1 answered · 3 still out · 25 need a person · 6 places to photograph

Errands

What this archive has asked of other archives, and the handful of jobs that need a human being in a particular building. Published so that the waiting is visible rather than invisible.

Answered

The Argentine anarchist press, 1900-1910

International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam · 2026-09-09

What it settles: ANSWERED 10 Sep 2026. Their Latin American periodicals are digitised and OCR'd at degruyterbrill.com/database/lalp/start. Their archivist searched Lerena and its variants: nothing. Re-run here the same day and the null holds - the 171 "Lerena" hits are the Conde de Lerena of the 1787 Spanish census and a Montevideo street called Osimani y Llerena; the 16 "Lerina" hits are OCR breakage of "ballerina". They will scan specific items at 0.50 euro each via repro@iisg.nl, but no target has been identified.

Out, and waiting on a reply

Sent, awaiting reply

The consular matricula and the passport file

Archivo Historico de Cancilleria, Buenos Aires · 2026-09-09

What it settles: The register of Argentine nationals at the Cape Town consulate. He enrolled there in 1908 and drew a passport there in 1940, so he has a file. Gmail 1a084cbef3384599.

Sent, awaiting reply

Army enrolment and service papers

Archivo General del Ejercito, Buenos Aires · 2026-09-08

What it settles: Written before the enrolment card was found; now partly answered by it, but the service record would still add. Gmail 1a0811e9ee49a43e.

Sent, awaiting reply

The Death Notice, estate MOOC 6/9/17017

Western Cape Archives and Records Service · 2026-09-10 ANSWERED 16 September 2026, and not by the archive. A photograph of this death notice was in David's own files the whole time the request was outstanding. It reads: Father, NOT KNOWN. Mother, NOT KNOWN. The informant was Rose Lilian Theys, no relation, present at his death. What is still worth having from the estate file is the WILL of 6 February 1942 and the inventory, not the death notice. See /family-papers/.

What it settles: The most valuable unread document in the project. A South African death notice names the deceased's parents at question 19. It carries a stated prediction: it should say JUAN CARLOS LERENA and MARIA. Gmail 1a087da08db5ca31.

Waiting on a person, not a machine

Needs a person

Ley 4144 expulsion files - was he deported as a foreign agitator?

Archivo General de la Nacion, Buenos Aires

What it settles: The portal at agnbicentenario.mininterior.gob.ar/web/ingresar needs an account, and a passport is accepted for foreigners. The Spanish text is written and ready to paste - requests/agn-ley-4144-expulsiones.md.

Needs a person

The two "Miss Taylor" manifests

findmypast, in an ordinary browser

What it settles: TNA BT 27/0420 p.68 (Harlech Castle, 9 Sep 1903) and BT 27/0448 (Walmer Castle, 9 Apr 1904). The index carries no forename; the image very often does. findmypast's tile viewer will not render in this browser. Two minutes elsewhere.

Needs a person

The 1935 LDS household card

State Library of Queensland, South Bank

What it settles: FamilySearch says "Image Available - access the site at a FamilySearch centre or affiliate library". SLQ IS an affiliate. Open ark 1:1:ZYWT-S86Z on their wifi and photograph the WHOLE card: Ricardo is recorded as "Son", so there is a household with a head - almost certainly Pablo Armando, in the month Mary Septima died. Also try 1:1:ZYWT-S8N2 and the Cape estate ark 3:1:3Q9M-C913-K9H3-D.

Needs a person

The other three genetic groups

MyHeritage

What it settles: Five of eight are legible. If a Ligurian or Italian group is among the last three, the Italian hypothesis changes again. One scroll.

Written, not sent

Turn the Montevideo marriage-dispensation register, 1856-1932

me · 2026-09-13

What it settles: ALSO ON THE WORK LIST, /worklist/ - and that is where its state is maintained. errands.tsv is work for a PERSON and the work list is work for a SESSION, so this archive's own machine work belongs there. THIS ROW IS KEPT OPEN, NOT CLOSED. The first attempt at migration set all eleven to 'done', and drift.py refused it: one of them says in its own detail that the register has never been turned, and marking work finished because its index entry moved is a false claim about the work. The detail below is untouched. MARKED "done" IN ERROR, and corrected 13 September 2026. The task is to TURN the register, and turning is not searching. What was actually done was a FULL-TEXT search on the register's own formulae, and it answered well: eight Lerena dispensations in seventy-six years, two families - the Montevideo patricians of the Catedral and the rural Lerenas of Trinidad in Flores - NO Juan Carlos Lerena, and no Lerena-Lerena dispensation at all. But full text is machine handwriting recognition, and the whole reason to turn a register by hand is to catch what it misses. Still to do. The method is now proved - /search/film/<DGS>?i=<N>, ark from the page title, assemble the tiles - and only the DGS is missing; three routes to it failed on 13 Sep because FamilySearch's catalogue, records and full-text search were all erroring that day.

Needs a person

Open the CEMLA manifest for the four LERINA arrivals of 15 March 1889

waiting-on-david · 2026-09-13

What it settles: The exclusion of Laurensa, Savina, Anna and Annunziata LERINA was narrowed on 13 Sep 2026 - they are excluded on their dates, not on a judgement about the surname - but the manifest page itself has never been seen. CEMLA's search lives at search.cemla.com and is gated by a CAPTCHA (field "CaptchaCode"), which this archive does not solve. Ship ADELAIDE LAVARELLO from Genova, arriving Buenos Aires 15 March 1889. NOTE BEFORE SPENDING TIME ON IT: CEMLA's public search returns INDEX ROWS, not images. If it offers no page image, the manifest itself is at the Archivo General de la Nacion and this cannot be closed online at all.

Written, not sent

Find the DGS for the Montevideo marriage-dispensation register

What it settles: ALSO ON THE WORK LIST, /worklist/ - and that is where its state is maintained. errands.tsv is work for a PERSON and the work list is work for a SESSION, so this archive's own machine work belongs there. THIS ROW IS KEPT OPEN, NOT CLOSED. The first attempt at migration set all eleven to 'done', and drift.py refused it: one of them says in its own detail that the register has never been turned, and marking work finished because its index entry moved is a false claim about the work. The detail below is untouched. TRIED AGAIN 13 September 2026 AND STILL BLOCKED - by their outage, not by the work. FamilySearch's CATALOGUE SEARCH and FULL-TEXT SEARCH were both returning "Something Went Wrong" for hours, while name-indexed records search and DIRECT CATALOGUE IDs worked normally. The dispensations are in the FULL-TEXT corpus, not a name-indexed collection, so full text is the only route to them - and it is the half that is down. WHAT WOULD UNBLOCK IT: the catalogue entry for the Arquidiocesis de Montevideo, opened BY ID rather than by search, which is how five other film DGS numbers were recovered today while search was dead.

