Delving into your family history might seem like a dusty pursuit, but the rewards of genealogy extend far beyond uncovering names and dates on a chart. It’s knowing where you come from, the journeys your ancestors took, and the cultures they shaped you with, which enriches your sense of self. It's like fitting a missing piece into your personal puzzle. It’s learning about the lives of your ancestors that makes history feel personal. Their trials and triumphs become part of your narrative, deepening your appreciation for your own existence. But most rewarding of all is uncovering all the hidden stories and forgotten branches of your family tree. Almost, like opening a time capsule. It can fill in gaps, mend fractured relationships, and even lead to exciting discoveries about family ties you never knew existed. By documenting your family history, you become a steward of memories, ensuring your ancestors' stories and experiences are remembered and passed down to future generations. Overall, whether you're driven by curiosity, a yearning for belonging, or simply a desire to honor your ancestors, genealogy offers a rewarding journey of self-discovery, connection, and understanding. It's an investment in your own story, and the stories of those who came before you. So, pick up your spade (metaphorically speaking) and start digging – the past has incredible treasures waiting to be unearthed.
"Some Family Trees have just a bunch of nuts. Remember, it is the nuts that make the tree worth shaking"
In each family there is one who seems to be called to find the ancestors. To be the one not simply to document, but to resurrect. It is to breathe life into forgotten chapters, and to whisper their names into the present. It is to honor the living tapestry woven from threads of memory, loss, and love, stretching from the dust of forgotten graves to the beating hearts of those yet to come. For in remembering them, we become the keepers of their stories, the living voices of the past, the bridge between generations, and the storytellers of our own.
The journey is rarely linear, the path often fraught with dead ends and disappointments. Records vanish, memories blur, and whispers morph into myths. Yet, each discovery, however small, brings a spark of life to the forgotten. A birth certificate found nestled in an attic trunk, a faded war medal tucked away in a forgotten drawer, a faded letter revealing a love story lost to time – each fragment speaks of lives lived, battles fought, and dreams dreamt. They are whispers from the beyond, echoes of love and loss, testaments to the enduring human spirit.
EXPLORE the Branches of our Family Trees tracing back generations.
Antolin Esteban Aurelio Soto Hernandez
His heart, as expansive as his fields, held boundless love for thirteen children, and numerous grandchildren. He rose with the sun and retired with the moon, the rhythm of his work mirroring the cycle of seasons. His sweat watered the earth, his toil yielding crops that sustained his family.
Maria de Jesus (Chucha) Polanco
Her strength was a silent force, a steady hand that nurtured her family through thick and thin. Her unwavering love was a refuge, a haven for thirteen children and countless grandchildren. The values she instilled in them: love, kindness and resilience, echo in the strength of family ties.
Juan Jose de Jesus Leon Valdes
His life blossomed within the ink-stained walls of the printing press, at Imprenta Valdes, in Güines. His nimble fingers shaping letters into stories, announcements, and dreams. As the head typesetter, he wove words into existence, imprinting them onto paper like whispers etched in time.
Maria Teresa Marta Beatriz Martinez Alvarez
Her heart, vast and boundless, held room for each member of her ever-growing family. Her love poured over them like sunshine, warming their lives with endless affection. Grandchildren were drawn to her like moths to a flame, finding comfort and joy in her gentle presence.
The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought and some died to make and keep us a nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers. That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those who we had never known before. 'It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers. That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those who we had never known before.' by Della M. Cummings Wright.
This tapestry of surnames traces the intricate threads of lineage, whispering stories of migration, occupation, and ancestral heritage. Each one a beacon guiding the way back through generations, revealing shared ancestry and forgotten faces.
We make every effort to document our research. If you have something you would like to add, please contact us.
