Sometimes the Past Reveals More Than You Bargained For

When doing genealogical research, you have to be ready for surprises that may make your ancestors seem a little less romantic.

Just ask Aaron and Sylvia Magdaleno. The Santa Ana couple have traced their families to the 1600s--deep into Mexico, along the border and into the United States--through church, prison and trial records, census data and personal accounts.

They’ve met some colorful characters in their pasts.

There’s Indio Tomasillo, an Indian who surfaced as an ancestor of Aaron, 44, a warehouse worker. In 1742, Tomasillo practiced witchcraft and smoked peyote in the El Paso area. After 25 lashes, a confession and a trial, he was sentenced by authorities to be publicly lashed again at three parishes as an example to other Indians.

Sylvia, 42, who works for a phone company, found that the Nicholas Fernandez whom the whole family talked about was not really a fighter along with Pancho Villa. She’s still fighting her family on that one.

But what started the family’s genealogy passion a few years ago was the question of who was this Maximo Apodaca that Aaron had heard mentioned so much while she was growing up. Was he Aaron’s great-great-grandfather?

He had committed some crime, Aaron knew, but family members were mostly quiet about it.

The story became clear when the Magdalenos acquired a document from the Santa Fe, N.M., penitentiary.

Apodaca was a murderer.

The year was 1882. The scene, the countryside around Las Cruces.

Apodaca and his partner, Indio Lara, were cattle rustlers by profession. Lara was recruited by a landowner named Pat Coghlan to kill George Nesmith, with whom Coglin had some sort of dispute.

Lara and Apodaca met up with the Nesmiths along the trail as the family rode in its wagon. That’s when Lara first revealed the plan to Apodaca.

Lara shot the husband and wife. Apodaca shot the 10-year-old girl.

The two men avoided the law for three years. When they were finally tried, Lara was hanged and Apodaca sentenced to life in prison, though he committed suicide months into his sentence.

As it happens, while tracing the story of Apodaca and learning about other ancestors even further back through census records, the Magdalenos discovered they are related many generations back.

“These people in the past don’t die once you start thinking about them,” said Aaron. “There are times when you’re sad to find their death certificates.”