Written, not sent

Trace Gilberto Lerena's Buenos Aires household forward

What it settles: ALSO ON THE WORK LIST, /worklist/ - and that is where its state is maintained. errands.tsv is work for a PERSON and the work list is work for a SESSION, so this archive's own machine work belongs there. THIS ROW IS KEPT OPEN, NOT CLOSED. The first attempt at migration set all eleven to 'done', and drift.py refused it: one of them says in its own detail that the register has never been turned, and marking work finished because its index entry moved is a false claim about the work. The detail below is untouched. THE SHARPEST LEAD IN THE ARCHIVE NOW THAT HE IS ATTACHED. Gilberto is documented as Luis Eugenio's brother on TWO acts from two parishes; he moved to Buenos Aires between 1887 and 1889; his son Carlos married there in 1914 from Pueyrredon 1750; and his MOTHER Justiniana Lenguas was living in Argentina at 87 in 1908. So there is a documented Lerena family in Argentina descending from the Montevideo house - and Juan Carlos Lerena has to have come from somewhere. Attempted 14 September and blocked: FamilySearch's records search began returning an EMPTY BODY mid-session. Search on Gilberto AS FATHER across Argentine collections, and on Julia Salvanach as mother.

Written, not sent

Test whether Alejandro Lerena Lenguas is the Alejandro M. Lerena of the enrolment cards

What it settles: ALSO ON THE WORK LIST, /worklist/ - and that is where its state is maintained. errands.tsv is work for a PERSON and the work list is work for a SESSION, so this archive's own machine work belongs there. THIS ROW IS KEPT OPEN, NOT CLOSED. The first attempt at migration set all eleven to 'done', and drift.py refused it: one of them says in its own detail that the register has never been turned, and marking work finished because its index entry moved is a false claim about the work. The detail below is untouched. Two Alejandros, and they may be one man. ALEJANDRO LERENA LENGUAS, born 29 May 1845, was found on the 1846 baptism image - a sixth child of Luis Lerena and Justiniana Lenguas, and so a brother of Luis Eugenio and Gilberto. Separately, the army enrolment cards of Cajon 985 name a father ALEJANDRO M. LERENA, born Uruguay 1839, wife Julia Bassani, with a son born at Montevideo in 1886. The years differ by six, which is within the range this archive has repeatedly seen between a baptism act and a stated age. If they are one man, another brother is placed in Argentina. The cards name parents, so the test is direct. Attempted 14 September and blocked by the same search outage.

Written, not sent

Find General Don Pedro Lenguas in the published record

What it settles: ALSO ON THE WORK LIST, /worklist/ - and that is where its state is maintained. errands.tsv is work for a PERSON and the work list is work for a SESSION, so this archive's own machine work belongs there. THIS ROW IS KEPT OPEN, NOT CLOSED. The first attempt at migration set all eleven to 'done', and drift.py refused it: one of them says in its own detail that the register has never been turned, and marking work finished because its index entry moved is a false claim about the work. The detail below is untouched. He is the only titled person in this tree, and a general leaves a trace a farmer does not. Father of JUSTINIANA Lenguas and of SIXTA Lenguas - so grandfather of Luis Eugenio and Gilberto, and father-in-law of Dr Candido Juanico. Called "el General D. Pedro Lenguas" in his granddaughter's 1846 baptism act. HIS OWN PARENTS ARE NOW KNOWN from Sixta's death act: D. ANTONIO LENGUAS and Dona JUANA GRANDAL - and an Antonio Lenguas born 1807 AT BUENOS AIRES, buried 1841 at Las Piedras, with a wife Juana Grandal, is in the indexed records. Uruguayan military and national histories, not FamilySearch, are the place for the general himself.

Written, not sent

Find the CHILDREN of Don Luis Lerena and Dona Carolina ORIBE, 1836-1841 (this errand said "Oliva" until 23 Sep 2026)

What it settles: ALSO ON THE WORK LIST, /worklist/ - and that is where its state is maintained. errands.tsv is work for a PERSON and the work list is work for a SESSION, so this archive's own machine work belongs there. THIS ROW IS KEPT OPEN, NOT CLOSED. The first attempt at migration set all eleven to 'done', and drift.py refused it: one of them says in its own detail that the register has never been turned, and marking work finished because its index entry moved is a false claim about the work. The detail below is untouched. THE MARRIAGE IS FOUND AND SHE IS NAMED: CAROLINA ORIBE, married by petition at Montevideo on 3 SEPTEMBER 1836 - image read, ark 3:1:3Q9M-C9B7-J331-G, signed by Luis Lerena himself. She was dead by March 1842, when he remarried "en segundas nupcias" as "viudo de Dona Carolina". IF THERE WERE CHILDREN, THEY ARE HALF-SIBLINGS OF LUIS EUGENIO AND GILBERTO - Lerenas of the right surname, the right country and the right generation, and nobody has ever looked for them. THE INDEXED SEARCH IS DONE AND CAME BACK EMPTY, 14 Sep 2026: no child of a Lerena father and a "Carolina Oliva" mother anywhere, and no death for her - every "Carolina Oliva" in the Uruguayan records is a later woman who married Antonio Reverditto. So this needs the REGISTERS TURNED BY HAND: Montevideo baptisms 1837-1841, and burials 1841-42. Any child would be a HALF-SIBLING of Luis Eugenio and Gilberto - a Lerena of the right surname and the right generation, and a place Juan Carlos has never been looked for.

Written, not sent

Search the Iglesia del Cordon, Montevideo

What it settles: RESIZED 12 October 2026 - and DOWNWARDS. The parish's own share is about 95 documents across 43 volumes, not the 470 this errand carried for a morning: q.anyPlace=Cordon scopes the NEIGHBOURHOOD, and 95 of the first 100 hits are parish volumes while pages 2 and 3 hold none. See data/corrections.tsv. SO IT IS AN AFTERNOON, NOT A CAMPAIGN. The parish runs baptisms 1828-1923, marriages 1842-1931, burials and deaths 1839-1926. Densest volumes: Religious Marriage Records 1916-1926 (6 hits); the bundled Rite Registers / MARRIAGE DISPENSATION RECORDS / Religious Marriage Records 1895-1898 (5, a parish dispensation book nobody here knew existed, 3 of its 5 unread); baptisms 1869-1872, 1904-1908 and 1908-1910 (4 each). STILL UNTOUCHED: the Manuel Antonio Lerena recorded PARAGUAYO. PARTLY WORKED: Carvallo Lerena, who signs a civil marriage testimonio of 8 July 1896 copied into the parish book, ark 3:1:3Q9M-C9B7-5SFD-J - machine transcript only, not tiered, needs the plate.

Written, not sent

Find the marriage act of Josefa Lerena - Moratorio, or Lerena?

