Hispanic Organization for Genealogy and Research - HOGAR

08/22/2026

Our hearts at HOGAR de Dallas are heavy as we extend our deepest condolences to our lifetime member, Robert Vera, on the loss of his beloved spouse, Iris Jean Vera. We hold you and your family closely in our thoughts during this difficult time.

https://www.williamsfuneral.com/obituaries/iris-vera

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View Iris Jean Vera's obituary, send flowers, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.

08/22/2026

🇺🇸 He was killed in the Philippines in 1945, and four years later his hometown chapel would not let his family in.

Private Felix Longoria of Three Rivers, Texas volunteered for a mission on Luzon in June 1945 and did not come back from it. When his remains finally reached Texas in January 1949, the town's only funeral home refused the family the use of its chapel. The reason the director gave was that the whites would not like it.

His widow Beatrice reached out to a young Corpus Christi doctor named Hector P. Garcia and the brand new American GI Forum. Within days a first term senator named Lyndon B. Johnson arranged for Felix Longoria to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. He rests there today. Had you heard his name before now?

08/22/2026

✝️ You could be forty years old with a lunch pail in your hand and you still did not leave that house without it.

The hand came up. A thumb traced a small cross on your forehead, then near your lips, then over your chest. A few words said so low you only ever caught half of them. It took about four seconds and it was not optional, not in 1979 and not ever after.

La bendición followed you everywhere. Out the door to work. Over the telephone right before a long drive. Whispered into a receiver at six in the morning on the day of a surgery. It was never really superstition and it was never really about luck. It was your grandmother telling you, in the only shorthand she had, that you were walking out into the world carried by somebody.

Do you still ask for la bendición, and who is the person you ask for it from now?

08/21/2026

The whole family's credit rating lived in one spiral notebook behind the counter, written in pencil. 📒

You did not need a card or a bank. The man behind that counter knew your mother's name, knew which week your father got paid, and knew exactly how much bread and coffee and milk your house went through. He wrote it down, he added it up, and he never once said the word interest.

On Friday she walked in with the envelope and settled it, and he drew a line through the page. If the check came up short he drew a smaller line and said nothing at all about it. That store carried half the block through more than one bad month in the seventies on nothing but a pencil and knowing people.

What was the name of the corner store your family ran a tab at, and who was the one behind the counter?

08/21/2026

This is what the Alamo looked like in 1836.

Long before it became one of the most recognizable symbols of Texas, the Alamo was a sprawling mission compound covering far more ground than the chapel and Long Barrack that survive today.

Behind these walls, fewer than 200 defenders prepared to face a Mexican army numbering in the thousands. The compound included barracks, artillery positions, livestock pens, a hospital, wells, and defensive walls stretching hundreds of feet around the plaza.

For 13 days, the defenders held their ground.

Then, before dawn on March 6, 1836, the final assault began. Men like William B. Travis, James Bowie, and Davy Crockett became forever tied to the story, along with the many lesser-known defenders who fought beside them.

The Alamo fell, but its story didn’t end there.

“Remember the Alamo!” became a rallying cry for the Texian army, and just weeks later, victory at San Jacinto secured Texas independence.

Today, when you stand in front of the Alamo chapel, you’re looking at only a small piece of what once stood there. Images like this help put the scale of that historic place into perspective.

REMEMBER THE ALAMO.

08/21/2026

08/13/2026

Was Your Ancestor a Member of a Lodge, Club, or Secret Society?

One of the more interesting parts of our ancestors' lives that we often discover only via their obituary is their membership or attachment to a fraternal, ethnic, religious, or service organization or society. The Quicksheet contains a list of 25 of the more common ones in the United States and it iIncludes links to the Wikipedia entry for each organization for more detailed info.

Get the Quicksheet PDF at https://theancestorhunt.com/blog/25-lodges-clubs-or-secret-societies-your-ancestor-may-have-been-a-member-of/

08/13/2026

The time you spend documenting your research today can save hours of duplicated work tomorrow. Learn more about this Insight at https://theancestorhunt.com/blog/genealogy-insight-the-notes-you-dont-keep-become-the-searches-you-repeat/