Best contact is [email protected] 210.834.7841. I started documenting old forgotten graveyards while tracing a friends lineage and I was hooked! I hope this helps future generations to track their lineage with a little more ease. I make it a point to leave big breadcrumbs for anyone to follow when I research people. I've been studying genealogy since I attended classes at Our Lady of the Lake University in 1988 called Mexican American Cultural History and my instructor implored me to interview family members and document their stories. My grandmother was a goldmine of information and photos and a diary from her grandfather that was dated 1880s.

I follow the Briseno's on my mother's paternal side and the Villarreal's on her maternal side as well as Castanon, Hernandez, Balderas, Villarreal and Galves on my maternal side. On my father's side I follow the Garcia, Estrada, Alaniz, Contis, Diaz, Rodriguez families and have made wonderful connections.

I wander local cemeteries in my free time and try to document as much history as I can and will research the genealogy of those I encounter along the way. I have a particular interest in tracing the lineage of minority families since our history is not as well documented. Unfortunately it is easier to document headstones and create memorials than it is to research the genealogy and create the links so I'm a little behind on the research, but I do it knowing that not everyone has access to paid subscriptions to genealogy services. I enjoy the research and it is a great way to relax and unwind from daily events.

My current project is documenting the Mexican Community Cemetery in Charlotte, Texas and doing as much of the genealogy as possible because Atascosa County didn't become incorporated until after 1945. Many records were sent to Bexar County (hopefully) so there are a lot of missing puzzle pieces that may only be connected by documenting those headstones and many of my family are buried there. I will ensure they are memorialized properly.

Another project is documenting the families in Madre Dolorosa and The Garcia Cemetery in Poteet, Texas and doing the genealogy since so many of us are interconnected. The research has been so much fun! The picture gathering has been even more fun!

Another project I've been tackeling is revewing naturalization records of people in the aforementioned cemeteries and ensuring their photo is attached to their memorial so we have a face to the name.

And as if I didn't have enough to do, I'm also going page by page through different death records in the San Antonio Archdiocese church registers to ensure each entry has a memorial created that can be researched further and connected to family. If you notice any errors that I have made, please let me know so that I can correct them, there is no ego here. Everything I research I do to help others, including the photos I take and gather for this website. We all deserve to know more about our families and what they looked like when we can.

Future projects will include La Espada Cemetery since many of my native ancestors are associated with that Mission and Mission Medina or Mount Carmel or El Carmen. When I first started photographing El Carmen it was 8% photographed and is now 54% photographed with 31% of the memorials having GPS coordinates. I have a ways to go, but it has been such a joy doing the genealogy along the way too! What a great learning experience it has been.

7/19/2026: New project is I have taken over unclaimed memorials in Cementerio Loma de la Cruz in Del Rio and working on updating that cemetery since it is no longer accepting burials. I'm going through the church burial records and ensuring everyone that should be in there is in there before FindAGrave shuts it down to any other additions so I'm trying to work fast before that happens. It's not a big cemetery and the kind person who photographed the cemetery had some challenges with the transcription of the Spanish, so I'll see if I can fix some of those as well since there are a lot of "died at XX age" with no date of death or any other information on the headstone, so hopefully the church records can fill in some of those blanks.

If you have old family photos and you live in Atascosa or Bexar Counties and have families in any of the lines mentioned above, please call me and let's go through the photos and get them added to the memorials in FindAGrave and Ancestry! Our stories deserve to be told and our ancestors deserve to be seen.

Thanks for stopping by!

Peace, Love and Happiness,

Cheryl