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LoginMy name is Cortney and I am 27 years old. I live in St. Louis Missouri but I was raised in nearby Collinsville Illinois. I am a Librarian with the St. Louis County Library. My parents are Dennis and Peggy Diaz and I have an older sister, Alyson Kleine. Currently I am busy planning my wedding in July!!
My Grandfather was born in 1889 in according to his Social Security records Tamon, Asturias, Spain. He came to America with his family, The Vegas of Denora Pennsylvannia, The Menendez family of St. Louis/Springfield Illinios and the Suarez family of Springfield Illinois.
My grandfather married my grandmother(she was not Spanish) in 1916 and they had six children. Their oldest child died a few days after being born, but they had 5 other children. Bertha, Josephine and Bernice were my aunts and my uncle Henry was killed in St. Lo France in WWII at the age of 18. My father was born in 1940 and was about 22 years younger that his oldest sister, in fact my grandmother and aunt were pregnant at the same time. They were a very close and loving family and very very proud to be Spanish.
I don't know much about my grandfathers family and he died long before I was born. I was fascinated about our heritage and began doing research through work. In 2002 my father and I decided to head to Spain to see our roots. In October of 2002 we headed to Spain, this was both of our second trip to Spain. I went in HighSchool 10 years ago and he went in the sixties. We headed north to Bilbao and I drove a car from there to Santillana Del Mar. It was a beautiful old town. I then drove to the closest place we could get to Tamon, which was Candas. On the way I got lost in the city of Gijon and drove a highway that turned into a winding mountain road which was quite an experience!! My favorite site were cows that were perched on jagged rocks and steep hills, it was amazing. The most beautiful site was when we drove through the mountain and then to the sea. By fate, we found Tamon, it was almost like magic. I was lost, as usual, and I stopped to ask directions, when I came down the road to a round about and I was going around the circle there it was the sign for Tamon!!! I got out of the car and we sat on the side of the road for a few minutes, it was a postage stamp of a place and not much to look at, but it meant the world to us.!! We then headed down to Oviedo, which again I got lost in and then took a train to Madrid. It was one of the best experiences in my life and it was great to be able to share it with my Dad, who suffered a couple of strokes when I was younger. We trekked our way through Spain with our luggage and a portable wheelchair, so I'm sure we were quite a site. However every where we went we encountered generous people who were kind enough to help us . The funny part was people always thought we were from Spain, our only flaw being neither of us speaks Spanish or at least speaks it very well.
Anyway, that is my story, I thought I would share it since I really enjoy reading everyone elses!!!
Cortney
