates were confused? That would be pretty easy to do, especially if the birth wasn't recorded but the baptism was.

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¿Me pregunto si se confunde su fecha de nacimiento con su fecha de bautismo? Sería fácil hacer, especialmente si el nacimiento no fue registrado pero el bautismo sí.

[michael306]

Brian,
Did I email yo that newspaper article about when your mom went to college from the Charlerio Mail Paper. Just wonderin.