Set Those Family Stories Aside For Now!

Sylvia's Question:

I REALLY need help!I have HIT A DEAD END!and DESPERATELY need your guidance and experise. I have been searching for 5yrs now and only found the following info. below. The problem Ive run into is,(BOTHSIDES of males), were Indians/RedMan.It w said that they NEVER SPOKE of that cuz it was voodoo all xcept for this 1 told by my mother Ester Aragon.STORY: my grandfather Pedro, as a young boy living in Tampaulipas,MX w father.At that time there was a war going on there and his father hid him up a tree told him when safe to RUN. He did so, swam across river into texas where he lived in self built cave for several years then was adopted and then met my grandma, Inez.In my Search i have found only 1 census for: MEDINA,Encarnacion EstDOB:1872 MX, Wife: Basilia(Cruz)DOB:4-1887or1885 Mx, DOD:Unkn Both died in TX -AND PedroT. Martinez(DOB:1-25-1910 DOD:5-15-98-MX)UNABLE TO FIND ANY INFO. ON HIM OR? He married Inez(Medina)DOB:5-20-1911 to 11-19-00(TX)mothers side & my father WAS -George F. Aragon-AlbqNM 3-19-1933 to 7-23-1999 died in Sacto,CA-his dad- ARAGON,Jose DOB:UNKN DOD:Unkn born MX,his Wife-Maime(Campos,or Flores,or Kemp)DOB:think- 1903 to 1974 Born:Unkn Died AZ. I have had a few people help with NO LUCK. If you would be so kind and willing to take this challenge, should you find or direct me to where I can, you would SOLEY BE THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS FOUND ANYTHING OUT.

OLIVE TREE ANSWER: Sylvia - There are two areas I think you may have overlooked in your search. First - you can't believe Family Lore 100%. It is often wrong, or has a grain of fact mixed with a lot of mistaken or mis-remembered details. In your case, if you think about it, the family stories are pretty extreme. If you grandfather Pedro was a young boy, how could he find and live in a cave for several years? How would he eat? Also who would adopt him? Someone stumbling along near the cave spots him? I don't think so. So I suggest you disregard that family story (come back to it later if you want to) and do your genealogy research using the usual methods.

Start with the known and work backwards. Since you have a date of birth (1910) and death for Pedro, you should look for him in census records. Check for a marriage record .

Look for the death record of Jose Aragon in Arizona

Look for the death record of Pedro.

I'd start with the GenWeb sites for the countries you need to search in. Use Google or another search engine and look for "Mexico GenWeb", "Arizona GenWeb" and so on.

Good luck, take your time, be thorough and just keep working your way backwards, finding documents that give you details you need.