http://1940census.archives.gov/

If we wait until volunteers can index the data, we may not get our data until after the end of this year.

Or, if we have the address of our relatives, we can figure out the Enumeration District (in their town and state). Then, we can look up the data ourselves, if the servers have completely recovered. Several helpful websites are listed below.

• http://www.familysearch.org
• http://www.1940census.net/1940_census_overview.php
• http://stevemorse.org/census/unified.html

Now we have to wait until April of 2022 for the 1950 Census.

It was not until much after the end of WW II that the phonograph and the microphone replaced the need for live entertainment. Before then, every mayor social gathering employed performers to prove that the social gathering was prestigious and memorable.

Society pages in the Laredo newspapers offer a great deal of information. Regrettably, several factors prevented the documenting of every public appearance by Lorenzo Cuesta Ortiz. The following factors mislead us into believing that he perfomed rather infrequently.

1. An event may not have been covered by a local newspaper.
2. The article may not have named the musicians.
3. The specific newspaper page may not have been digitized.
4. The current search engine may not be able to read and index the name ‘Cuesta’.

In searching the Laredo newspapers on http://www.newspaperarchive.com and realizing that the complete newspaper collections are not digitized, I found references to Lorenzo Cuesta Ortiz performing as a violinist in Laredo, Texas.

From 1924 through 1926, Miguel Cuesta (Lorenzo’s older brother) appears in the newspapers as the Cuesta violinist. He does not appear after 1932.

1. LOCATION: Street, avenue, road, etc.
2. LOCATION: House number (in cities and towns)
3. HOUSEHOLD DATA: Number of household in order of visitation
4. HOUSEHOLD DATA: Home owned (O) or rented (R)
5. HOUSEHOLD DATA: Value of home, if owned, or monthly rental, if rented

6. HOUSEHOLD DATA: Does this household live on a farm? (Yes or No)
7. NAME: Name of each person whose usual place of residence on April 1, 1940, was in this household.
8. RELATION: Relationship of this person to the head of the household, as wife, daughter, father, mother-in-law, grandson, lodger, lodger’s wife, servant, hired hand, etc.
9. PERSONAL DESCRIPTION: Sex — Male (M), Female (F)
10. PERSONAL DESCRIPTION: Color or race

11. PERSONAL DESCRIPTION: Age at last birthday
12. PERSONAL DESCRIPTION: Marital status — Single (S), Married (M), Widowed (Wd), Divorced (D)
13. EDUCATION: Attended school or college any time since March 1, 1940 (Yes or No)
14. EDUCATION: Highest grade of school completed
15. PLACE OF BIRTH: If born in the United States, give State, Territory, or possession. If foreign born, give country in which birthplace was situated on January 1, 1937. Distinguish Canada-French from Canada-English and Irish Free State (Eire) from Northern Ireland.

16. CITIZENSHIP: Citizenship of the foreign born
17. RESIDENCE APRIL 1, 1935: City, town, or village having 2,500 or more inhabitants. Enter “R” for all other places
18. RESIDENCE APRIL 1, 1935: County
19. RESIDENCE APRIL 1, 1935: State (or Territory or foreign country
20. RESIDENCE APRIL 1, 1935: On a farm? (Yes or No)

21. PERSONS 14 YEARS OLD AND OVER — EMPLOYMENT STATUS: Was this person AT WORK for pay or profit in private or nonemergency Govt. work during week of March 24-30? (Yes or No)
22. PERSONS 14 YEARS OLD AND OVER — EMPLOYMENT STATUS: If not, was he at work on, or assigned to, public EMERGENCY WORK (WPA, NYA, CCC, etc.) during week of March 24-30? (Yes or No)
23. PERSONS 14 YEARS OLD AND OVER — EMPLOYMENT STATUS: Was this person SEEKING WORK? (Yes or No)
24. PERSONS 14 YEARS OLD AND OVER — EMPLOYMENT STATUS: If not seeking work, did he HAVE A JOB, business, etc.? (Yes or No)
25. PERSONS 14 YEARS OLD AND OVER — EMPLOYMENT STATUS: Indicate whether engaged in home housework (H) in school (S), unable to work (U), or other (O)

