FOLKS News

10/08/2022

Maria Crisanta. I grew up knowing her as my great grandma. It's interesting that although I only spoke Spanish as a child, I don't recall calling her anything other than Welita de daddy or Great grandma. Her children all carried her maiden name, Chavez, as their middle name. About 18 years ago, one of my Davila cousins mentioned that Chavez was actually her adoptive parents last name. About 4 years ago, my Tia Lalie (Oralia) showed me some information she tracked down showing that in fact my great grandma's maiden last name was Ibarra or Ybarra and not Chavez. Last night I was able to finally find original documents and sources to verify this information. This opened the door to verifying her parents names, adoptive parents names, and I've even uncovered the names of my great great grandparents! Mexican records show her parents lived in Zacatecas, Mexico before migrating to San Antonio. Her parents were married in Mexico, they're children were born in Mexico. However, by 1895, they are registered at the San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio. They have their children's baptisms recorded and the church formalizes the marriage of the parents. We previously thought she was born in 1895. However, she was born in 1893, but because the church recorded her birth and baptism in 1895 it caused the birth year to be mistaken. So now I'm continuing to research to try and find out what happened that by 1910 she's living at St Joseph's orphanage in San Antonio and later that same year she is taken in by the Chavez family. This new look at her file also alerted me to something I hadn't thought of before. I haven't been able to find out where her husband Guillermo (William) Thompson went after his father, John Oliver Thompson, died. Obviously, he went to San Antonio since that is where she lived and where they must have met. So now I'll try to find him in San Antonio in that time period. Maybe this will lead me to Felicitas Longoria Thompson.

04/11/2022

Thank you to Zamora Photography for having this image colorized. Guillermo Thompson was the son of John Oliver Thompson and his wife, Felicitas Longoria. John was bilingual. His wife spoke only Spanish. Guillermo is Spanish for William. John's father was William B. Thompson. W.B. Thompson accomplished many things in his life after serving for many years as foreman at the Santa Anita ranch, then in the civil war, he returned to the Santa Anita ranch. In 1866 he was elected chief justice of Hidalgo county. A few years later his son, John, is elected sheriff of Hidalgo county. Generations from this line have continued to serve God, family, community, country. 156 years later John's great great great grandson is seeking election to the office of sheriff of Onslow county, NC. Vote JJ Zamora for Onslow County Sheriff

⭐️This is Guillermo Thompson. He was my 2x great grandfather. Born around 1877 and died in 1965 , There is not a lot known about him. He was born in San Benito Texas, and he was a cowboy who worked for the pony express.

⭐️We do know a lot more about his father John O. Thompson he was the Sheriff of Hidalgo County, County Commissioner, and also protected the border. He would often travel from Texas into Mexico and arrest cattle thieves and bring them back into the United States. He used his knowledge and connections on both sides of the boarder to arrest thieves and return cattle.

⭐️We will definitely do another posting about John and his wife Felicitas Longoria whose family has deep ties to Hidalgo county, Starr County, the Rio Grande Valley region.

⭐️I have been learning so much about our family and the humble servants that they were. Many were in law enforcement, small business owners, farmers, land owners and more. My mom found out that my 4x Great Grandfather was the Chief Justice in 1866 as well.

⭐️ My mom shared the original photo with me and I was able to get it restored slightly and colorized. I would appreciate your vote on May 17th and the opportunity to build on their legacy. I want to be a servant of our community, do the job honorably, and be a leader for our county.

02/11/2022

The eyebrow helps identify her.



I still have blackbird stragglers 🤯

02/11/2022

Creating, crafting, crocheting have given me 7 years of less stress. I've come a long way from where I started. So this is end of 2021 project. Joints that move, mouth with opening for bottle, and improved hair. I believe by end of 2022 my eyes and hair will greatly improve.

02/10/2022

Curious little fellow. It's a beautiful sitting like day. This little guy joined me in the garden.

02/09/2022

It's February and I'm enjoying the 79° sunny day. Everything inside will sit on the back burner. Today is for sitting outdoors daydreaming of spring. I can see the lake and mountain range in the distance while the hummingbirds entertain me.

02/09/2022

This week was the most difficult yet for me. The assignment is the rule of thirds. I looked at photo examples and it seemed easy enough. Then I decided to go do some reading. While reading, I remembered a convo I'd had with Bree of years ago on this very topic. After many tries I finally selected this one. I had about 20 lesser goldfinches at the feeders. But this little guy went to perch alone and away from the pack. It's like he was offering to help me out.

