President of Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research (SHHAR)
May 16, 2018
At the last general meeting, Letty gave a lively, spirited presentation pertaining to investigating Hispanic ancestors.
Much of what she presented also has universal applications in genealogy, regardless of ethnicity. One admonition was “There is no truth without proof.” In other words, a genealogist must always have clear concise documentation to verify what is believed to be a fact. For example, census records, an excellent source of information, are only as accurate as the person giving the information, the person receiving the information and the person transcribing the information. Census records need to be verified.
When investigating an ancestor, Letty recommended searching various spellings of the last name, plus finding aunts, uncles, grandparents, other relatives, and sponsors at religious events. Beware of idiosyncrasies on forming letters and entering data. For example, Spanish priests loved to fill each line of a document with letters. If they came to the end of a line and still had a couple letters left in the word, they would add a hyphen and place the couple of letters at the first of the next line. This created confusion when the hyphenated word was a last name.
She also illustrated the variations on how letters were formed and numerous spellings of the same last name. In summary, an entertaining and informative presentation was experienced by all.
Charles L. Hand
May 27, 2018