26. PERSONS 14 YEARS OLD AND OVER — EMPLOYMENT STATUS: Number of hours worked during week of March 24-30, 1940
27. PERSONS 14 YEARS OLD AND OVER — EMPLOYMENT STATUS: Duration of unemploymen up to March 30, 1940 – in weeks
28. PERSONS 14 YEARS OLD AND OVER — EMPLOYMENT STATUS: Occupation: Trade, profession, or particular kind of work
29. PERSONS 14 YEARS OLD AND OVER — EMPLOYMENT STATUS: Industry: Industry of business
30. PERSONS 14 YEARS OLD AND OVER — EMPLOYMENT STATUS: Class of worker

31. PERSONS 14 YEARS OLD AND OVER — EMPLOYMENT STATUS: Number of weeks worked in 1939 (Equivalent full-time weeks)
32. PERSONS 14 YEARS OLD AND OVER — EMPLOYMENT STATUS: INCOME IN 1939: Amount of money wages or salary received (including commissions)
33. PERSONS 14 YEARS OLD AND OVER — EMPLOYMENT STATUS: INCOME IN 1939: Did this person receive income of $50 or more from sources other than money wages or salary? (Yes or No)
34. Number of Farm Schedule

There also was a list of SUPPLEMENTARY QUESTIONS, which would be asked of those individuals recorded usually on Lines 14 and 29 (although other lines were also designated for such use and were presumably to ensure a random sampling).

The Supplementary Questions were as follows:
35. NAME
36. PLACE OF BIRTH OF FATHER AND MOTHER: FATHER
37. PLACE OF BIRTH OF FATHER AND MOTHER: MOTHER
38. MOTHER TONGUE (OR NATIVE LANGUAGE): Language spoken in home in earliest childhood
39. VETERANS: Is this person a veteran of the United States military forces; or the wife, widow, or under-18-year-old child of a veteran? If so, enter “Yes”
40. VETERANS: If child, is veteran-father dead (Yes or No)

41. VETERANS: War or military service
42. SOCIAL SECURITY: Does this person have a Federal Social Security Number? (Yes or No)
43. SOCIAL SECURITY: Were deductions for Federal Old-Age Insurance or Railroad Retirement made from this person’s wages or salary in 1939? (Yes or No)
44. SOCIAL SECURITY: If so, were deductions made from (1) all, (2) one-half or more, (3) part, but less than half, of wages or salary?
45. USUAL OCCUPATION

46. USUAL INDUSTRY
47. Usual class of worker
48. FOR ALL WOMEN WHO ARE OR HAVE BEEN MARRIED: Has this woman been married more than once? (Yes or No)
49. FOR ALL WOMEN WHO ARE OR HAVE BEEN MARRIED: Age at first marriage?
50. FOR ALL WOMEN WHO ARE OR HAVE BEEN MARRIED: Number of children ever born (Do not include stillbirths)

This not true!

The US Census Bureau has an “age search” service that will actually yield every item on your ancestor’s US Census line entry. I do have some Cuesta and Ortiz and Villarreal relatives in Texas on the 1940 census.

Under the conditions specified below, anyone may have access to any US Census including the 2000 census.

Conditions:

• You cannot view the original record.
• You may order an official transcript (a document that includes MOST of the line entry information).
• Information is released only to the named person on the research request.
• If the named person on the research is dead, a death certificate must be provided.
• Information is also released to his/her heirs or legal representatives.
• Information is not released to just any descendant.
• Informationis will be released to spuse, parent, child, sibling, or grandparent of the named person.
• A BC600-Application must be submitted.
• The cost is $65 per search (money order or personal checks only).
• For $10 more you may order the “Full Schedule”, but this means every piece of information on the entire census line.
• For $20 more you can have the order expedited.

Read more about the “Age Search Service” at the following URL http://www.census.gov/genealogy/www/agesearch.html

View the necessary BC-600 application form at the following URL http://www.census.gov/genealogy/www/bc-600.pdf

If a person is born in the US and is of Mexican parents, that person is entitled to dual citizenship – US by birth; Mexican by parentage.

