Map To The Farm -- Newell, South Dakota -- Posted December 19, 2024

On my cross-country trips from Texas to North Dakota to visit my dad between 2000 and 2018, I often drove by the farm south of Newell, SD. On one trip I finally took the time to map the farm. It took a fair number of trips back and forth up the road to get it right (at least I hope it's right).

Annotated. 

I believe the "Broken Saloon" in the graphic below is, in fact, the "Broken Spoke Saloon." One can find it when looking for the "best bars near Newell, SD, on Yelp.

Birthdays -- Updated December 18, 2024

Name	Generation	Month	Date	Date	Month
Caleb	4	January	January 9	1/9	1
Cora Jayne	4	February	Feb 14	2/14	2
Levi	4	March	March 3	3/3	3
Judah	4	March	March 3	3/3	3
Kaitlyn	4	March	March 8	3/8	3
Avery	4	March	March 9	3/9	3
Gemma Jae	4	March	March 24	3/24	3
Emelia Grace	4	April	April 19	4/19	4
Oliver	4	April	April 23	4/23	4
Sophia	4	June	June 30	6/30	6
Arianna	4	July	July 6	7/6	7
Olivia	4	July	July 10	7/10	7
Sydney Harper	4	August	August 28	8/28	8
Jillian	4	October	Oct 23	10/23	10
Bennett	4	October	Oct 23	10/23	10
Stella Kate	4	November	Nov 11	11/11	11
Leif Atlas Romero	4	November	Nov 18	11/18	11
Laura	3		Jan 30	1/30	1
Cameron	3		March 21	3/21	3
Kiri	3		March 25	3/25	3
Connor	3		May 2	5/2	5
Sofia	3		Nov 1	11/1	11
Kali	4	November	Nov 13	11/13	11
Eric	3		Dec 24	12/24	12
Jennifer	3
Robbie	3
Anna	3
Victoria	3
Karla	2		May 14	5/14	5
Jan  Marie	2		June 28	6/28	6
Kathy	2		August 1	8/1	8
Bruce	2		August 14	8/14	8
Craig	2		September 28	9/28	9
Yvonne	2		October 5	10/5	10
Carl	1		February 6	2/6	2
Ruth	1		September 13	9/13	9

Bruce -- Portrait -- By Kiri -- Thanksgiving -- November 28, 2024

 I'm way too serious in this photo!

Mayumi's Hispanic-Mexican-Texas Family

For the archives.

*********************
May's Family History

Relevancy and Personal Interest

1. My wife's paternal grandfather was an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who crossed into Texas, and married a citizen of the United States. They had at least one child. My wife's paternal grandfather was returned to Mexico "under duress" and never returned to the states. Although married to a US citizen, he had no legal status in the US at that time and was returned to Mexico -- some eighty to ninety (?) years ago.

2. My wife's father, raised by an aunt in Texas, was a 30+ year US Army veteran, having been one of the children of the marriage described above. His Texas mother was a US citizen and that made him a US citizen; his father, married to m wife's mother, as noted above, was an undocumented visitor to Texas and returned to Mexico, "under duress."

a. Why was my wife's father raised by an aunt and not his mother? His mother died after having four children by the same father -- the undocumented immigrant described in paragraph 1 above.

b. My wife's grandfather lived a quiet life with his Texas wife (before she died) and their four children, including my wife's father. Her undocumented grandfather was dating another Texas woman who ultimately -- for whatever reason --  alerted the authorities to his undocumented status which ultimately resulted in his deportation. 

c. [I am unclear to the timing of those particular events, but one can probably connect the plausible dots. When his mother died, my wife's father, age five, when to live with an aunt who already had twelve children of her own.] 

d. My father-in-law was named Flavio. He had three siblings. As an aside, I met my father-in-law's baby sister, Laura, Beeville, TX, decades later. I never met his other sister (Matilda died before I knew the family; she died when May was in high Schoo)) or his brother Pedro, with whom the family lost contact when he moved away from the Texas homestead. There is some suggestion that Pedro when on to become a minister or preacher, perhaps in Tennessee.

3. My wife's mother was an 18-to-19-year-old Japanese citizen living in Yokohama, Japan, when she married my wife's father, a US citizen by birth, serving in the US Army, fighting in the Korean War when he went to Japan on "R&R" -- rest and relaxation. Prior to being allowed to marry that US serviceman, my wife's future father, the Japanese teenager was "investigated" for a full year before the marriage request was approved. When they returned to the states, my wife's mother when through a naturalization process to include taking a citizenship test, which she passed and became a naturalized citizen. 

4. My wife's birth certificate was issued by the US State Department; she having been born in Japan. Her mother was about twelve years old when the US dropped two atomic bombs on Japan.  

In a long note like this, there will be content and typographical errors but the general gist of the narrative is accurate as best I know. 

Not knowing all the facts of the "Biden" program, I have sympathy with the president's intention, but that intention needs to be codified through an act of Congress and signed by the President, and not simply by "executive order." My hunch is that between 1619 and 1865 there were a lot of undocumented immigrants whose descendants and they themselves became US citizens. 

Interestingly enough, the road to citizenship for enslaved men and women in the United States also began with a presidential executive order, but it also required three constitutional amendments to complete the process (the 13th, 14th and 15th). 

That executive order? Abraham Lincoln's "Emancipation Proclamation."

Regardless of all the particulars, it's somewhat of a miracle that I am the father of two incredibly wonderful daughters and the grandfather of five equally incredible grandchildren -- all of whom are citizens of the United States whose ethnicity includes but not limited to:

Norwegian, German, Hispanic-Mexico, English, Scottish, Japanese, and Russian.