Finding a needle in a haystack

Since I met my husband I have known that his mother, Martha, was adopted and didn’t know much about her birth family. I asked if she was interested in finding them. Claro que si!!!

In the twelve odd years since we met, I have made it my mission to find more information for her.

My suegra was told that her birth mother, Librada Mendoza, was a teacher in different small towns in Michoacan, Mexico. Martha was told that Librada wasn’t able to take care of her so she was given to a teacher friend, Maura. Maura gave Martha to her brother and his wife who were unable to have children. Martha was raised by this couple in the state capitol, Morelia. She was told her father’s name, and the names of three siblings, Irma, Jose Maria and Alfonso.

That’s all the information Martha had and she wasn’t even sure it was accurate. Her adoptive parents names are on her birth certificate. Throughout her life they were evasive in answering questions about her birth family.

In 2006 my husband Checo and I took Martha to Santa Clara del Cobre to investigate. It was a government holiday so the clerk’s office was closed. But we talked to townspeople, asking if anyone had heard of Librada. We had a nice time exploring the city but were no closer in finding any answers.

After many hours and late nights googling various versions of “Librada Mendoza,” “Michoacan,” “Irma,” “Jose Maria,” “Alfonso,” “Santa Clara del Cobre,” (where Martha was born), I caught a break on September 4, 2013. That’s when I ran across the message below on ancestry.com. You can see my response:

I was giddy with excitement, waiting by my devices for a response to my message. Days passed, weeks and months, with no response. I searched for “Jose Campos Chavez” to find this person who had posted. Nothing.

Then on July 31, 2014:

As my suegra is oft to say, “Santo Dios!!!!” I received the message while I was at work and wrote back right away to say, “Call me, ASAP, day or night!” A short time later I got the call. Out in the hallway, at work, I broke down in tears as I talked to my husband’s first cousin, Laura, the first of my suegra’s birth family to make contact with her in 66 years.

I cried like a baby while Laura explained the story as she knew it. She said Librada had left Martha with a teacher friend temporarily but never meant it to be permanent. Librada spent the rest of her life looking for Martha.

Whoa.

Then came this:

Tears again. My husband is her spitting image.

A whole new chapter for my suegra and her family.