More on searching for a family for Simona.

In my search for finding a family for Simona, I found a pilot site for FamilySearch.org.  At this site, I searched for my Grandfather Tiburcio Luna and his brothers, Lino, Miguel and Martin.  Well I found them and a couple surprises too!

In searching this pilot site, I found the Baptismal Records for my grandfather and his brothers but one surprise was that my grandfather was listed as Jose Tiburcio De Luna.  His brothers also had Jose before their name and were also De Luna.  It even listed my great-grandfather as Salome de Luna.  At first I was estatic to finally find the documents I needed to place my grandfather in Mexico but then that turned to an identity crisis.  For all of my life, my maiden name was Luna, but now I find out that I am De Luna.  It has an enormous affect on me for a day or two.  I wondered why my Grandfather changed his name.  It was on all of the documents that I had from the time he entered into the U.S., he always put down on his Immigration Manifest, the 1920 & 1930 Census and on his Petition for Naturalization and supporting documents that he was Tiburcio Luna.  Even on the WWI Draft registration that was required in 1918, he put his name down as Tiburcio Luna.  Why did he drop the De???  I wish I knew.

The other surprise I found was that in doing the search on the pilot site, I found not only Simona's Baptismal Registration, but also a daughter named Euphemia.  Now I was puzzled!  I had never heard of this name in any genealogical discussions with my dad or with any of my aunts and cousins that I have interviewed.  I am still puzzled.  My one logical solution is to interview my dad about this and to gain more information about the family.  Hopefully this will shed some light on this puzzle and I will be able to unravel it.  I also want to note that on both Euphemia and Simona's Baptismal Record, it shows my grandfather, their father, as Tiburcio Luna.  This tells me that he presented himself as Tiburcio Luna and not Jose Tiburcio De Luna.  Again....why?

So, my next step is to schedule a mutually agreeable time with my dad to ask him about Simona and Euphemia.  Maybe Euphemia is my Aunt Jessies real name and "Jessie" is a nickname???  We will see.

A family for Simona Luna

Several years ago, ok, more like 15 or so years ago, I was attending my dad's family reunion.  Back in the day, the family reunion was held every year.  My dad was one of 10 living kids so it was normal to have close to 100 family members attending the reunion.  It was very easy for me to not remember who was who because for all of my growing up life, I lived with my mom.  I knew my mom's family like the back of my hand.  We usually visited them every weekend and in the summer, we has several sleepovers at my Uncle Charlie's house.  At this Luna (My dad's family) Family reunion, my dad was re-introducing me to my Aunts.  After the introductions, as we were walking away, my dad asked me if I remember my aunts.  I told him no and for the next few weeks after I felt sad.  Sad because I knew so little about my dad, how he grew up, and who his family really was.  So this sadness spurned me into action and I started learning what I could about genealogy and started researching my Dad's family tree.

I found out a lot of things that I never knew about my Dad's family tree.  When I first interviewed my Dad, I found out that my dad was not one of 10 kids, but one of 12 kids!!!  From the very beginning he told me that the other two kids died very young.  With my Dad being the second youngest, he really didn't have a lot of memories or details, but he told me that one died when they were a baby and the other was a boy who passed away around 12 years old from appendicitis.  So for the last 12 years or so, I had no clue who these other two kids were but they always had a spot on our family tree. 

Last week, after paying for and using Ancestry.com, I found who I believe is the young boy.  His name is Marcelino who shows up in the 1930 Census as a 5 year old.  He was 10 years old when my Dad was born but I don't have proof of that because the 1940 Census won't be available until sometime in 2012.  But I was still wondering who the other child was.  During the research that I did last week when I found Marcelino, I found other pieces of information that helped me truly understand my family immigration to this country.  I had several years ago found that my Grandfather Tiburcio had immigrated in 1918 with my Grandmother, two daughters named Jesus & Jucua and my Great-Grandmother (Tiburcio's mom) Monica Fernandez from my Grandfather's Application for Naturalization records.  What I found out last week was that my Grandfather didn not come with my Great-Grandmother, she came with his brother Lino almost a month later.  I found this by getting a copy of the Immigration Manifest that everyone immigrating to the US had to fill out.  It wasn't until the day after finding this document, that I found the other child. 

