Family History Interviews

Mom's Interview 

My mother's grandfather on her fathers side is, James Edward Battjes.

My mother's grandmother on her fathers side is, Mary Jane Hybel.

My mother's grandmother is Delores Forche. Her history is listed on this Blog. She was one of the first women executives as Head of Computer Security (in the 70s-80s).

My mother's grandfather on her mother's side is Billy Cook. He owned "Cook Brothers Dairy" which had been in the family for generations. He also was a police officer.

My mother's father James Edward Battjes, was born Denis Ray Case, in Kalamazo Michigan. He was adopted by the Battjes Family when he was a toddler. The records of his birth mother are blocked. The Battjes family has books written on them because they were part of a big immigration in the 1800s from Holland. He had two sisters and a brother. He owned a car repair shop in Texas. My mother is his only child. He had six grandchildren.

My mom's mother Jacqueline Cook, daughter of Dee and Billy cook. She married James Edward Battjes, and had one child with him.

My mother Melissa Cordova is a student at the moment. She is the hardworking mother of six children. She is married to Hector Cordova.

*I was not able to find many names and dates. I'm going to go and look other places for them.

-Lauren

Dad's Interview 

I interview my dad about my family genealogy because he has researched most of out families information.

Where did you find out family information?

"Well, I used the LDS Genealogy centers, families working together to research, original documents, birth and Social Security records, other Genealogy societies. A part of my family has books written about their research and accomplishments. And your mothers family has books written about the "Antrims" which she is descended from. I also got names of some of our "Antrim" family because an some one sent your Grandma Dee a letter with all the names that they had researched from journals of the "Antrims". She gave me a copy of the letter so I could insert them in our family tree."

Where did you meet obstacles in your research?
"Like I said, it's hard to find the names and stories of the "Antrims" because they kept most of their records in a book, and it's not available to the public. I also had problems with "adoption" laws, I cannot trace your grandfathers birth family because of them."

What other kinds of interesting things did you find out during your research?
"Well, throughout all the generations of women in our family we have many feminists in our family. In fact, your grandmothers all the way back were getting divorced and working as lawyers, doctors long before the feminist movement in both Mexico and America."

Family history is fascinating to me. I absolutely love hearing about the amazing things that my ancestors have done. It makes me proud of who I am, and grateful for the opportunities that I now have because of their actions. My family is spectacular. And now I know what kind people I come from. It makes me want to be better so that one day 80 years from now one of my future relatives will say "Wow, Grandma Lauren was awesome. I want to do great things just like she did."

Thank you so much dad for sharing with me. And for waking up early on a Saturday to help me!

-Lauren

Immigration Roots of My Family

I think it is very important for the children to know the language of the country they are born in. My father did not teach my siblings and I Spanish even though he is from Mexico. One of the reasons it is good to speak the language of my families orgin is that I could communicate better with my grandparents who speak Spanish. It is really  important for children to know their family roots because it shows them where they came from. From my experience with this project, I see that I am a decedent of hard working people, who even though they were immigrants to America they became successful.

My mother's grandmother on her fathers side, Mary Jane Hybles, is first generation American. Her parents immigrated to America from Holland. They did not have a very hard immigration. They were financially well off, the spoke Dutch and English, so the transition was not very hard for them.

My mother's grandfathers family on her fathers side, Battjes, family immigrated from Holland as well in the 1800s, they also came from money. The family owned businesses.

My mother's grandmother on her mothers side was the Antrims. (More information to come)

Two branches of the Brachetti family immigrated to Mexico. They came from Alto Detrento in Italy, a city that was surrounded by Germany, France as well. They come from royal blood lines, from Spanish and English royalty. Even today some of the Brachetti family is in Italy. Recently my aunt has been in contact with one of our families long lost cousin. One of the reasons why the Brachetti family was so spread out is because of the family fueds. Many times after a parent died the children would fight over land and money, many hard feelings were set in place because of this, and they never spoke to each other again.

-Lauren

My Family Legends are Actually True!

I was going to Debunk the legend that I'm related to Billy the Kid but unfortunately I'm not all that great at tracing genealogy lines.

So I decided to Debunk the legend of my great-great-great-great-grandfather Emilio Brachetti. I was told that he helped design and build Oaxaca, Mexico. (As mentioned in a later post) I decided to Google his name, and while googling I found at least 10 websites that confirming this. He influenced Mexico for good. He help to build a machine to bring water to the inner city, he designed Oaxaca, and worked in many things with the government. He accomplished many things in his life, and taught his children some of his knowledge. The things he taught stayed in the family until my grandmother.

Note:

I'm having problems debunking the legend about Billy the Kid, mostly because he is not blood related to me. He is realted by his mother's marriage to an Antrim.

If I cannot find enough evidence to back this up, I will replace this with P"roject 4". My Grandma Dee taught my sisters and I how to make her yummy cookies. Or I could make the kolache recipe that both my mother and grandmother use, and taught me how to make.