BARGAS and Related Families
Wedding Picture (abt. 1880) of
My Grandfather Leandro Bargas and Maria de la Luz Ortega
Leandro Bargas is Probably the Seated Gentleman. From an Old (Broken)
Glass Photograph.
If anyone knows for sure....please e mail us at: wrj2@earthlink.net
MY SPANISH HERITAGE by NANCY (OSBURN)
JONES
It was always pretty
clear to us who our grandparents and great-grandparents were on
our father's side of the family. My father Harvey Lee Osburn made
sure by relating stories about them to us.
My mother, Mayme on the other hand, didn't talk much about her family. I remember asking her questions about them and she would say, "I don't know". Always inquisitive as a child, I pestered her to tell me all that she knew. She did tell me her grandmother's names and of course her parents too. I asked her where her family came from but I really don't think she knew. She was born in Aguilar, Colorado and I think she thought that the rest of her family came from there too. Luckily she said one of her grandmother's names was Preciliana Mestas and the other Nicolassa Garcia. It's because of these two names that I was able to trace her family back to Spain, Portugal and the Canary Islands.
Just by chance one day, I was at the Mormon Library in Anaheim, California and I overheard a couple of people talking about Hispanic Roots. I turned around and engaged in conversation with them. Ophelia Marques was one of the two people and little did I know by that chance meeting, how much knowledge I would gain about my Mother's family.
Ophilia speaks excellent Spanish and she painstakingly helped me go through rolls and rolls of film that I had ordered from New Mexico. My mom didn't know, but her family lived in New Mexico before they went to Colorado.
I was ready to give up rolling film after film and Ophilia said "stop"! I rolled it back and there was Priciliana Mestas married to Ramon. These were my mom's grandparents!
It was easy finding my Mom's family because the Spanish had the nice habit of including the wife's maiden name in the census as well as other documents. Also, Frey Angelico Chavez, wrote a large book titled, "Origins of New Mexico Families". With the help of Ophilia Marquez and Fray Angelico Chavez's book, I was able to trace my Mom's family back about 18 generations.