Mercedes Ballesteros

On Sunday I started following the family of Maria Jesus Suastegui Ballesteros. It was the obituary of her daughter Mercedes Ballesteros which provided the backstory to their journey across the desert from Sonora to California after 1862, more likely closer to 1864. She was born on 30 June 1862 in Altar, Sonora, the last child of Merced Ballesteros and Maria Jesus Suastegui. At her baptism, her name was listed as Maria Mercedes de los Dolores Ballesteros.

Source: Ancestry. Baptism record, 2 July 1862. Altar, Sonora, Mexico.

 In 1913, Mercedes made a land claim on four lots outside Tucson.

Arizona Daily Star, 14 Jun 1914.

It looks like Mercedes never married. She was a successful dressmaker in Tucson and owned her own home and rented rooms to others. She was close to her cousin Josefa Vasquez, and it looks like Mercedes and Josefa applied for naturalization around the same time as their applications are filed next to each other in the Arizona Naturalization Records on Ancestry.

Source: Ancestry. Petition for Naturalization.

Source: Ancestry. Petition for Naturalization.

Mercedes took the Oath of Allegiance on 2 January 1917.

She passed away on 13 January 1936. Here is the top third of the obituary (the middle and bottom portions were included in my post on her mother on Sunday):

Arizona Daily Star, 15 Jan 1936.

For now, this concludes my series on the extended families and descendants of Francisco Suastegui.

Isabel Ballesteros

The first child of Merced Ballesteros and Maria Jesus Suastegui was Isabel Ballesteros. She was born on 17 December 1849 in Sonora. After the family moved to the US, she married Lyman Adams Smith about 1866. Smith was born in Kentucky in 1829 and came to California during the Gold Rush. He moved to Yuma and was involved in cattle ranching and mining.

Source: Ancestry. 1870 US Census, Yuma, Arizona.

Lyman and Isabel had six children:
- Sarah A. Smith, 1867-1947
- Isabela (Belle) A. Smith, 1869-1953
- Emma Frances Smith, 1871-1954
- Lyman A. Smith Jr., 1874-
- Prudence Martha Smith, 1876-1892
- Peter Glover Smith, 1878-1956

In the 1880 US Census, the family was still in Yuma, Arizona:

Source: Ancestry. 1880 US Census, Yuma, Arizona.

The family moved to Tucson in 1882.

Isabel apparently survived a lightning strike in September 1897:

Phoenix Weekly Republican, 16 Sep 1897

By the 1900 US Census, Lyman, Isabel and family appear in the records in Tucson.

Source: Ancestry. 1900 US Census, Tucson, Arizona.

Isabel appears in the 1910, 1920 and 1930 US Census in Tucson. She passed away on 24 December 1930 at the age of 81.

Jesus Maria Ballesteros

Arizona Daily Star, 6 Jan 1963.

You never know where you might stumble on family history information. Thanks to Newspapers.com, I found a reference to Jesus Maria Ballesteros in an advertisement for Tucson Warehouse and Transfer Company published in 1963. The ad connects the moving company to the first Customs House in Arizona and mentions "Inspector J. M. Ballesteros." Based on other articles and documents, I've confirmed this to be the son of Merced Ballesteros and Maria Jesus Suastegui.

Jesus Maria Ancelmo Ballesteros was born on 17 December 1857 in Altar, Sonora, and baptized on 4 February 1858.

Baptism record for Jesus Maria Ballesteros, via Ancestry.

He moved with his mother and sisters to California when he was six years old. In the early 1870s he worked as a type setter for the Arizona Sentinel newspaper in Yuma, and later worked at the Arizona Daily Citizen in Tucson. Perhaps he worked at the Citizen first in Tucson and then went to Yuma to work at the Sentinel. The clipping below is from 1878.

Arizona Weekly Citizen, 19 Apr 1878.

By July 1878, Jesus had resigned his position at the Sentinel, and gone on vacation to California for health reasons.

Arizona Sentinel, 20 Jul 1878.

In June 1879, Jesus returned to Tucson and was hired as the Customs Inspector with the US Customs Service.

Arizona Weekly Citizen, 6 Jun 1879.

He got sick again in 1881, and died of consumption on 11 August 1882 in Tucson.

Arizona Sentinel, 19 Aug 1882.

Maria Jesus Suastegui Ballesteros

Since mid July, I have been documenting the two families of my 5th-great-grandfather Francisco Suastegui. The last one to document is Maria Jesus Suastegui, sister of my 4th-great-grandfather Pedro Suastegui. She was born around 1830 in Sonora, although her death certificate lists her birth date as 14 November 1830. Maria Jesus married Merced Ballesteros, likely in Altar, Sonora, around 1848. Merced and Maria Jesus had at least the following children:

- Isabel Ballesteros, 1849-1930
- Maria Josefa Teodora Ballesteros, 1851-1854
- Encarnacion Ballesteros, 1855-1858
- Jesus Maria Ancelmo Ballesteros, 1857-1882
- Siprian Ballesteros, 1859-1862
- Maria Mercedes de los Dolores Ballesteros, 1862-1936

Merced Ballesteros died on 17 October 1862 in Altar, Sonora at the age of 34. Maria Jesus had just given birth to their daughter Mercedes on 30 June, and they had lost their son Siprian in September 1862, the third child lost to illness or disease before the age of four.

With her remaining children Isabel, Jesus and Mercedes, about 1864 Maria Jesus made a journey to California with her sister Concepcion Suastegui and family. The obituary of Mercedes Ballesteros says this journey occurred in 1862, but as this was written in 1936 and Merced Ballesteros passed away in October 1862, I think it is likely this date is wrong. Other documents claim Maria Jesus and family arrived in America around 1864. I have included two sections of the obituary below, recounting their journey across the Sonoran Desert to California.

Arizona Daily Star, 15 Jan 1936

The article indicates that Maria Jesus and family lived in California until 1869, and then moved to Yuma, Arizona. By then her younger sister Maria Engracia Suastegui Burke was well established there, along with her half-sisters Maria Esther and Mariana Suastegui. As seen from Friday's post, Maria Jesus sponsored the baptism of Esther's son Peter John Monson in Yuma in March 1893.

By 1875, Maria Jesus settled in Tucson. She appears in the Yuma, Arizona newspaper, visiting her son Jesus:

Arizona Sentinel, 26 Jun 1875.

Maria Jesus and Mercedes lived at 75 East Pennington Street in Tucson. Their old historic home was part of a block torn down in 1929 and is close to where the Pima County Courthouse now sits.

Maria Jesus passed away on 13 March 1908 in Tucson. She was buried at Holy Hope Cemetery in Tucson.

As I have followed the children of the other Suastegui siblings at least one generation, I will do the same for Isabel, Jesus and Mercedes.

Thinking of Dad

Photo by Patrick Jones. K.D. Jones and S. Jones, Disneyland. 16 Jul 2011.

Today would have been our Dad's birthday. On this day I'm thinking of him, and I know my Mom and Sister are as well. Last year he was taken away too soon by cancer. For photos from happier times, see my post from August 2015 or August 2014.