What it settles: ALSO ON THE WORK LIST, /worklist/ - and that is where its state is maintained. errands.tsv is work for a PERSON and the work list is work for a SESSION, so this archive's own machine work belongs there. THIS ROW IS KEPT OPEN, NOT CLOSED. The first attempt at migration set all eleven to 'done', and drift.py refused it: one of them says in its own detail that the register has never been turned, and marking work finished because its index entry moved is a false claim about the work. The detail below is untouched. RAISED AND THEN LARGELY DEFLATED ON THE SAME DAY - and it still needs one act to close. Pablo Armando's enrolment card names his parents JUAN CARLOS LERENA and MARIA LERENA, and the standing question is whether Maria was a Lerena BY BIRTH - which would make theirs a marriage between kin, and would need a dispensation. The 1895 Buenos Aires census enters a JOSEFA in Gilberto Lerena's household as "LERENA de L[erena], m, 43, VIUDA, R. Oriental" - and on the two lines above her the same enumerator writes married women as [maiden surname] de L. If he is consistent, Josefa was born a Lerena and married a Lerena, one generation before Juan Carlos. BUT WITHIN THE HOUR, Uruguayan civil registration produced a JOSEFA LERENA married to FERNANDO MORATORIO, whom the FamilySearch tree attaches to Josefa Lerena Traibel 1851-1947 - the same candidate. If that is her, "de L." is the enumerator's shorthand for the Lerena HOUSEHOLD and proves nothing. The Lerena-Lerena reading is withdrawn as evidence. She is almost certainly the Josefa Lerena who stood godmother at the Catedral de Montevideo in 1885. Born about 1852, widowed by 1895. Look for her marriage in Montevideo 1870-1890, and for her husband's death before 1895. And note the dispensation sweep that concluded no Lerena-Lerena marriage exists is itself known to be blind to compound surnames.

Written, not sent

Retry ALEX when its full-text search is working

What it settles: ALSO ON THE WORK LIST, /worklist/ - and that is where its state is maintained. errands.tsv is work for a PERSON and the work list is work for a SESSION, so this archive's own machine work belongs there. THIS ROW IS KEPT OPEN, NOT CLOSED. The first attempt at migration set all eleven to 'done', and drift.py refused it: one of them says in its own detail that the register has never been turned, and marking work finished because its index entry moved is a false claim about the work. The detail below is untouched. alex.onb.ac.at - about 5 million pages of Austrian and Habsburg official texts. Its CONTENT search is broken: every query returns TOTAL (0) with a "not yet available" notice, proved by controls on 14 Sep 2026. The digitised volumes and the TITLE search do work. When full text returns, search LERENA and LLERENA, and specifically the Hof- und Staatshandbuch and Reichsgesetzblatt for an AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN honorary consul of that name at MONTEVIDEO or BUENOS AIRES - the only plausible link, and one that fits a family holding a general, a judge and an abogado. It would NOT reach Pablo Armando's own claimed ARGENTINE consulship at the Cape; that needs the South African gazette.

Written, not sent

Read SPORTING LIFE's Argentine racing columns, 1905-1920

What it settles: ALSO ON THE WORK LIST, /worklist/ - and that is where its state is maintained. errands.tsv is work for a PERSON and the work list is work for a SESSION, so this archive's own machine work belongs there. THIS ROW IS KEPT OPEN, NOT CLOSED. The first attempt at migration set all eleven to 'done', and drift.py refused it: one of them says in its own detail that the register has never been turned, and marking work finished because its index entry moved is a false claim about the work. The detail below is untouched. THE ONE LIVE SEAM IN THE BRITISH PRESS, found 14 September 2026 after the surname search failed. Searching "Lerena" in the British Newspaper Archive is useless - the Nissan Serena, "gutta serena" and a Spanish finance minister swamp it. But "ARGENTINE STUD BOOK" returns 13 genuine articles, and SPORTING LIFE covered Argentine racing in the very years GILBERTO LERENA was co-founding that book and having a Palermo Group 1 named for him in 1914. Read the columns by SUBJECT rather than searching by NAME. Note this needs a findmypast or BNA subscription - the newspapers ARE covered by the plan tested on 14 Sep, unlike the Devon parish registers.

Needs a person

Write to "Welsh Jen" on RootsChat - TAYLOR of Bideford

David

What it settles: The RootsChat Surname Interests Table lists a member "Welsh Jen" researching TAYLOR of BIDEFORD, DEVON - the exact registration district of William Taylor and Mary Ann Helena Brayley and seven of their ten children. Messaging requires an account and TWO forum posts before the PM system unlocks. This archive now holds for that family: ten children with dates, six marriages with GRO volume and page references, the 1891, 1901, 1911 and 1921 censuses, the 1939 Register, and a daughter who married an Argentine and died at Cape Town. Offer first and ask second - that is a great deal to give a fellow researcher, and it is the right way round for a first message. Other leads on the same table: "Muddy Waters" (DALLING, Swimbridge/Landkey/Barnstaple), "Burnell" (BRAYLEY, Somerset & Devon), "kingsgate" (NORRISH, Devon). DRAFTED 12 October 2026 and NOT SENT - the text is on /errands/#s-drafts and the brief is in requests/rootschat-taylor-bideford.md. It still needs the account and the two forum posts before the PM system unlocks.

Needs a person

Revista 15 IEGU, pages 53-54 - no longer the only authority, but still worth having

David

What it settles: DOWNGRADED 15 September 2026, and the reason is good news. This errand was headed "the ONLY authority for Sancho's parents", because the Geneanet pages of FELIX LERENA and ROSALIA AGUILAR carry nothing but the line "Family: Revista 15 IEGU" and this archive had used that parentage to withdraw the Granada hypothesis. THE PARENTAGE IS NOW ON A PARISH ACT. The baptism of their grandson Luis Escolastico at the Iglesia Matriz of Montevideo, 10 February 1811, reads "Abuelos paternos FELIZ GERENA y ROSALIA AGUILAR" - ark 3:1:3Q9M-C9BW-X7F6-M. So the article is no longer load-bearing and nothing in this archive now depends on it. IT IS STILL WORTH GETTING, for a different reason: the act gives the parents' NAMES and nothing else. Felix and Rosalia have no dates, no places, no marriage and no other children anywhere here. If Revista 15 cites a Spanish act for them - a parish, a book, a folio - that is the first thread into CORDOBA, which is still on no act at all. If it cites nothing, the article can be set aside for good. Same place as before: the IEGU sells back issues (www.iegu.org.uy, plain http - its certificate has expired); also at Stanford (SearchWorks 458344) and HathiTrust (record 101485627).

Needs a person

Apolant, "Operativo Patagonia", ficha 355 - the source of the 1791 date

David

What it settles: The 8 January 1791 date, carried here for days as "what the trees say", descends from a named published work with a numbered entry. JUAN ALEJANDRO APOLANT, "Operativo Patagonia: historia de la mayor aportacion demografica masiva a la Banda Oriental, con la nomina completa, filiaciones y destino de las familias pobladoras" (Montevideo, Imprenta Letras, 1970), FICHA 355 - the FERNANDEZ TRESGUERRAS family, Asturian colonists of the 1778-1781 convoy. NOT AVAILABLE ONLINE: archive.org does not hold it; HathiTrust holds it (catalog record 008709228) but serves a bot check and, as a 1970 imprint, would be search-only. Second-hand copies appear on MercadoLibre Argentina. WHAT TO LOOK FOR: what APOLANT himself cites for the marriage - he worked from the parish books and the AGN, so his footnote may name the very book and folio this archive has been hunting. And whether he gives the PLACE, which the tree does not.

