Vita was born in the rancho Los Cuervos in Jerez, Zacatecas. I cannot find her birth or baptismal certificate for the life of me. I have, however, found her parents’ marriage certificate, and her marriage certificate.
Her headstone says she was born in 1870, but that’s not true.
I’m not sure why she lied about her age, but my genealogy searches put her birth to be between 1882 and 1885.
Here’s her marriage certificate.
Bartolo Sánchez was born in the Jerez rancho of Organos. He was about 11 years older than Vita when they married.
This is the only picture of him that I was aware of until recently. This is from when their second child, Manuel, died of tuberculosis 22 April 1915 in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.
(The back of the picture says “Son recuerdos que te manda tu prima que se le fue su encanto.” They’re memories that your cousin sends, her joy left her.)
A cousin posted the picture on the right on the family Facebook page, and mistakenly said it was Antonio. I’m pretty sure it’s Bartolo. I am 100% positive that it’s not Antonio Galván (compare it to the photos below.)
I don’t know what happened to Bartolo. A cousin produced a paper in which Vita says he died in 1926. (And I don’t remember which cousin or what paper!) But this does go with the death certificate I found for a Bartolo Sánchez who died in Juárez in 1926 (see previous page). I know that she was already calling herself Galván, her second husband’s name, in the 1930 census. Antonio was Vita’s first cousin; his father and Vita’s mother were siblings.
(Antonio Galván 10 May 1892- 11 Mar 1975)
I used to call him Pipatoño.
While they never had any children together,
they did adopt a child, Juan Francisco (John), the son of Vita’s daughter Lencha.
John Galvan, circa 1967 (with me)
2 April 1941 – 21 November 1971
Circa 1970
Circa late ’30s or early ’40s. Someone on an El Paso Facebook page said this is near the corner of Meza and Texas streets downtown.
You can find their graves here at Find A Grave, along with the graves of most of their children. (I’m still looking for Sally.)
Sánchez Castañeda Family 