Marriage License for Joseph Jones & Amanda Irwin

Last November I wrote a post on the wives of my 3rd-great-grandfather, Joseph Thomas Jones. In that post, I listed Joseph's second marriage to Amanda L. Cooper Irwin. From the FamilySearch database, Tennessee County Marriages, 1790-1950, is a copy of the marriage license for Joseph and Amanda, signed 18 August 1891 in Blount County, Tennessee.

Source: FamilySearch [link]

The next image in the set included a more decorative version of the marriage license, see below:

Their marriage did not last, and the divorce was finalized on 20 April 1897.

A reminder to back up your files

Yesterday's winter storm proved more than the usual annoyance, as it knocked out our power and led to a morning basement flood. Fortunately we were ok, various stacks of genealogy files were placed on shelves away from the water, no electronics were damaged (the house still stands), but this served as a reminder to properly save important files and records.

One of my tasks during the Christmas break will be to scan & file away more documents. The opportunity to thoroughly clean out the basement is a blessing too.

Wordless Wednesday - Holiday Lights

Photo by Patrick Jones - 9:30 Club, Washington DC, Dec 2012

Working Backward Through the Records

Last Friday, working backward through the Mexican Civil Registration files for Hermosillo, Sonora, I stumbled across a death record for my 2nd-great-grandfather, Manuel Portillo. For the longest time, I had his name but little other records to go on. Earlier in November I found the baptism record for my great-grandmother, Manuela Portillo, showing Manuel Portillo and Teresa Diaz as parents.

Other than these records, and a potential find in the 1899 Tucson City Directory, I had little to go on for Manuel. But working backward through 1841 images in the Defunciones 1900-1916 (death records) for Hermosillo proved to be quite useful.

On 6 October 1903, Manuel and Teresa lost a 10 month old son, Ramon Portillo, in Hermosillo. I knew from the 1940 US Census that Teresa had 10 children, so this was the first record of a child of theirs who did not make the journey to America.

Source: FamilySearch, Defunciones, 1900-1916, image 360 of 1841

Another important find has provided me with the names of my 3rd & 4th-great-grandmothers - the death record for Manuel Portillo's mother Maria Bernal lists her mother's name as Manuela Calles. Maria passed on 18 April 1903. She was born about 1841. From my rough translation of Maria's death record, permission was granted to place her in the family vault of Manuel Flores in Hermosillo. There's more work to be done to understand how the Portillo, Bernal, Calles and Flores families are connected, but it's great to have these additional names as I explore this side of the tree.

Source: FamilySearch, Defunciones, 1900-1916, image 326 of 1841

One more image for this post, is from the Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I don't know if this is what the family vault looks like in Hermosillo. This is helping me picture a final resting place for Manuel and Maria.

Photo by Patrick Jones, Buenos Aires, AR

Death Record for Manuel Portillo

I have been looking page by page through several thousand images in the Mexico, Sonora Civil Registration files for Hermosillo, trying to find an entry for my 2nd-great-grandfather, Manuel Portillo. This afternoon I found an entry dated 27 March 1906, on image 559 of 1841 in the Defunciones 1900-1916 for Hermosillo.

Source: FamilySearch, Sonora Civil Registration, Defunciones 1900-1916

My rough translation is that Manuel died at 6pm on 26 March, and that he was 48 years old (putting his approximate birth year as 1858). The record also lists his parents as Manuel Portillo and Maria Bernal.

I am going to continue searching through the remaining 500 images in this set for Hermosillo, in the hopes that I'll come across other members of the Portillo family. This is a big find though, as this has been a pretty blank spot on the family tree.