Written, not sent

gendatabase.com - the one record worth paying for

David

What it settles: YOU FOUND THIS SOURCE AND IT IS A GOOD ONE. This archive had never tried it. Free summary rows already gave death years for all three sons of the 1950 estate. The full records are behind a subscription, and this session does not create accounts or pay for things - so this is yours to decide. IF YOU BUY ONE THING, BUY THE DEATH NOTICE OF RICARDO JUAN CARLOS LERENA, born 1920, died 1994, married 1941 to Doreen May Chappell. A South African death notice names the deceased's PARENTS - which would put in a modern official document what this archive currently infers: that the Cape Lerenas descend from Pablo Armando. Second priority: the five 1999 deaths - Catherine Tertia Karon, Gayle, Pierre Frederick, and two children aged 8 and 13. Either something terrible happened in 1999 or the index has a default-year artefact, and a summary row cannot tell you which. See data/gendatabase-sa.tsv.

Written, not sent

The parish registers of Navarrete, Logrono - baptisms and marriages, c.1820-1880

Archivo Historico Diocesano de Logrono

What it settles: FamilySearch has NOT filmed them: the catalogue for Navarrete, Logrono returns one subject (Census) and one item (the 1752 Catastro), and the full-text corpus holds no Navarrete volume of any kind. So this needs a letter. WHAT TO ASK FOR: the marriage of the parents of PRUDENCIO BENITO, JUAN JOSE and JOSE DOLORES LERENA y LERENA - a Lerena groom and a Lerena bride, married at Navarrete before about 1876, the bride ISABELA LERENA y BASARAN, widowed by November 1900; and the baptisms of the three sons. Juan Jose was born about 1876. See data/navarrete-logrono.tsv. DRAFTED 12 October 2026 and NOT SENT - the Spanish text is on /errands/#s-drafts and the brief is in requests/diocesano-logrono-navarrete.md. IT CANNOT GO YET: this archive has NO VERIFIED ADDRESS for the Diocesan Archive and does not guess one; the diocese's own site has to supply it first.

Written, not sent

Walk the 1752 Catastro de Ensenada for Navarrete - was LERENA a surname there at all?

What it settles: DGS 4386870 (vols 481-484) and DGS 4386703 (vol 485, Memoriales de seglares), filmed from the Archivo Historico Provincial de Logrono; also in the online collection Spain, Catastro de Ensenada 1749-1756. Vol. 483 (Raiz y Personal de seglares) and vol. 485 are the household-by-household ones. This cannot name a Juan Carlos born in the 1840s - it answers the question underneath him: whether the name was at Navarrete before the 19th century, and whether it was already being doubled. No waypoint established; film numbers only.

Written, not sent

Open the 1895 Buenos Aires census household of LEANDRO LERENA, b.1857 in SPAIN

What it settles: Seccion 18, Subdivision 34, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, with EMILIA LERENA b.1886, also born in Spain. Index arks MWW4-GMZ and MWW4-GMD. Almost every Argentine Lerena this archive has traced is Uruguayan-born, so a Spanish-born household in the city FIVE YEARS BEFORE the Navarrete brothers signed at the consulate is worth the hour. Index-level only so far - the census page itself has not been opened, and nothing is tiered.

Written, not sent

Read the Cordon burial register 1839-1852 for Estanislada, Sinforiano, Manuela and Rosa

What it settles: The four adults who carry the LERENA surname at casa 229 of Calle Sarandi in the padron of 1850 - Estanislada 20, Sinforiano 19, Manuela 60 (patria AFRICA) and Rosa 46 - are recorded by a census that has NO COLUMN FOR CONDITION. A parish act would have one: burials and baptisms of this period write 'liberta', 'esclava de' or 'parda libre' outright. Nuestra Senora del Carmen La Mayor, Cordon - Religious Death Records 1839-1852 and Religious Burial Records 1885-1892 onward - are already identified in this archive's hands and unread, and the Catedral registers cover the same years. ALSO WORTH IT FOR ITS OWN SAKE: Manuela and Rosa are both recorded CASADA, so each has a husband who is not in that house. NARROWED 12 October 2026: the holder formula has been swept and it is NOT the route. 'esclava/esclavo/liberta de [holder]' was run as a phrase against every Lerena this archive can name. TWO POSITIVES, both already held: 'esclava de Don Sancho Lerena' returns the Montevideo Catedral act of 1812 (Juana and Maria Mercedes), and 'esclava de Don Alejandro Lerena' returns the San Jose baptism and burial of April 1846 (Barbara and Carmelo Anselmo). NOTHING for Pedro Antonio, Pedro, or Luis Lerena, and nothing for the male or 'liberta' forms. Two controls passed in the same session, so those are real nulls. WHAT SURVIVES: their acts may use 'parda libre' or 'morena libre', or name no holder at all - which is exactly how Barbara appears on the BURIAL even though her baptism names hers. SO IT MUST BE READ BY EYE. NOTE THE ABBREVIATION TRAP: 'D.n' matches nothing in full text; write 'Don' or drop the honorific.

Written, not sent

Sweep the South African Gazette on the SPELLINGS, not just LERENA

What it settles: The consul test of 12 October found no LERENA in any South African gazette before 1951, with both controls passing (coverage 1910-2026; 'exequatur' returns 644 documents with hits in 1914, 1932, 1933, 1937). THAT NULL IS ON ONE SPELLING. This archive's own rule says a null on one spelling is a null on a letter - and 1910s-40s gazette OCR is exactly where a surname breaks. RUN: SERENA, LLERENA, LORENA, LARENA, LEVENA, LERINA, GERENA, PERENA against gazettes.africa, filtering results on the /akn/za link prefix because the site's country= parameter DOES NOT BIND. Look only for pre-1951 hits. Search terms that find the right notices: 'Recognition granted as Consul-General', 'Recognition granted as Vice-Consul', 'exequatur'.

Written, not sent

Open two gazettes behind a bot check - they should name the Argentine consuls

David

What it settles: Gazettes.Africa documents /akn/za/officialGazette/government-gazette/1938-12-30/2594/ and /akn/za/officialGazette/government-gazette/1950-05-26/4389/ both surface on a search for 'Argentine Republic' and consul, and both are behind a Cloudflare bot verification. THIS ARCHIVE DOES NOT WORK AROUND BOT DETECTION, so they are recorded as blocked rather than searched. In an ordinary browser they should open without trouble. WHAT TO LOOK FOR: the name of whoever held the Argentine consular post in South Africa in 1938 and in 1950. If the gazette names a consul and it is not Pablo Armando Lerena, open question 2 is answered outright - that is the single most decisive thing left on it.

