Friday Photo - A Conversation

This is an undated photo, but I believe the formidible woman with both hands on her hips is my great-grandmother, Manuela Portillo de Campuzano. The photo comes from a collection scanned by my Aunt Patty after my Granny died. This could be 1940s or earlier.

Update: By request, I have tried to enhance the photo to get a closer view of the women. My Granny and her sisters were a very pretty bunch, as some upcoming photos will show. My great-grandmother Manuela had her hands full with 9 children (5 girls, 4 boys)!

1929 Visit to Nogales

My Granny, Lydia Campuzano, her parents, Plutarco Campuzano and Manuela Portillo de Campuzano, and siblings Maria Jesus and Berta, visited my great-grandmother Manuela's Aunt Maria Diaz de Mirazo in Nogales, Sonora for three days in July 1929. We know this from the Border Crossings: Mexico to US 1895-1957 database.

This is a great record for a number of reasons. The record shows that Manuela's first visit to the US was on 28 November 1922, and that she was born in Hermosillo, Sonora. I later found the crossing record from November 1922 and I will have a separate posting on it.

The record provides the start date of their visit to Nogales as 9 July 1929, return on 12 July 1929, and shows their departure contact. This was a big find, because before this record I did not know the name of Manuela's Aunt Maria. I was able to find several references to Maria Diaz de Mirazo and her children (and their children) in the Border Crossing database, and this has been immensely useful in getting a better understanding of the Diaz side of the family in Sonora.

I showed my Granny a copy of the record before she passed in 2010. She recalled visiting her cousins in Nogales on several occasions. She noted that some of them competed as beauty queens.

A couple more interesting things about this record. My great-grandmother was 5'3'' (5'2" on other records). My Granny wasn't real tall either, and my Mom inherited her height. I think we found the source for short gene on my Mom's side of the family.

At the time of this visit, my Granny's brother Manuel (Manny) Campuzano would have been about a year and half old. I suspect he stayed behind in Tucson with his grandmother Teresa Diaz (my 2nd-great-grandmother).

The back side of the card shows Manuela's signature as Manuela Portillo.

One thing I don't understand is at the top of the manifest card it states the port of entry is Sasabe. This is at best a 2.5 hour drive from Nogales, and in 1929 was probably well over 3 hours. Nogales is on the border, so I wonder why they didn't cross there. Was the border closed? A small mystery.

Samuel Oyler Arrives in America

Later this month will mark 184 years since the Oyler family arrived in the United States. On 26 May 1828, my 3rd-great-grandfather Samuel Oyler landed at the Port of New York on the Schooner Fame. The ship had sailed from Rye, England.

According to the ship's passenger list, Samuel was 6 years old. He was accompanied by my 4th-great-grandparents, George Oyler (age 31), Sarah Oyler (age 34), and brothers George (12), William (10), Daniel (8), Alfred (4) and George's brother John Oyler with wife Elizabeth.

The Oylers were from Hawkhurst in Kent, England. We know from other records and George Oyler's obituary that the Fame departed Rye on 6 April 1828. George Oyler actually crossed back & forth between the US and England 5 times during his lifetime, as he maintained close ties with family back in England even after they moved to the US.

The Oyler family later settled in Hamilton and Butler Counties in Ohio.

From the Land of the Fire Ants

I am still digging up information on my Granny's Campuzano line, but thanks to the Mexico Baptisms, 1560-1950 database on FamilySearch, I have found the names of my third-great-grandparents and fourth-great-grandparents in Sonora.

Yesterday I posted about Vicente Plutarco Campuzano. He was baptized at Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in​ Altar,​ Sonora on 26 June 1862 as Jose Visente Campusano. According to the record, his father was also named Visente Campusano. Additional baptism records around this time for my 2nd-great-grandfather's siblings show alternate spellings for Vicente, and include his wife, Maria Concepcion Amado.

The elder Vicente Antonio Campusano (also spelled Campiosano) was baptized at the Nuestra Señora de la Asunción Arizpe in Sonora.

Arizpe means "land of the fire ants" in the local Opata language. The town was founded as a mission in 1646. In 1775, Arizpe was the launching point for the expedition of Juan Bautista de Anza, who explored and opened the routes to California. At one time Arizpe was the capital of Sonora before it was moved to Hermosillo. I posted a map of the Rio Sonora which shows Arizpe north of Hermosillo, along the river.

Further back, there is a record for Vicente Antonio Campiosano, baptized on 13 June 1810 at Nuestra Señora de la Asunción Arizpe. His parents were listed as Juan Campiosano and Maria Dolores Yldefonsa Moreno. In the 1851 Primeria Alta census, there is a Visente Campesino in Altar, age 42 years old, his occupation is listed as zapatero, which means shoemaker.