In Sacramento, Ca, one may visit the Consulado General de México at 1010 8th Street, 95814. You do not need an appontment, but true to Mexican offices, they are opened only Monday through Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to noon. [Telephone (916) 329-3523; (916) 441-3287 ext 3523]

Required Documents (original plus 2 copies):

1. Birth Certificate of applicant
2. Birth Certificates of both parents
3. Marriage Certificate of parents
4. Identification documents for the parents
5. Passport of applicant
6. Marriage Certificate, if applicant is a married female
7. Two witnesses with current identification must accompany the applicant. (Neither the parents nor the grandparents qualify as witnesses.)
8. No charge for the Certificate of Mexican Citizenship. (However, there is a copying? charge of $13 dollars.)

When you travel through México or seek access to documents in México, sometimes you receive better service if they think you are a national rather than a tourist.

Transcription:
“Maria Ysavel, que nacio el Dia cinco a las cuatro de la mañana en esta Villa, hija legitima De Francisco Trejo y Nasaria Cajero, Abuelos paternos, Jose Maria y Rosa Martinez, maternos, Severiano y Dominga Borroel.”

Translation:
“Maria Ysavel, who was born on the 5th at 4 in the morning in this Village, legal daughter Of Francisco Trejo and Nasaria Cajero, paternal Grandparents, Jose Maria and Rosa Martinez, maternal, Severiano and Dominga Borroel.”

My grandmother’s name was Ysabel Ortiz (from Nochistlán, Zacatecas, México and married to Juan Cuesta).

When some of the descendants of Ysabel Ortiz moved from Laredo, Texas to Corpus Christi and Houston, Texas, they had to give their name to establish their new residency. One son’s complete Mexican name was Jesús Cuesta Ortiz. Unfortunately, English speakers get so confused with the difference between ‘last name’ and ‘family name’. Even though the ‘family name’ was ‘Cuesta’, in the 1930s the Jesús’ family was established as ‘Ortiz’.

Many of my immediate relatives in Texas go by the name of ‘Ortiz’, rather than ‘Cuesta’ because some local city and county offices set them up as ‘Ortiz’.

More ‘Ortiz’ problems:
I have discovered that there may still be another problem with the name of ‘Ortiz’. When I obtained a copy of my grandmother’s birth record (see image above), her father’s name was listed as ‘Trejo’.

None of the genealogical data that I have found indicates that ‘Ortiz’ started out as ‘Trejo’, or that the family had any ‘Trejo’ ancestors.

‘Ortiz’ and ‘Trejo’:

• Both names are 5 letters long, sharing 3 letters (i.e., ‘o’, ‘r’, ‘t’).
• Each has 2 syllables and 2 vowels.
• Each has one letter that extends above the rest (i.e., ‘t’).
• Each has one letter that extends below the rest (i.e., ‘z’ or ‘j’).

However, the 2 names do not sound enough alike for a Spanish speaker to confuse them.
One is ‘TRE-jo’; the other is ‘or-TIZ’.

The graphic above shows that there is no doubt of what the priest intended to write. This is not a case of unreadable handwriting. Of course, the priest may have filled out the baptismal record from somebone else’s unreadable notes.

So here is another example of how our surnames can get trampled through time and migration.

Here is a good example of a mistreated surname from my Saldaña lineage in the city of Monterrey, Nuevo León, México.

On November 7, 1800, Juan Saldaña married Carmen Belastre. The couple had at least 6 children. All were baptized in the same church – Sagrario Metropolitano de Monterrey. However, in the baptismal records, the mother’s surname is spelled differently each time.

Her name was probably BERÁSTEGUI – a Basque name from the western Pyrenees in northern Spain.

Child No. 1: Martta del Refugio (b: 8aug1807)
Mother’s Name: María del Carmen García BERASTEGUI

Child No. 2: Estéfana (b:26dec1811)
Mother’s Name: María del Carmen VERASTIN

Child No. 3: Ramón (b:4mar1817)
Mother’s Name: Carmen García -

Child No. 4: Andrés (m:23apr1836 to Nasaria Urdiales)
Mother’s Name: María del Carmen García BERASTIGUI

Child No. 5: Josefa (b:19mar1819; m:11nov1837 to Nicolás Palomo)
Mother’s Name: Carmen VELAUSTRI

Child No. 6: Casimiro (m:18jun1848 to Dolores Urdiales)
Mother’s Name: Carmen BELASTRE

Other factors leading to reckless spelling:
1. We could blame the priest that filled in the baptismal documents but the priests were typically the ones that could read and write in a community, especially one as metropolitan as Monterrey in the 1800s.