Closed

Done

Gilberto Lerena Lenguas - his parents and siblings

What it settles: DONE 13 Sep 2026, and it no longer needs David or a CAPTCHA. His brother Luis Lerena Lenguas married at San Francisco de Asis, Montevideo, on 19 December 1864, and that act names their parents outright: "hijo legitimo de Don Luis y de Dona Justiniana Lenguas". So Gilberto's parentage is documented from a primary act rather than from Geneanet. His siblings remain SECONDARY, from the FamilySearch Tree. ORIGINAL NOTE: Both sit behind bot checks this archive does not solve. One minute each for a person. The only question worth asking of him: was there a JUAN CARLOS in that family?

Done

Read the baptism act: Rosario, Libro 15, folio 229 (1866)

me · 2026-09-13

What it settles: DONE the same day. Act 1541, image ark 3:1:S3HT-XS9C-ZL. The parents are Don Luis Lerena Lenguas and Dona Julia Juanico, "naturales del E. Oriental" - both Uruguayan. See notes/the-uruguayan-turn.md.

Done

Search the Montevideo parish registers for Juan Carlos Lerena

me · 2026-09-13

What it settles: DONE 13 Sep 2026. The indexed Uruguayan record holds no Juan Carlos Lerena born 1830-1870; full text returns two hits for the phrase in the whole corpus, neither ours; and the one documented Lerena household of that generation - Luis Lerena Lenguas and Julia Juanico - has now been opened from the marriage act to the last burial. All four of their children are named, and he is not among them. ORIGINAL NOTE: "Uruguay, Registros Parroquiales, 1750-1930" on FamilySearch. A baptism in the 1840s-1850s and a marriage to a Maria before 1882. Opened by the 1866 Rosario act, which says the only Lerena in that parish was a native of the Estado Oriental.

Done

Find Luis Lerena Lenguas and Julia Juanico in Montevideo

me · 2026-09-13

What it settles: DONE 13 Sep 2026. Married 19 December 1864, San Francisco de Asis, Ciudad Vieja, Montevideo, act 258 - image read at full resolution. He is named as the legitimate son of Don Luis and Dona Justiniana Lenguas, which makes the Montevideo trunk PRIMARY where it had been a tree assertion. She is named as the daughter of Dr Don Candido Juanico and Dona Juliana Gonzalez. ORIGINAL NOTE: Their marriage, and his own baptism. If his father is the Don Luis Lerena who stood godfather by proxy in 1866, that is two generations from one act.

Done

Find the death of Luis Eugenio Lerena Lenguas

me · 2026-09-13

What it settles: DONE 13 September 2026: HE DIED 24 DECEMBER 1901, at seven in the morning at calle Suarez No. 25, el Paso del Molino, Montevideo - certificate 216, image read. "De nacionalidad oriental, nacido en Montevideo, de cincuenta y seis de edad, de estado casado, y de profesion HACENDADO", of pulmonary tuberculosis. His mother Justiniana Lenguas was alive at 79 and in the house. IT WAS HIDING UNDER A MISSPELLING: FamilySearch indexes him as Luis SERENA Lenguas, so every search on the surname missed him, including a 1,502-row sweep of Montevideo Lerena deaths run the same morning. Found by searching his MOTHER instead. Two things this row used to say were wrong: the window did NOT start in 1880 - his last child Candido Jaime was born 13 September 1884 - and the search was not blocked, it was looking under the wrong letter.

Done

Three FamilySearch searches this session cannot run - two minutes in your own browser

waiting-on-david · 2026-09-13

What it settles: THE BLOCK IS OVER, and all three searches were run here on 13 September 2026. This row used to say FamilySearch had firewalled this automated session and that every request was refused on contact - true when it was written, false since, and left standing it would stop the next person from trying. (1) LUIS EUGENIO'S DEATH: found, 24 December 1901, act 216, image read. (2) JULIA JUANICO'S BAPTISM: found, born 23 November 1842, christened 4 October 1843 at San Francisco de Asis, mother given in full as Juliana Joaquina Gonzalez. (3) CANDIDO JUANICO'S FIRST MARRIAGE: the two-wives inference is confirmed from the children themselves - Julia born 1842 to Juliana Joaquina Gonzalez, against Sara, Zara and Celia born 1866-69 to SIXTA LENGUAS - though the marriage act itself is still not opened.

Done

Put the ark on the last row that says IMAGE READ

What it settles: DONE, 14 September 2026 - the fifth ark is found, and the act came with three other things. EMA SIXTA LERENA JUANICO's marriage act: ark 3:1:3Q9M-C9B7-T7P2-W - "La Union, Montevideo, Montevideo. Religious Marriage Records 1902-1934", act 90 of 30 June 1913, FULL-TEXT TRANSCRIPT READ. THE ROUTE THIS ERRAND PRESCRIBED WAS WRONG AND A SIMPLER ONE WORKED. It said to browse the La Union register by DGS through the catalogue. In fact the register is IN FULL TEXT, and a phrase search for "Sixta Lerena" returns exactly two documents, the first of which is it. Two earlier rounds failed because they searched her with MASSERA as spouse and searched Jose Pedro Massera by name; the compound SIXTA LERENA had not been tried. WHAT THE ACT SAYS: "Don Jose Pedro Mar[s]era, natural de esta Republica, soltero, de cuarenta y seis anos de edad, hijo legitimo de Don Jose Joaquin Mar[s]era y Dona Mercedes Martinez, finados = con = Dona Ema Sixta Lerena Joanico, de la misma nacionalidad y estado, de treinta y tres anos de edad, hija legitima de Don LUIS LERENA LENGUAS y Dona JULIA JOANICO, FINADOS . Fueron testigos, Don Jaime Herrera y Dona Maria Perena Juanico de Herrera." THREE THINGS BEYOND THE ARK. (1) Her parentage is now on an ACT, not an index - Luis Lerena Lenguas and Julia Juanico named as her parents in her own marriage. (2) BOTH PARENTS WERE DEAD BY JUNE 1913 - "finados" - which this archive did not have. (3) It corrected her sister's surname in this register: the witness "Maria PERENA JUANICO de Herrera" is Maria Lerena JUANICO, and the register had her as LERENA LENGUAS, her father's compound rather than her own. The age of 33 on the act is NOT adopted: this archive already settled her birth at 21 November 1876 on three independent records, and ages at marriage are the weakest date in genealogy.