The document that I looked at was the front of the Manifest, I didn't scroll down to see the back side of the form which list my Grandmother Vicenta, My aunt Jesus "Jessie" who was 6 years old, and my new aunt Simona who was 5.  Well finding this information made me sad again, because I knew that I found several years ago, my Grandfather in the 1920 Census and Simona was not listed with his family.  So that leads me to conclude that she passed away sometime between the time they immigrated to the US through El Paso, Tx in July 1918 and the day the 1920 Census was taken. 

So for the rest of my genealogy research, I will be finding a family for Simona.  I feel a need to bring all of this together for her so that all of my family, both near and far will know of our long lost Aunt Simona.

Your are not the boss of me!!

No you are not the boss of me Mr. Coconut Cake slice!  I smelled your heavenly aroma as soon as I walked into the cafeteria for lunch, but your temptation spells won't work on me!  I have stronger will power and will pass you by.  Is it easy?  No, but I have 6 months, 3 week and 2 days to lose 30 lbs for my wedding and as everyone reading this blog is my witness, I will succeed!!!  And yes, I have been using my strength serum called water.  I drink it everyday.  ;-)

So goodbye Mr. Coconut Cake slice.  We won't be seeing each other soon!

Wedding plans and layoffs do not go hand in hand.

In today's day and age, it will be hard for you to find someone who is NOT affected by the downturn of our economy.  Everyone is affected by it.  Even big corporations and city municipalities.  I am affected by this downturn.  I work for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.  DWP is an agency of the City of Los Angeles.  With the recent credit rating given to the City, the word layoffs have been swirling every City department and office in Los Angeles.  You can read about the credit rating change here. 

Situations like these can be daunting to the newly engaged and those well into their wedding planning.  What can you do?  Well Mr. Teddybear and I had a nice talk about it ourselves.  What would we do with our wedding plans if I was laid off from my job?  After much discussion, we found that we have several options when it comes to our wedding:

1.     The quickest and most efficient cost-cutting step would be to cut the guest list down.  The cost of the food should be almost 50% of your wedding budget, so if you cut the guest list down, this step could be a significant savings.

2.     Do more DIY projects on top of the DIY projects I am already planning and have done.  The one caveat I have about DIY projects for weddings is to do the projects your comfortable with and ask for lots of help!  Now with that being said, I have always been a crafty, thinking outside the box kinda gal and doing DIY projects is just right up my alley.  Mr. Teddybear and I discussed the possibility of doing our own flowers and decorations.  There are a plethora of how-to videos online to show you how to create your own bouquets, floral wedding arch decoration, and centerpieces.  If you are not comfortable or are not as crafty, find out if you have a friend or family member who is and enlist their help.  Just remember to allow enough time to complete the work and that you don't have to do it all yourselves.  The next option goes hand-in-hand with this one as well.

3.     Another option for Mr. Teddybear and I would be to cancel our contract with the reception venue (yes we would more than likey lose our deposit but we are hopeful that they would have a heart) and have the smaller wedding and reception at our house.  We decided how and where we would put our furniture, where we would have our ceremony, where we would eat, and where we might dance.

4.     The last all, end all option for Mr. Teddybear and I would be to postpone our wedding to when we are back on our feet.  For me personally, I don't consider this an option.  I love this man in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer.  I want to marry him whether we are poor or not.

These are the options that me and Mr. Teddybear came up with yesterday.   If I am laid off we would definately do option 1 & 2.  We would only consider option 3 if there were certain circumstances involved and if all else fails, then we would go with option 4.  I hope these options are helpful for those out there who are in the same boat as I am. Can you think of anything we missed?  Let me know and post a comment.

Have a blessed day!

 

Its not easy to pick up again after such a loss.

I'm sorry that I haven't posted since the death of my brother-in-law Sam.  I didn't realize how much it would affect me and my blogging.  I know that he would have been supportive of what I write about so I am going to continue and try to post my blogs on time.

I just wanted to put one short blog today.  Not too long, but I wanted to post one of my favorite craft websites.  It is Better Homes and Gardens.  Under their Crafts tab, there are a lot of craft ideas.  I signed up for their e-mail newsletter and they send you several ideas and articles from their website.  The latest newsletter had ideas on how to use your craft scraps so that you don't end up tossing them out.  It also lists how to recycle certain household items into craft projects.  I love that their ideas are in slideshow form.  It makes it easier to read.  I get several ideas for my craft projects from this website.

I think that is it for today. 

Have a great day!  Try to stay dry and be safe if you have to drive in the rain!

Till next time!