63rdOVI
Corporal
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2012
- Location
- Houston, Texas
Tejano Confederates are an interesting topic and important to Texas history, despite the short-shrift they can sometimes receive in Civil War circles and current society at large. Despite this, I just had the pleasure of introducing a friend of mine to his newly-discovered Tejano Confederate ancestors.
Last year, while discussing some new Civil War genealogical finds of my own over dinner with friends, one of my buddies was intrigued despite never showing any previous interest in the war. He is Tejano; Civil War ancestry is thus not a topic of discussion for many families of his heritage. I previously found that part of his family came from the Canary Islands to help found the village and now city of San Antonio in 1731; his family has been in Texas since that time.
After recently helping another friend find his Union and Confederate ancestors, my Tejano buddy finally piped up and joked about us having so many “rebels” in our family trees. I told him to be careful, because I hadn’t researched his family for Civil War ancestors yet, but he was dismissive about me finding any.
So…
Carefully proceeding upon my quest, I pinged one of his 2nd great grandfathers, who was born in San Antonio around 1840, and bingo! He was a private in Company C, 8th Texas Infantry, and his brother was a 2nd lieutenant in the same regiment. Downloading the service records of both men from Fold3, I provided them to my friend, and he was gobsmacked. He couldn’t believe that his family had been participants in one of the great defining moments in our country’s history. I looked at him wryly and simply said, “Welcome to the club!”
I love this kind of research.
Last year, while discussing some new Civil War genealogical finds of my own over dinner with friends, one of my buddies was intrigued despite never showing any previous interest in the war. He is Tejano; Civil War ancestry is thus not a topic of discussion for many families of his heritage. I previously found that part of his family came from the Canary Islands to help found the village and now city of San Antonio in 1731; his family has been in Texas since that time.
After recently helping another friend find his Union and Confederate ancestors, my Tejano buddy finally piped up and joked about us having so many “rebels” in our family trees. I told him to be careful, because I hadn’t researched his family for Civil War ancestors yet, but he was dismissive about me finding any.
So…
Carefully proceeding upon my quest, I pinged one of his 2nd great grandfathers, who was born in San Antonio around 1840, and bingo! He was a private in Company C, 8th Texas Infantry, and his brother was a 2nd lieutenant in the same regiment. Downloading the service records of both men from Fold3, I provided them to my friend, and he was gobsmacked. He couldn’t believe that his family had been participants in one of the great defining moments in our country’s history. I looked at him wryly and simply said, “Welcome to the club!”
I love this kind of research.