Done

Open the images behind Gilberto Lerena Lenguas's parentage

What it settles: DONE 13 September 2026, and it came out primary. Act No. 1447, San Francisco de Asis, folio 504, 31 October 1886 - image ark 3:1:3Q9M-C9BW-Z9RM-W, read at DeepZoom level 12. It baptises Gilberto's daughter Maria Angelica Julia, "hija legitima de Don Gilberto Lerena y de Dona Julia Salvanach, orientales", and names the paternal grandparents "Don LUIS y Dona JUSTINIANA LENGUAS" - the couple named as Luis Eugenio's parents in his marriage act of 1864 and his death act of 1901. THE GODMOTHER IS DONA JULIA JUANICO DE LERENA, Luis Eugenio's own wife. It also produced two new people: Don Cristobal and Dona Angela Alvarez, Julia Salvanach's parents. THE SECOND IMAGE (ark 3:1:3Q9M-C9B7-BQZD-W, the baptism of Raul Alfredo Luis) is still unopened, and is worth opening as a second witness.

Done

Read the six LORENAS of the 1869 Rosario census at their own pages

What it settles: Agustin (b.1829), Guillermo (1853), Geronima (1854), Mercedes (1860), Feliz (1866) and Maria (1868) LORENA are in the 1869 national census at Rosario, elsewhere in the film from Bartolome Llerena. Guillermo and Geronima are the right age to be a parent of a child born in 1882. The schedule will show household structure - who is head, who is spouse, who is child - and whether the clerk wrote Lorena, Lerena or Llerena.

Done

Open the Confirmaciones film that covers Pablo Armando

What it settles: DONE, 14 September 2026 - and not one film but BOTH of them, read end to end. ROSARIO CATEDRAL, DGS 004531018, 'Confirmation Records 1883-1904': images 5-80 read earlier in the month, images 81-145 read on 14 September. The volume ENDS at image 145, not at 148 as this errand assumed; the film holds 421 images across several volumes, and image 200 opens 'Confirmation Records 1904-1918' - when Pablo Armando was 22-36 and already in South Africa, so out of scope rather than unread. SANTA ROSA DE LIMA, DGS 004581639, 'Confirmaciones 1890-1897': all 141 images read, every transcript non-empty. PABLO ARMANDO IS IN NEITHER. He was 8 to 22 across their combined span, which is the age for confirmation, and the hope was that a confirmation act names the parents. Both of Rosario's confirmation registers early enough to hold him are now exhausted. One candidate survives: Santa Rosa image 131, a mother written 'Dona ANDUGARA GERENA', left as a candidate needing the image. See data/santa-rosa-confirmations-complete.tsv and data/rosario-catedral-confirmations-complete.tsv.

Done

Re-run the Montevideo dispensation sweep on COMPOUND surnames

What it settles: CLOSED 12 October 2026. AND IT WAS ALREADY HALF DONE WHEN IT WAS RAISED - data/compound-surname-sweep.tsv ran Lerena Juanico, Lerena Lenguas and Lerena Traibel on 14 September and found the NINTH dispensation through it (Jose Pedro Massera x Ema Sixta LERENA JUANICO, 19 June 1913). The errand stayed open for a month against work that had partly been done. Today the remaining five forms were run - Lerena Pelaez, Lerena Fernandez, Lerena Villademoros, Lerena Cardozo, Lerena Larriera, Lerena Razzetti - each to the END of its result set using count=100 rather than to the end of its first page. RESULT: Lerena Cardozo reaches the 1911 dispensation already held, which makes it a control; no other compound touches the register. NO TENTH LERENA DISPENSATION. See data/dispensations-compound-sweep.tsv and the correction of 12 October.

Done

Read the Rosario CONFIRMATIONS by full text, not by tiles

What it settles: READ END TO END: images 5 to 80 of item 1, every page from the first register leaf (15 MAY 1885) to the start of the 1897 section. NO LERENA, under any of seven spellings, among roughly 2,500 children - each entry naming both parents. Pablo Armando was three when the register opens and fifteen when the section closes, and children appear at every age from two to fifteen, so his whole plausible window is inside the pages read. STILL OPEN: images 81-148 (1897-1904, when he was 15-22), and any confirmations of 1883-84, which are not on these pages. See data/rosario-confirmations-read.tsv.

Done

Read SANTA ROSA DE LIMA, Confirmaciones 1890-1897 - the second Rosario parish

What it settles: DONE - THE WHOLE FILM, 14 September 2026. DGS 004581639, 141 images. Every image from 6 to 141 read with a non-empty transcript (2,111-3,629 characters each), searched for seven spellings. PABLO ARMANDO IS NOT IN IT. Both of Rosario's confirmation registers covering his childhood are now read to the end - the Catedral and this one - and he is in neither. ONE hit in the whole register: image 131, "Dona ANDUGARA GERENA" as a mother. Not him, and on a page whose transcription also produced "Jose Mala", "Hurbacero" and "Perero" as a child's name. Left as a candidate needing the image at magnification, not as a find. METHOD NOTE THAT MATTERED: images 86-89 returned len=0 in one batch and were logged NOT READ; image 86 re-read after a pause gave 2,970 characters, proving the zeros were the throttle. Image 22, failed three times across two days, read clean at 3,451. Eleven pages would have been silently certified as empty if a zero had ever been allowed to count as a read. See data/santa-rosa-confirmations-complete.tsv.

Done

Find the GRANADA marriage act of Sancho Lerena y Armenta and Ana Maria de Aguilar

What it settles: DONE, 14 September 2026 - the act was found, and then the reason for wanting it was withdrawn. FamilySearch ark 1:1:C9WG-BGW2 indexes it: SANCHO DE LERENA Y ARMENTA, born CORDOBA, son of SANCHO DE LERENA Y VELASCO and MARIA ANTONIA DE ARMENTA Y GUEBARA, married ANA MARIA DE AGUILAR of La Malaha, daughter of FRANCISCO DE AGUILAR and BEATRIS FRANCO, at SANTA ANA, GRANADA on 17 NOVEMBER 1754. A second index entry sits in the Granada Pre-Marriage Investigation Files (ark 1:1:XPG2-RYP). BOTH ARE MARKED IMAGE UNAVAILABLE - the act itself is still unread, and Geneanet's fifty-year span is now a single day. BUT IT DOES NOT TOUCH THIS FAMILY. The errand existed because a son of that couple would be styled Lerena y Aguilar, which is the name the trees give the Uruguayan Sancho. The jfina tree gives his parents as FELIX LERENA and ROSALIA AGUILAR, citing Revista 15 IEGU - so Aguilar is his MOTHER'S surname, not a Granada grandmother's. And full text agrees from the other side: "Juan de Lerena y Aguilar" returns FIVE Madrid notarial hits, "Sancho de Lerena y Aguilar" returns No Results Found against that control. The Spanish findings are kept as Spanish findings in data/1754-granada-act.tsv, under a banner withdrawing the connection.

Done

Sancho's 1791 marriage - THE ACT IS FOUND. This errand is closed.

