My family's ancestors had been in North America for a very long time. The first were Aztec or other Méxican Native Americans, Apache and Pueblo Peoples of New México who married the Spaniards who ventured into New México and Méjico. Most of their names are lost in time, yet most Hispanic New Méxicans share their ancestry and culture. Many of these women were amazing women who were at the heart of the New Méxican Hispanic communities.

My Spanish ancestors came to México and the Caribbean during the 1500s. My New México Hispanic ancestors journeyed into New México between 1598 and 1640. Others came after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 between 1692 and 1695. Some came directly from Spain, some from New Spain (México) along with their Native/Mestizo wives and children. There were a few who came from unexpected places like Belgium and Greece. In my search, I've found Afro-Españo ancestors who came to New México as officers/soldiers in the Spanish army and others as freed slaves or shown as “mullato libre.”

My maternal grandmother's, ancestors began arriving in New England on the Mayflower and the Ann in 1623 with other ancestors arriving during “the Great Migration” over the next 100 years. My maternal grandfather's ancestors were in the Middle and Southern colonies by the mid-1700s. They were Scot-Irish and Swiss/German Mennonites & Lutherans escaping from religious persecution in Europe, much like my Pilgrim and my Spanish Sephardic Jewish ancestors had done before them. They settled in, first,Pennsylvania, then the Shenandoah Valley, next to Indiana and ended up in Nebraska.

My maternal grandmother’s ancestors joined my grandfather's ancestors in Nebraska, where my mother was born. Half of these English ancestors migrated from Massachusetts to Maine, then to Wisconsin and last, to Nebraska. The other half migrated from Massachusetts to Connecticut, then to Pennsylvania and finally, Nebraska.

I am not related to all the people in the genealogies on this site. I've included as many possible ancestors for my husband, Jim Swetnam, my stepmother, Conchita Lucero López, and my sister-in-law, Jan Reiter. I hope to include more of them as my research continues. I've added the siblings of many of my ancestors because I found valuable information from them.

The genealogies that are found on these pages are still a work in progress. I will continue my research, and some day may find the allusive parents of Joseph Blair, Matthew B. Cole, Francisco Tórres of Chama, Salvador Armijo, María Manuel Miera y Pacheco, and dozens of others. I am slowly filling in holes and going back to add source references. As I am finding more resources, I am also making corrections, addition and deletions.

I want to thank all the hard work and effort of the many people who published their genealogical, books and historical data on the Web & all the good folks who have contributed to the data bases on GenWeb. I give a special thanks to all the hard work done by folks with the New México Genealogical Society, the New México Hispanic Research Center and the Special Collections Library in Alburquerque. I also want to thank and acknowledge my distant cousins and not so distant cousins, Kevin Conrad, Tom Armijo, Chris Noble Chaworth and David Sandoval. A special thanks to Daniel Bly for his wonderful book From The Rhine to The Shenandoah and his work on the Hockman chapter.

Recently many new books dealing with genealogy in New England and England have made their way onto Google Books. For all the wonderful librarians who scanned books to be read on Google, you have my love and appreciation. I give a special thanks to those from Oxford who made some of the works from the Chetham Society and other publications available to those of us who live far away from England.

Update news, I’ve been concentrating my research on my English Ancestors that extend through my Grosvenor and Southworth lines. My intent was to find sources for all the lines in England and Europe that connect with the Southworth line. Due to all the new sources I've added to my personal genealogy library and all the new resources on Google Books, I ended up finding hundreds of new connections. I’ve made corrections and additions in my own database which I haven’t had time to put online. In the near future I hope to add my newest research to my web site. Eventually, I would like to add Tórres families of the Rio Abajo database much like my López Families of the Rio Abajo database.