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Showing posts from December, 2011

Search for Gabriel's decendants comes to conclusion

My mother was nine years old when her brother Gabriel Brambila died tragically. Gabriel was born March 17, 1883 in Ameca, Jal, Mexico at 8:30 p.m. Gabriel's father Felipe Neri Brambila was a circuit judge. His mother was Florencia Contreras de Brambila. Gabriel was the second child after Jose Miguel. My mother never talked about his childhood because Gabriel was twenty one years old when my mother was born. Nevertheless, his tragic death must have left a yearning for keeping in contact with Gabriel's widow and his children. Gabriel became a locomotive engineer during the turbulent years of the Mexican revolution. My mother tells me that it was not unusual for trains to operate without lights as to avoid robberies and sabotage. On the night on September 23, 1913, Gabriel was ordered to operate a train with the head light turned off. According to my grandfather's unpublished book, Gabriel's train collided with another train in a place called Los Ranchos, located between...

Notes from my grandfather

My grandfather Felipe Neri de la Brambila was a Mexican historian. The following excerpt is from his unpublished book: According to the Nueva Galicia historian Sebastian de la Costa Padilla (attorney at law), the following events took place in the year 1527 during the conquest of the state of Jalisco, Mexico by Spanish forces. the state of Jalisco was known as Nueva Galicia during the Spanish occupation of Mexico. Fransisco Cortez de la Buenaventura, first infante (royal prince of Spain; not heir to the throne), nephew of the Marquis Del Valle, was given the order to conquer this area: i.e., Nueva Galicia. Fransisco was accompanied by one hundred Spanish soldiers, especially selected for this task by Fr. Juan Padilla, bishop of Bologna, Italy. The following soldiers accompanied Fransisco: Captain Fransico de la Brambila Lt. Nicolas Corona Sgt. Antonio Pantaleon Gomes Rafael Garcia de Alba Juan de la Cueva Diego Benavides Jose Hernandez Second lt. (alferes) Fransisco...