Sunday, May 5, is the famous Cinco de Mayo (Fifth of May) holiday in Mexico, which is also celebrated in many places in the United States. According to Wikipedia, “Cinco de Mayo … is observed to commemorate the Mexican Army‘s victory over the French Empire at the Battle of Puebla, on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza. In the United States, Cinco de Mayo has taken on a significance beyond that in Mexico. More popularly celebrated in the United States than Mexico, the date has become associated with the celebration of Mexican-American culture. These celebrations began in California, where they have been observed annually since 1863.

Although I am not Hispanic, I share a bit of the Mexican-American culture in that both my parents were born in Chihuahua, Mexico, as well as my two older brothers. I missed being born in Mexico by about five years, as my family had moved from there to Ventura County in Southern California. We had plenty of Mexican culture in the home as I grew up, from mementos and music, to Mexican meals prepared most expertly by my mom.

What made the most lasting impression on me, however, was the family history legacy. I remember watching my dad laboriously hand-writing pedigree charts and family group sheets in the most beautiful calligraphy I had seen. Why he took so much care and effort in doing that always intrigued me, and it was part of the reason I developed an early interest in genealogy. (Today, I would venture to say that very people do that type of thing, with computers, tablets, and smartphones available for entering data, sharing photos and media, etc. Still it’s a pretty cool memory for the “older” generation.)

As I sat and watched and even filled out a few charts of my own, my dad would tell me stories of his family, his pioneer ancestors, and the Pancho Villa era in Northern Mexico. I’ll admit I wasn’t the most patient listener—I was a pretty restless soul as a kid—but those stories did find their way into the libraries of my mind. Over the years I have come to realize how important storytelling is in families, and my parents were good examples of doing that.

As I followed the charts back, I became curious about my English, Norwegian, and German ancestors; and that carried over into a love of family history that’s with me to this day. My mom was content to let my dad take the genealogy lead in the family, so at times I wondered if she had the same passion for family history.

Fast forward to about 2005 … This was about two years before my mom would pass away, and she told me that she felt impressed to give me a large box to take care of from her storage. Inside was an amazing collection of photos, documents, journals, and stories from her side of the family, as well as some items from my dad’s side that I had not seen. After spending several weeks scanning and digitizing the materials, my first thought was to make DVDs for family members, which I did. Then I realized the obvious—I needed to get these memories uploaded to FamilySearch.

Sure enough, not long after I had posted them I began getting responses from quite a few FamilySearch users who told me they were grateful for the new additions, and some of them pointed me to photos and documents that I had not seen. As an added bonus, I even had several cousins contact me, whom I had not heard from in many years. They were overjoyed to see photos of their parents, aunts, and uncles that I was sharing.

Both my parents, in their own ways, passed to me a love of Mexican and American culture and, most importantly, a love of family history and family. There’s no more precious possession than that.