Question: When any of you first or second generation types

[EFerrari]

try to find stuff on your families, where do you go?

I have a "never google your family" cautionary tale, but the thing is, I'd really like to find stuff out -- like which tracts of land my great grampa had and where in Guatemala my grandmother went to school when women mostly weren't sent to school and that kind of thing.

[Cleita]

1. Well, it's hard to say since my American family dates back

before the twentieth century. My family name, which is Dutch comes from an ancestor who settled in New Amsterdam (New York) before the English came.

On the S. American side my grandmother was born in Chile of Spanish immigrant parents from Catalan. My grandfather was mestizo from the south of Chile and that's about all I know about him. I was born in Chile although a citizen of the US by birth. My mother was naturalized a US citizen seven years after my father married her.

[EFerrari]

2. Well, I found this one careless night googling my grandfather:

"On January 31st, Manuel Antonio Castañeda sentenced Farabundo Martí to death. He was shot and killed on February 1st, 1932. Many Coup d'états followed, including the one that overthrown General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez." http://www.maxtravelz.com/el_salvador.htm

So, be CAREFUL.

My grandfather and Marti are buried in the same graveyard. Is that wierd or what?

I've been trying to write about it but have more questions than thoughts, really. My grandfather was the illegitimate son of a bargirl -- well, in those days, 60% of the births in El Salvador were outside of marriage. The thing is, he had much more in common with people than Marti did -- Marti came from the landed class. And, I know my grandfather HATED Martinez, led a failed coup against him which landed his family in the slums of Mexico City until he was called back after a successful coup.

It's a puzzle, like so much of the history is. There's so much stuff to figure out, it's hard to know where to start short of going to El Salvador.

[Cybergata]

3. I've found information online

looking through Gen Web sites. People have been working to put genealogical data on-line. Have you tried http://www.rootsweb.com/~gtmwgw/indexen.html or forums such as this one at http://genforum.genealogy.com/guatemala/ Do you have family still in Guatemala to help you. I've been give some great information that help from people who live in the area my mother's ancestors lived.

I have to admit for my Hispanic genealogy the Catholic Church records have been the greatest help, plus Fray Angélico Chávez used Diligencias Matrimoniales to produce an amazing book on The Origins of New Mexico families. Also the NM Hispanic Genealogical Research Center has a helpful data base on line. There are other Hispanic Genealogy groups on line that are interested more in other Latin American countries than what I consider the U.S. Latin America or the Southwest.

I almost forgot to include Cyndi's list: http://www.cyndislist.com/hispanic.htm