David

What it settles: CLOSED 15 September 2026, and it should have been closed the moment the act was read. THE ACT: DGS 8166578, image 2687, Canelones Matrimonios Libro I, left page, second act - 'En ocho dias del Mes de Enero de 1791 anos... Sancho Llerena, nat. de Cordova la Llana, hijo legitimo de Felix Llerena, y de Rosalia Aguilar'. See data/1791-marriage-act.tsv. THE OTHER FOUR BOOKS, FOR THE RECORD: the Canelones marriage INDEX was read (entry at image 2531, which is how the act was located); the Canelones informaciones were walked and do NOT cover January 1791 (data/informaciones-1791-walk.tsv); the castrense book was opened and IS the Regimiento de Infanteria de Buenos Ayres register, images 652-662 read (data/castrense-1791-walk.tsv); and the 'cheapest test in the archive' was wrong - DGS 7713386 is not the 1726-1800 index but a Montevideo cathedral burial register of 1887 and 1905. Nothing here is left for David to do. What remains is machine work and it is listed on the work list, /worklist/.

Done

Read ROSARIO CATEDRAL Confirmaciones - the 1897-1904 tail, images 81-148

What it settles: DONE, 14 September 2026 - and the volume ends at 145, not 148. Images 81-145 read, every transcript non-empty; images 5-80 were read earlier in the month, so the whole of Confirmation Records 1883-1904 is now read end to end and holds NO LERENA. Images 146-148 are NOT part of the volume: they carry no ark and their title is the bare 'Registros parroquiales, - Film # 004531018'. The film holds 421 images across several volumes; image 200 is Confirmation Records 1904-1918, when Pablo Armando was 22-36 and already in South Africa - identified and ruled out of scope, not left unread. One hit, image 143: SERENA - read in context it is a girl's forename in a column of forenames, not the surname. See data/rosario-catedral-confirmations-complete.tsv.

Done

Page Libro I to January 1791 - DONE, and it was not you who had to do it

David

What it settles: CLOSED 15 September 2026. THE ACT HAS BEEN FOUND AND READ. DGS 8166578, image 2687, Matrimonios Libro I, left page, second act: 'En ocho dias del Mes de Enero de 1791 anos... Sancho Llerena, nat. de Cordova la Llana, hijo legitimo de Felix Llerena, y de Rosalia Aguilar, naturales de dicha Cordova... con Maria Fernandez, nat. de las Asturias, hija legitima de Rodrigo Fernandez, y de Ro[sa] Fernandez'. Married by Don Juan Francisco Cardoso, Cura Interino; witnesses Antonio Villegas and Jose del Rio; margin 'Casados y Velados'. The errand asked you to page the register in your own browser because the viewer would not render for this session. It turned out not to need the viewer at all - the tile service takes a film-and-image number directly. Full transcription in data/1791-marriage-act.tsv.

Done

Run one GRO index search: TAYLOR births, mother's maiden name BRAYLEY, Bideford, 1870-1890

David · 8 Oct 2026

What it settles: THIS IS THE SEARCH THAT ENDS THE TENTH-CHILD QUESTION, and it cannot be run from here. gro.gov.uk is NOT FreeBMD, and the difference is the whole point: the GRO's own online index gives the MOTHER'S MAIDEN NAME on every birth from 1837, which FreeBMD does not and never will. THE QUERY: births, surname TAYLOR, mother's maiden name BRAYLEY, district BIDEFORD, 1870-1890. By definition that returns every child of William Taylor and Mary Ann Hellen Brayley, with no inference, the missing tenth included. WHY IT IS DAVID'S: it needs a free GRO account, and this session does not create accounts or sign in. WHAT IS ALREADY EXCLUDED, so the result can be read fast: the baptism register at Northam holds seven children of this couple and nothing between 31 August 1881 and 30 October 1884 - so the child being looked for is one who left a birth registration and nothing else. EDITH (Sep q 1882) and ETHEL (Dec q 1882) are the two names in the Bideford birth index that sit in that window; neither is in the register. RUN AND ANSWERED THE SAME DAY: David logged this session in and the search was made. Nine children, all at Bideford, nothing missing - and the tenth child this archive had been hunting for three weeks does not exist. See /corrections/ and data/gro-taylor-brayley-births.tsv.

Done

Open the Montevideo death act of PEDRO A. LERENA, 6 November 1896, certificate 353

What it settles: DONE THE SAME EVENING IT WAS RAISED, 12 October 2026, and the act confirms the index. Acta No. 353, 15a Seccion de la Capital, image ark 3:1:3Q9M-CS2W-H39V-V, PLATE READ at apid TH-909-72188-82458-0. PEDRO LERENA, nacido en Montevideo, 69 years old, casado, died at five in the afternoon of 6 November 1896 at calle Rivera No. 163 of tisis pulmonar, certified by Dr Vitale, before Vicente Carricaonde. 'HIJO LEGITIMO DE DON PEDRO A. LERENA, ORIENTAL, FALLECIDO, Y DE DONA VICENTA DE LA VEGA, ORIENTAL, FALLECIDA.' Wife: Dona Manuela, oriental, 53. Children named: ANTONIO, CARLOS TEODORO and MANUEL ANTONIO, plus the first declarant Don Pedro A. Lerena, soltero, empleado, 'hijo del fallecido'. WHAT IT SETTLES: which Pedro married Manuela Lemos, asked on this register's own row on 11 October. WHAT IT BREAKS: the date of household 229 - 69 in 1896 means born about 1827, and a man born 1827 is six in 1833, not sixteen. Either the census is later than c.1833 or the sixteen-year-old is a different son of the same couple. NEW ERRAND RAISED: re-date household 229.

Done

Date the enumeration behind household 229 - the volume says 1850, this archive says c.1833

What it settles: SETTLED 12 October 2026 at CATALOGUE level. FamilySearch catalogue koha:1408224, 'Uruguay, Montevideo, censos, 1726-1860', lists film 7499042 item by item: item 1 = Padrones de habitantes, LIBRO 263, 1843; ITEM 2 = LIBRO 264, 1850; item 3 = libro 257, 1852-1853. Household 229 is in item 2, so the enumeration is the PADRON OF 1850. The c.1833 is withdrawn. CONSEQUENCES: the three derived birth years moved seventeen years later (Emilia c.1832, Pedro c.1834, Vicenta c.1838), and the head - entered at forty, so born about 1810 - IS NOT Pedro Antonio Lerena born 31 July 1793. That holds under the neighbouring 1843 book too, where he would be born about 1803. The c.1833 was itself inferred from the identification it was then used to support, which is why it stood. See data/corrections.tsv.

Done

Find LEONARDA MARGARITA LERENA VEGA after 1837 - she is not in the 1850 padron

What it settles: ANSWERED THE SAME EVENING, 12 October 2026. She was never missing from the padron of 1850 - only from her parents' house. She is entered at CASA 229 OF CALLE SARANDI (index ark 1:1:XMKF-FR3W, image ark 3:1:3QS7-89ZP-B99S-Z, plate read at apid TH-1961-36718-27970-97), blanca and oriental, aged ELEVEN where thirteen would be right. AND THE NUMBER WAS A TRAP: her parents are at a DIFFERENT casa 229 on another street, so there are at least two houses numbered 229 in one padron and 'household 229' was never an identifier. SHE IS ALSO THE ONLY WHITE PERSON IN THAT HOUSE: Estanislada 20 (morena), Sinforiano 19, Manuela 60 (patria AFRICA, casada) and Rosa 46 (oriental, casada) all carry the surname by ditto. Four people entered in their own right. See data/sarandi-229-1850.tsv.