There's more to post on this family, and related families in northern Sonora.

Vicente Plutarco Campuzano

My second-great-grandfather on my Granny's Campuzano line was Vicente Plutarco Campuzano. He was born on 10 May 1862 in Pitiquito, Sonora, Mexico, a small town between Caborca and Altar in the northern part of Sonora. We owe quite a debt to the Border Crossings, Mexico to US 1895-1957 database for our understanding of the connections between Vicente and other members of the Campuzano family on both sides of the border.

Pitiquito is home to the San Diego de Pitiquito Mission, which was built between the 1760s and 1780.

Vicente's first wife (my second-great-grandmother) was Maria Jesus Vasquez. Unfortunately, I don't know much more about her. Vicente and Maria had at least five children:
1. Jesus Campuzano, born 28 February 1890 in Altar.
2. Vicente Campuzano Jr, born 20 April 1894 in Pitiquito. He married Celia Pompa. I'll have more on Vicente Jr in a subsequent post.
3. Plutarco Vasquez Campuzano (my great-grandfather), born 18 April 1900 in Pitiquito.
4. Maria Jesus Campuzano, born 22 April 1901 in Altar. She married Francisco Grijalva.
5. Concepcion "Concha" Campuzano, born 10 April 1904 in Pitiquito. She married Rosario Samuel Ippolito in Arizona.

Between 1913-1916, Vicente lived in Phoenix, Tempe and Tucson, Arizona. What I don't know right now is if this was with Maria Jesus Vasquez de Campuzano, on his own, or with other members of the family. According to the US City Directories Database, Vicente's address in 1915 was at West 8th Street, Normal (Tempe). This was very close to Arizona State University.

Vicente's son Jesus was living in Tucson in 1917. His World War I draft card from 5 June 1917 states that he was living with his mother, was single, and working as a blacksmith for "A. Vasquez". In the 1917 City Directory for Tucson is a blacksmith, A. Vasquez and Son, located at 307 W. Congress in Tucson. A few pages into the directory it shows this to be Adolfo and Roul H Vasquez, and that their residence address was 438 E. 6th Street, and that Adolfo's wife's name was Amelia. There's more work to be done with this information and I am hoping it leads to an explanation of what happened to Vicente's first wife.

Vicente later married Beatris Palacios, I suspect some time between 1917-1920. A photo of a painting of Vicente and Beatris first wife Maria Jesus Vasquez is below:

Photo by Patty Marple - Vicente and Maria Jesus

Vicente and Beatris had two sons. Jesus Maria Campuzano, born in 1917, and Manuel Campuzano, who was born in 1919.
 
Vicente appears in the 1930 Mexico National Census (taken on 15 May 1930) in Altar, Sonora at the age of 67. The family was living on Calle Zaragosa. Vicente's occupation is listed as "Carrosero", which translates to "carriage maker" or car body maker, which is curious given that he appears as a butcher in border crossing records about the same time.

Border Crossing Records
On 18 February 1918, Vicente crossed the border at Nogales. We have a fantastic record of this crossing. It shows he had arrived on foot, and was born in Pitiquito. It lists his height (5'10''), complexion, gray hair, and brown eyes. His occupation is listed as merchant, and he could read and write. He was carrying quite a large amount of money for the time, $300 (actually, that's a lot of cash to carry today...)

He was on his way to visit his sister, Librada Campuzano in Tucson, Arizona, but the purpose of the visit is listed as business. The length of the visit was to be 15 days. The record also shows that he had been to the US previously, in 1916.

On 29 June 1929, Vicente crossed the border at Sasabe, with son Manuel Campuzano. They were on their way to visit Vicente's son Jesus Campuzano, who is listed as living at 210 Convento (Convent) Street in Tucson. Today this is approximately the location of the Museum of Contemporary Art, the part of Barrio Viejo torn down for the Convention Center in 1970.

Vicente's occupation in June 1929 is butcher, but this 5 day trip was for pleasure. His departure contact is listed as Beatris Palacio de Campuzano, in Altar, Sonora.

This record is also great, because it shows that Vicente lived in the US from 1913 to 1916, in Phoenix, Tempe and Tucson.

On 28 October 1933, Vicente crossed the border at Sasabe with son Plutarco for a 2 month visit to Tucson.

 
Vicente crossed the border again on 21 February 1940 at Nogales for a visit to daughter Maria Jesus Campuzano de Grijalva and family. It is very faint, but this record includes his signature:

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Update 23 Nov 2012
Vicente's death record was located in the Sonora Civil Registration 1861-1995 files. Vicente passed away on 31 October 1940 in Altar, Sonora.

Updated 8 February 2016 - Corrected the citation on the painting above to correctly identify Maria Jesus Vasquez.