Never having met my paternal grandparents, nor my maternal grandfather, I felt I owed it to myself to discover my roots. But more than that, I felt I owed it to my own children and their children and other generations to come so they would not go through life not knowing who their ancestors were, as I had.
Since the fall of 2003 when I began my research, I have managed to trace and document my Garcia roots to about 1720 in Cerralvo, Nuevo Leon, Mexico; my Gutierrez roots to about 1750 in Camargo, Tamaulipas, Mexico; my Mandel roots to about 1815 in Brunswick, Germany; and my Chapa roots to about 1600 in Villa Arbisola, Genoa, Italy.