2. We could also blame the couple for being unable to spell their own name or being unwilling to challenge a priest’s error.

3. We could blame the modern day volunteer who transcribed the document into digital format so that I could locate it on an internet database.

Nevertheless, one fact is clear. Our most fundamental possession, our surname, has been and will continue to be fragile, vulnerable, and manipulated.

Brother #1: José Urbano Flores married María Teresa García and fathered Alejandro Flores.

Brother #2: José María Flores married María del Jesús Villarreal and fathered María Juliana Flores.

One consanguineous marriage:
Alejandro Flores married his first cousin, María Juliana Flores, and had Guadalupe Flores.

Brother #3: José Antonio Eulogio Flores married Nicolasa Salinas and fathered Dolores Flores. Dolores Flores married Antonio Cantú outside of the family and had Sostenes Cantú.

Another consanguineous marriage:
Sóstenes Cantú married his first cousin once removed, Guadalupe Flores. Both Sóstenes Cantú and Guadalupe Flores are great-grandchildren of the couple at the top of this page, José Antonio Flores and Isabel Salinas.

Eventually, the same groups that encouraged this consanguinity, the family and the church, would discourage it as nearly immoral.

La Purisima Concepcion Church was started in 1793 and finished in 1817, but had to be rebuilt because it burn down when it was opened. It was reopended in 1820. It is built in a neoclassical style with Doria elements. St. Francis of Assisi brings in Huichol Indians for the peyote in October.

Mexican War of Independence (1810-1821)
Silver Discovered: Area flourished from 1779 to 1810.

CUESTA FAMILY (1818-43):
Between 1818 and 1843 fours sons (Lorenzo, Filomeno, Estanislao, and Mateo) of Atanacio Cuesta and Guadalupe Munoz were married in Real del 14, San Luis Potosi.

Catorce Mint: Made coins in 1808, 1811, and then in 1865-66. It was shut down by Maximiliano to prevent the Benito Juarez rebels from taking the mint.

CUESTA FAMILY (1851-77):
At least 17 grandchildren were born to Atanacio and Guadalupe Cuesta between 1851 and 1877 in Real del 14.

Mexican Revolution (1910-1921)
Mining Flourished Again: From 1885-1905 under Porfirio Diaz.

Since then, Real del 14 has almost become a ghost mining town. However, tourism is doing well in Real del 14. There is a train station at the foot of the mountain on the eastern side of the mountain at a community called Catorce.

Grave 43:
Spot #1: Vacant
Spot #2: Vacant
Spot #3: Lorenzo Cuesta Ortiz (ashes)

Center area between Grave 43 and Grave 44:
   Juan F. Cuesta;
   Isabel Ortiz de Cuesta;
   Concepcion Cuesta Cantu (infant);
   and maybe Olivia Cuesta Ortiz (teen).

Grave 44:
Spot #1: Vacant
Spot #2: Vacant
Spot #3: Vacant

If 5 spots are vacant, why would anyone squeeze 4 bodies (2 adults, 1 teen, 1 infant) between 2 graves?

Date of death (burial):
1. Concepcion Cuesta Cantu – November 21, 1919 (11/22/1919)
2. Juan F. Cuesta – April 9, 1923 (4/10/1923)
3. Olivia Cuesta Ortiz – April 28, 1924 (4/29/1924)
4. Isabel Ortiz de Cuesta – October 7, 1947 (10/8/1947)
5. Lorenzo Cuesta Ortiz – November 25, 1995 (1995)

Olivia Cuesta Ortiz was always at 60-43/44. Originally, Juan F. Cuesta was located at 29-11-19, and Concepcion Cuesta Cantu was at 20-13-19.

Apparently both Juan and Concepcion were moved to 60-43/44, perhaps when a larger plot was purchased to bury Olivia Cuesta Ortiz, plus both Juan and Concepcion. A tomstone was added and it lists Juan and Isabel, only. On November 1995 the ashes of Lorenzo Cuesta Ortiz were added to the gravesite.

(Juan Cuesta Soto is still buried at Block 62. He died and was buried on July 20, 1947. He was the son of Jesus Cuesta Ortiz and Consuelo Soto; married to Alicia Guevara de Ortiz.)