Family ties

Trine (Trinidad)

The last week of April, my sister, Mary, and I went to Chicago to visit an aunt, Trine. According to my family tree sofware, she is not an aunt but a 1st cousin, once removed. She and my mother were 1st cousins - their mothers were sisters. However, because they practically grew up as sisters, we call her an aunt.

Trine

Trine and Mom

Trine in working on her 92nd year. She has a mind that comes and goes. Since I last saw her she has become more frail. She is the last surviving member from the family core.

Trine used to travel to Texas every summer and spend 2 months away from the Chicago area. Since she had not been able to travel in the last two years, we decided to make the trip to spend a week with her. It was sad to know that she lives in isolation with her son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. She is not part of any conversation and is rarely drawn out of her room for social interaction. While we were there, her son commented, "I haven't seen Mom this energetic in a long time." I suggested that he spend time with her.

From Trine,  I learned that although she was born in Cotulla, Texas, her father decided to pull up stakes and move the family back to Mexico. The only one happy about that move was the father. When he died, Trine and her mother Cirila, moved in with my grandmother here in Weslaco, Texas. I have a vivid image of my aunt Cirila. She taught me to get rid of the hiccups by placing a burnt match stick on my ear. She also placed citrus leaves on her temples to cure headaches. Cirila dies of tuberculosis at a state hospital. Cirila was my grandmother's (maternal) sister.

Teresa

     While we were in the Chicago area, my sister and I drove to East Chicago Indiana to visit with another 1st cousin, once removed. My father and and she were 1st cousins. Her mother and my father's mother were sisters. We had not seen Teresa in over 40 years.

   

Teresa is 77 or 78 years of age. When I interacted with her, she was already married with kids. My last contact with her may have been the year after I graduated from high school. She is psychologically scarred by how she was treated as a child. She was the scapegoat in the family and usually got the beating to boot. Today she struggles to get around because of her eyesight. She has macular degeneration and needs a strong magnifier to see a picture or read a page.

Her contribution to my family's history was identifying someone in this picture.

I had been carrying this picture with me for the last three and a half years. Every person I met, I would ask if they knew who was in the picture. I knew that the young woman on the right was Vidala, another of my father's first cousins. Teresa quickly identified the older woman as her grandmother. That means that this woman, Brigida Argueta, is my paternal great grandmother. My father's mother, Estefana, was a sister to Vidala, and daughter to Brigida. Now I am able to identify this old woman in two other pictures. A side note to Brigida, I have yet to find someone who can say anything nice about her.

When my father's mother died, at the age of 30, the three kids were quickly sent off to live with relatives. My grandfather had a new woman and she did not care for the children of the first wife. My aunt would tell of her difficult life in the house of her grandmother. My aunt was a house servant at the age of 11 or 12. There was no time for play or relaxation. There was always something to be done in the house. Brigida also scarred my aunt with the phrase, "This is not your house...." - why are you sitting, why are you not washing, etc.

Identifying this woman, added another small piece to the puzzle.

Families intermarrying

       Almost three years ago, I discovered a houseful of relatives in Monterrey, Mexico. This group of Vidaleses are 2nd cousins. My sister and I commented on how much this group resembled out family group. The only explanation was that there was family intermarriages. I knew one side of the connection, the Vidales side.

       My grandfather, Felicianao Vidales, had three brothers. One of the brothers, Andres, was the grandfather of these second cousins. I assumed that two Vidales brothers married sisters from another family, the Argueta family. Here is an example of the similarities.

Beatrice Vidales                                               Aurora Vidales                                       Veronica Vidales                                                                      

Estefana Villanueva Argueta

From left to right - my aunt, her cousin (aunt to the newly discovered Vidales, my niece (my youngest brothers daughter.) The bottom photo is my paternal grandmother. She died at the age of 30, in 1925.

Although my niece is out of this theory, the similarities between to families led me to conclude that there were brothers marrying sisters.

After my latest visit to Monterrey, and introducing the newly identified picture of my great grandmother, I am safe to say that Vidales brothers married Argueta sisters. One of those sisters was my great grandmother. Now I just need to find documentation of that fact.

My next trip to Monterrey has to be during the week to allow me to visit a records department and try to find documentation of births and deaths.