Looking for a connection

Source: Ancestry. US Border Crossing Records, Nogales, AZ. 5 Mar 1929.

Yesterday I received a query on Ancestry from a distant cousin, MC, who is a DNA match at the third cousin level. She asked if I had information on her family, and gave me a few details to see where the potential connection may be. I know she is a match on my Granny's Mexican side of the tree. With this post, I'll try to work backward and see if I can shed some light on this potential branch of the family. This will likely stretch over a series of blog posts.

MC knew her grandmother was Maria Luisa Carrillo, and that she was born in Sonora, Mexico and may have had the maiden name of Portillo. She also knew her grandmother had sisters (or half-sisters) with the last name Rascon. This gave me a good starting point, and piqued my interest in digging into research again, as the Portillo name shows up in my tree.

I found a border crossing record from 5 March 1929, which listed her name as Maria Luisa Rascon de Carrillo, born in Hermosillo, Sonora. The border crossing record above shows that she was married to Juan Carrillo, MC's grandfather, and they had been living in Oakland, California. It also notes that Maria Luisa previously crossed the border on 17 July 1919, which is a helpful hint to another record. The reverse side of the record also includes her photo.

Reverse side, border crossing record.

I also found another border crossing record from 16 July 1931, which listed her mother, Dolores Diaz Vda Rascon, living in Nogales, Sonora. This is an important piece of information, as my 2nd-great-grandmother Teresa Diaz had a large family in Sonora. Perhaps the connection is on the Diaz side of the tree. The record also lists an address in Nogales, Arizona where Maria Luisa lived with her husband Juan Carrillo, 106 Franklin Street, a short drive away from the US-Mexico border. On this particular day, Maria Luisa crossed the border on foot.

Ancestry. US border crossing records. 16 Jul 1931.

The border crossing record from 17 July 1919 gives even more information. On that day, Maria Luisa crossed at Nogales on foot with her mother, Dolores Diaz Vda Rascon. She was 11 years old on this record, putting her date of birth around 1908 and place of birth as Hermosillo, Sonora.

Ancestry. US Border Crossing, 17 Jul 1919.

They were traveling from Nogales, Sonora to Tucson, Arizona, to visit Maria Luisa's sister, Adelina de Rosas, who was living at 306 S 3rd Avenue. According to the manifest, they were planning to stay "for a year or more".

Ancestry. US Border Crossing, 17 Jul 1919.

Dolores' record also states she was born in Hermosillo, and the record includes a signature.

The earlier crossing record from 23 March 1918 shows Maria Luisa and Dolores crossing at Nogales, traveling to Gila Bend, Arizona to visit Matilda de Rojas (another daughter of Dolores'). Matilda married Ricardo Rojas in Tucson on 4 June 1910. They moved to Gila Bend, Maricopa County, Arizona. The family appears in the 1920 US Census, with Ricardo working as a manager of a grocery store. Matilda and Ricardo later moved to El Paso, Texas. I was able to find other records, including her death certificate, which listed her place of birth as Nogales, Arizona, and parents as Joaquin Rascon and Dolores Diaz. This document also listed her birthdate as 19 April 1889.

There's more on this family and I'll move on to Joaquin Rascon and other siblings of Maria Luisa in the next post.