Hyrum's mom is from a town just outside of Bogota called Choconta. One of our goals for this trip was to explore the town and see if there were any family records to be found. Hyrum's aunt, Tia Clara, offered to come with us. She was helpful in pointing out stuff around town and directing us to the cemetery.
Our first stop was the Casa Cural, the office attached to the Catholic church where records are kept. We weren't able to look through books ourself, like our experience in Turmeque during our last visit, but the lady there was helpful in looking things up.
We were trying to identify Hyrum's great-great-great-great grandparents. Our hope was to find the marriage records for his great grandparents, Custodio and Elvira, and see which relatives were listed. But it turns out, his great grandparents were probably married in a different town (Zipaquira.) While looking up the siblings of Hyrum's grandpa, Julio, we randomly came across a cousin. Through that cousin, we found Custodio's brother, Mauro. In Mauro's marriage record we found the ancestors we were looking for.
Every time we start doing research on our family tree I'm surprised by how we are led to the names we are looking for. Even more startling, when we got back from our trip I started adding the information to Familysearch. I went to enter the 4x-great-grandparents, and to my surprise they were already there! Same names, same town. I was shocked. It's the first time I've found one of Hyrum's relatives already documented in familysearch. That's largely because none of these Colombian records have been indexed, so they're not readily accessible. Turns out, the couple we'd found had a daughter in 1828, who apparently has a descendant doing family history work too! Pretty cool.
After the Casa Cural, we looked around the town square. Great-grandpa Custodio owned about 70% of the town, and lived this house on the plaza. Tia Clara told us it was the area with the balcony. She also pointed out where he came to sell the wheat he grew. Then, we saw the house that Grandpa Julio lived in, with his kids, including Hyrum's mom. Now it's an orthodontist office.
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| We asked Tia Clara to take a picture of us in front of the church... it's always a surprise to see what we get. |
We walked through town until we reached the cemetery, where we grabbed a quick lunch and then explored. Custodio's tomb is right down the main drag. We looked around the rest of the cemetery looking for relatives, but most of the graves are from the last 100 years, and most of Hyrum's relatives buried after Custodio lived outside the town.
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| The lady coming out of the white door seemed confused why I was taking a picture! |
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| In this area, most people wear these wool ponchos. That's the cemetery in the distance. |
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| Tia Clara said that Custodio owned most of the land surrounding the cemetery--so everything that is green. |
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| Cemetery from the top and bottom of the hill. |
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