My love for genealogy began in early 1982, while on a visit to San Antonio. I began searching my ancestors because my mother told me that we had an ancestor on her father’s side who was mayor of San Antonio during the Civil War. His name was P. L. Buquor. Once I held in my hands an original certificate signed by Sam Houston at the DRT Library located at the Alamo, I was hooked and wanted more.
My mother then called her cousin Alfred Rodriguez, who had been researching her mother’s side of the family and asked if we could come over to his home for information. He told me one of our ancestors came to America to fight with Lafayette in the American Revolution. He gave me a roughly drawn pedigree chart showing how I was related to this man. WOW! THIS WAS FANTASTIC! He then told me the story of the Canary Islanders and how they came to San Antonio in 1731 and about John Trapnell, a Texas Ranger, who died in prison in Mexico. Now my curiosity was really peaked. So my journey began.
This was in the days before computers and the Internet. So, on my annual visits to San Antonio from California, I would go to the San Antonio library to see what I could find. It was amazing. Our family names were everywhere – Buquor, Delgado, Curbelo, de la Baume, Vidal, Arocha, Leal, Travieso and Trapnell. I came across “With the Makers of San Antonio,” by F. C. Chabot. It was a goldmine. I then located the books of the church records from the San Fernando Cathedral translated by Archivist, and cousin, Juan Leal. WOW!
P. L. Buquor, came to Texas at age 15 from Louisiana in 1836, joined the Army of the Republic of Texas, became a Texas Ranger and Mayor of San Antonio.
Since my time in San Antonio was limited, I began buying history books of San Antonio and Texas to start a library at home. I wanted to know what San Antonio was like when my ancestors lived there. I joined Los Bexereños and the Canary Islanders Descendants Association and met people who were also searching their roots.
By the time I retired in 1997, I had my first computer and started documenting my research using Family Tree Maker. I was devoting all of my spare time geneology and history. Yearly I traveled to San Antonio to visit my family, do research and buy books -- $100 was my limit. After my husband, Hank Bisnar and I were married, we traveled together to Louisiana, Nova Scotia and other parts of the Country seeking information. We spent countless hours in libraries and archives.
I found that our ancestors were brave men and women. They were explorers, builders, farmers, soldiers, patriots, ground breakers, founders of towns, leaders of men, and just plain citizens. And these were only the ones I was able to find. I discovered that most our ancestors were early settlers of this great country in which we live.
Gaspard de Coligny, Marquis de Chatillon, the great Admiral of France and Huguenot leader lived in France in the 16th Century. The Huguenots were persecuted for their religious beliefs and their descendants traveled to settle in Acadia (Nova Scotia) in the 17th Century. De Coligny wanted to settle the Hugeuenots in America and established a settlement in Brazil, which did not last because the man he put in charge was a poor leader. Huguenots then began to settle on the coast of Florida. The great Admiral was murdered on San Bartholomew’s Day in France on 24 August 1572 by order of Catherine de Medici. What a loss! (See Gaspard de Coligny, Marquis de Chatillon: Admiral of France, Colonel of French Infantry, Governor of Picardy, Ile de France, Paris and Havre by Walter Besant.)
Our earliest ancestor on this continent was Charles de la Tour who married a MicMac Indian girl and settled in Acadia (Nova Scotia) in 1604. The Acadians lived a comfortable life for 146 years until the English evacuated them in 1755 and sent them in ships to all parts of the Colonies because they would not pledge allegiance to England. Most families were separated from their loved ones forever. Some eventually found their way to Spanish Louisiana and now are known as "Cajuns." (See Fortune & LaTour, The Civil War in Acadia, by M. A. MacDonald.
Our earliest ancestor in San Antonio was Juan Banul, a blacksmith who accompanied the Aguyo Expedition in 1621. He was in San Antonio on or before 1719. (See With the Makers of San Antonio” by F. C. Chabot.
Henry Buquoi, was one of the first families who had property along the Mississippi River in New Orleans, in 1721. (See Conrad’s First Families of Louisiana)
The Spanish Canary Islanders were sent by King Phillip of Spain to settle San Antonio in 1731 and built the San Fernando Cathedral. From these 16 families come the families of Leal, Curbelo, Delgado, Arocha, (See With the Makers of San Antonio” by F. C. Chabot.
Joseph de la Baume (1731-1834) came to America to fight in the American Revolution with the Marquis de Lafayette. He built Fort Miro in Louisiana, was co-founder of Monroe, Louisiana, had a trade business between San Antonio de Bexar and Nacagdoches owned El Capote Ranch, and a stone house on Las Alamedas in San Antonio. He died at the age of 104.
Once I began writing biographies of my ancestors and posting them on the Internet, I began receiving emails from cousins telling me they were descendants of so-and-so and asking how we were related. I loved it. My database soon began to grow. I now have over 2,500 names.
Collecting information regarding our ancestors and reading history to learn about their lives has been quite a journey.
Now my focus is on writing books about these famous ancestors. I have published genealogical family history books of both Joseph de la Baume and P. L. Buquor listing their ancestory and descendants, as well as information about our ancestors. These are available for sale through me.
I recently completed and had published my first historical biography of P. L. Buquor entitled: P. L. Buquor, Indian Fighter, Texas Ranger, Mayor of San Antonio. This book is also available through me or may be ordered through Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble or your neighborhood bookstore.
Sylvia Villarreal Bisnar
slybizgenealogy.com email: Sylvia@slybizgenealogy.com