01/14/2022

Marriage documentation for my 4th great grandparents, JOSE ANTONIO LONGORIA y MARÍA GARVACIA ZAMORA. They went in to be the parents of my 3x ggf Jose de los Santos Longoria, father of my 2x gg Felicitas Longoria, mother if my ggf Guillermo Thompson, father of Juan, Rosa, Fela, Santos, Pauline, Chrisanta, y Pete Thompson.

I made the document black and white to more easily read it. But I'm still looking into these three things: 1. He is listed as a Spaniard. 2. She is listed as Mestiza. 3. From 26, 27, 28 December of 1803 they did something. . . Looks like AMONUTAION.

These records from Mexico are a treasure because they list parents of both bride and groom and if parents are deceased it will state it. It also requires to declare if they are legitimate children of those parents. The witnesses are often listed helping to draw a broader picture of family relations.

(This Zamora line not to be confused with my son's Zamora line.)

07/05/2020

Antonio Leopoldo Longoria, 1866 -1915, son of Jose de los Santos Longoria and Rosa Sanchez Gallardo, my 3x great grandparents as they were also Felicitas Longoria Thompson's parents. In 2016, finally a marker was placed to mark the place where Antonio and his father in law were murdered by Texas Rangers. The State of Texas eventually acknowledged this horrendous act of murder by a Texas Ranger. Antonio was a teacher, bilingual, born in an area that was part of Mexico, later part of the Republic of Texas, and eventually part of the USA. These people have lived and continue to live in this border area that is largely Hispanic. Aside from enduring battles between Mexicans and white Americans these people also endured thru the Apache wars in the 1880s. Mexican Americans have for years had to find a way to be proud of their Mexican culture and continue to excel as natural born American citizens, proud Tejanos!

02/11/2019

Growing up I always lived in Littlefield, TX until I graduated high school. I always lived with my parents who were always only married to each other. I always lived with my siblings. So our home was always full of people and a line to the restroom was not uncommon. My dad on the other hand didn't always grow up with his parents nor with all his siblings. He had half siblings and sadly a brother that never lived to adulthood. But two people that were his constants were his sisters: Lali (Oralia) and Janie (Juanita) Thompson. In adulthood my aunt Lali married my Tio Ben and they lived always on a ranch to my recollection on the Texas Gulf coast. My Aunt Janie went to make her life in San Antonio and she married my Uncle Rene and they raised their children in that beautiful city. My aunts never returned to live in Littlefield. After arriving to Littlefield, my dad and sisters were moved to Denver City. I'm guessing Uncle Sam went there to live. But that was only for a couple of years. After that they returned to Littlefield and Dad never moved away from Littlefield again. In fact I lived most of my life at a variety of addresses on Wicker street before our final family home on the corner of Wicker and 8th. As teens my parents lived across the street from each other on N WIcker. Recently, I found photos from the time my dad and his sisters lived in Denver City and attended school there. These were from 1959 to 1960 when Dad Richard Thompson was in 7th and 8th grade. Tia Oralia was 6th and 7th grade and Tia Janie in 1st and 2nd.

01/15/2019

The incredulous news that his smile was forever gone from this earth reached me in Florida. Although I hadn't physically seen him in a while, I was always happy to hear from him in a private message or social media. Joe Steven seemed to always face life head on, never taking the easy road, never compromising his adventure to appease his critics. He was the baby of his family. His parents were Oralia "Nena" Davila and Joe "Chema" Martinez. Nena was the daughter of Domingo Davila and Rosa Thompson. So Joe Steven and I shared the same great grandparents, Guillermo Thompson and Maria Crisanta Chavez. Please keep the Salinas, Martinez and Davila family in your prayers. To honor his memory, pass along a smile when the world expects your anger. Rest in peace little cousin.

01/06/2019

The photo is of Juan Chavez Thompson, son of Guillermo Thompson and Maria Crisanta Chavez. He was also the birth father of Richard Thompson, my father. Biologically, he was my grandfather, but I didn't know him very well. We would visit him once a year in Victoria, Texas at the home he and his second wife owned. My siblings and I thought it was so cool that he lived on Thompson Street. He and his second wife, Julia, didn't have children of their own. In the earlier years I remember visiting them was fun because they had a nice yard to play in, but the set back was having to use the outhouse and the shower was in the kitchen. Today I found his WWII draft card that offered some information taken while he was married to my father's mother, Santos Anzaldua. If you scroll down to the photo of my padrino, Pete C Thompson, you will see these two brothers looked very much alike.
(Photo courtesy the Oralia Thompson Barrios collection)