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My Brick Fortress
My brick wall is more like a brick fortress. My wall begins with my great paternal grandmother Rosa Gutierrez, born in Fresnillo, Zacatecas in 1864. Her parents are listed as Jose Maria Gutierrez & Mauricia Enriquez in several sources related to her marriage. Her parent’s names are listed as maternal grandparents on her children’s baptismal records as well. I have had success in finding Rosa’s catholic marriage record to my great grandfather Teodoro de la Torre. The sources I have to support their marriage are from Fresnillo, Zacatecas. I have their civil marriage registration, catholic marriage information document & their catholic marriage record. Family knowledge is that Rosa was orphaned at a young age & it is believed that she is an only child. Further family information is that her dad Jose Maria Gutierrez died when she was 1 yr old & her mom died when she was 5. I have searched for Rosa’s baptismal record in indexed & unindexed records & looked for her civil birth registration but ran into a brick wall. I have not been able to find civil death records or catholic burial records for her parent’s. Another brick wall. Rosa & Teodoro were married at La Purificacion Catholic church in Fresnillo, Zacatecas. The marriage information lists her adopted mom as Carmen Diaz de Rodriguez. I started putting together Carmen Diaz’s family tree in hopes of finding a family connection but have not been able to get far because the records I need to verify relationships are not there. Another brick wall. I have looked for Rosa & her parent’s in Zacatecas, Jalisco & Aquascalientes to no avail. I have gone through all of the witnesses listed in her marriage records in hopes of finding clues, another brick wall. I have found & connected all the padrino’s to her 11 children & cannot find any hints that would lead me to more information on her parents. Another brick wall. When I recently went to Teodoro’s family tree I was encouraged by finding a family member somewhere in the tree married to a Gutierrez. Unfortunately I quickly came to another brick wall. I have searched different spellings of Enriquez & even searched for the surname Mauricio Enriquez & nothing has come up. Based on Rosa’s birth year I have searched for her parent’s marriage records & their baptismal records in indexed & non indexed records in Family Search in Zacatecas, Jalisco & Aquascalientes. One brick wall after another when it comes to finding more information on Rosa’s parent’s Jose Maria Gutierrez & Mauricia Enriquez. I have searched for them as “others” in Family Search thinking they could have been padrino’s but another brick wall. I do possess a couple of pictures of Rosa when she was in her 50’s & 80’s & to me she looks like she has indigenous blood. I don’t know yet if this insight will help me down the road in my search. I hope someone is able to give me some tools to knock down my brick fortress.
I do want to add that another family member has been doing genealogy research for over 20 years & she has run into the same brick walls. She too hasn’t been able to get past Jose Maria & Mauricia.
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3 Replies
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Cynthia your research sounds very detailed. I can only hope that one day more records are digitized and indexed that could help. I have rarely done research in Zacatecas but try and see if there are census records for the area or church padrones. Also, have you tested your DNA? It is a long shot but you may find a distant cousin that could have more clues.
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Hi Moises,
Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately there are no padrone records for La Purificación on Family Search. They don’t have burial records either. It’s very strange that there are no civil death records either for the time frame I need. Do you think reaching out to the church directly could help? I figure if the records existed Family Search would have acquired them. I have not done a DNA test. Maybe sometime in the future I will.
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Hello Cynthia,
Zacatecas was home to my Maternal Grandfather and part of his ancestors: Valparaíso (El Peinillo, Hacienda de Lobatos (Lovatos), and most of the neighboring communities of Zacatecas. Because of that, I keep tabs (Bookmarks) of every page I can. FamilySearch, it seems, has added information pertaining to “La Purificación.” I’ve added these screenshots and links below for you.
Also, I’ve done my Autosomal DNA Test with Ancestry, MyHeritage, 23andMe. It may be possible that we could be related. Have you taken your DNA Test? If you need further assistance, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Registros parroquiales, 1860-1917
- Iglesia Católica. La Purificación (Fresnillo, Zacatecas) (Main Author)
- Archivo Diocesano de Zacatecas (Repository)
https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/331504?availability=Family%20History%20Library
<b data-inline-text=”true”>Mexico, Zacatecas, Catholic Church Records, 1605-1980
<b data-inline-text=”true”>https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1804458
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