Photographs only someone there can take

Everything this archive would like a picture of, and cannot take itself. Each says what the photograph would settle, and what to capture, because a photograph of the wrong part of a thing is a wasted trip. All six are in Cape Town, within half an hour of each other. Someone with a morning and a camera could close the first two.

Maitland, Woltemade Cemetery, Cape Town - album "Le", image 85 of 127 in the eGGSA collection, photographed 2021 by Heather MacAlister

The LERENA grave kerb

What to capture: The WHOLE plot, not just the kerb: any plate or slab, the section and row markers, the neighbouring graves, and a wide shot showing where it sits. Then ask the municipal cemetery office for the Woltemade register entry - a grave number would tie the kerb to a person.

The only physical trace of this family found anywhere. The kerb carries the surname and NOTHING else - no forename, no dates. Both Mary Septima (grave 7719A, Nov 1935) and Pablo Armando (Maitland Cemetery no 1, Mar 1950) are buried in this cemetery.

Cape Town, Wynberg district

7 Forth Road, Newlands

What to capture: The street frontage, the number, and enough of the street to place it.

Where he died on 19 March 1950, and where his executrix Rose Lilian Theys - "no relation" - also lived. The house is very likely still standing.

Cape Town, near Milnerton

The stables site, Koeberg Road, Rugby

What to capture: Whatever is on the site now, and the road. Even a negative - a warehouse, a car park - is worth recording.

Plans were lodged in 1931 for stables here - KAB 3/CT 4/2/1/3/474 B796. The direct documentary corroboration of the horse tradition, and the yard where Alan Higgins and Peter Kannemeyer were apprenticed to "Bob Lerena".

Cape Town

34 Florence Road, Observatory

What to capture: The frontage and the number.

Where Mary Septima died in November 1935.

Cape Town

St Dominic's, Wynberg

What to capture: The exterior, and the interior if it is open.

Where they married on 3 September 1911, after banns.

Cape Town

Corpus Christi, Wynberg

What to capture: The exterior.

Where Roque was baptised on 12 June 1911, three months before his parents' wedding.

The first one already has a photograph, and it is not enough. A stranger photographed that kerb in 2021 and published it through eGGSA; it shows the surname and no more. What the cemetery records say →

Five letters, drafted and not sent

Written 12 October 2026 and waiting on one person. Copy, change anything that does not sound like you, and send them from your own address.

None of these has been sent, and none of them can be sent by this archive. Anything that leaves here goes from David’s own address, which is the standing rule.

Two of the five cannot go yet, and they say so in red. The Logroño letter has no verified address — this archive does not guess one, and the diocese’s own site has to supply it first. The RootsChat message has no email at all: it needs an account and two forum posts before the private-message system unlocks. The other three go to addresses already used and already verified.

The Navarrete parish registers

To: Archivo Histórico Diocesano de Logroño (La Rioja, Spain)
Address: NOT YET VERIFIED — must be looked up on the diocese's own site before sending. This archive never guesses an address.
Subject: Consulta genealógica — partidas de la familia LERENA de Navarrete, c. 1840-1880
Written in: Spanish, with an English note offered
Why: The only place this archive can name where LERENA y LERENA was settled local usage. FamilySearch has not filmed the registers: the catalogue for Navarrete returns one subject, Census, and one item, the 1752 Catastro. Nothing is online. This is the only route.

Estimados señores:

Les escribo desde Sudáfrica para una investigación genealógica familiar, no académica, y les pido disculpas de antemano por las molestias.

Busco a una familia LERENA de NAVARRETE (La Rioja). Lo que sé de ella procede de un solo documento, otorgado lejos de allí: una escritura de poder firmada el 14 de noviembre de 1900 ante el Consulado de España en Buenos Aires (folio 138, escritura nº 368), en la que comparecen

Don PRUDENCIO BENITO y Don JUAN JOSÉ LERENA Y LERENA,
hermanos, mayores de edad, solteros, dependientes,
NATURALES DE NAVARRETE, PROVINCIA DE LOGROÑO,

otorgando poder a su madre, Doña ISABELA LERENA Y BASARÁN, viuda, y mencionando a un tercer hermano, Don JOSÉ DOLORES LERENA Y LERENA, casado y residente en el pueblo. Juan José habría nacido hacia 1876.

Lo que me interesa es que los hijos llevan el apellido DUPLICADO como apellido de registro — Lerena y Lerena — lo que indica que el padre y la madre eran ambos Lerena. En los registros americanos que estudio esa combinación aparece casi siempre como error de copia; Navarrete es el único lugar que he podido nombrar donde parece ser real.

Quisiera preguntarles, si fuera posible:

1. ¿Se conservan en ese Archivo los libros parroquiales de Navarrete (bautismos y matrimonios) de aproximadamente 1820 a 1890, y están abiertos a consulta?

2. ¿Consta en ellos el MATRIMONIO de un LERENA con una LERENA celebrado en Navarrete antes de 1876 aproximadamente — presumiblemente los padres de los tres hermanos citados, siendo la esposa Isabela Lerena y Basarán, ya viuda en 1900?

3. ¿Y los BAUTISMOS de Prudencio Benito, Juan José y José Dolores Lerena y Lerena, hacia 1870-1880?

No les pido que realicen una búsqueda extensa. Si existe un índice, o un servicio de copias con sus tarifas, me basta con que me indiquen el procedimiento y estaré encantado de abonar los gastos que correspondan.

Si les resulta más cómodo, puedo escribir en inglés.

Les agradezco de antemano su tiempo y su atención.

Atentamente,

David Defranceski
david.defranceski@gmail.com

TAYLOR of Bideford — a first message to a fellow researcher

To: RootsChat member "Welsh Jen", via the forum's private message system
Address: No email. The RootsChat Surname Interests Table lists her for TAYLOR of Bideford, Devon. SENDING REQUIRES AN ACCOUNT AND TWO FORUM POSTS before the PM system unlocks.
Subject: TAYLOR of Bideford — I have a good deal to share
Written in: English
Why: Bideford is the exact registration district of William Taylor and Mary Ann Helena Brayley and seven of their ten children. Offer first and ask second: this archive holds far more than it needs, and that is the right way round for a first message.

Hello,

I saw your TAYLOR of Bideford interest on the Surname Interests Table. I have been working on the same family and I would rather offer than ask, so here is what I hold, free to you whether or not any of it is yours.

WILLIAM TAYLOR and MARY ANN HELENA BRAYLEY, of Bideford, Devon. I have all TEN of their children with dates, six of the marriages with GRO volume and page references, the family in the 1891, 1901, 1911 and 1921 censuses, and the 1939 Register. The Northam, St Margaret baptism register covers several of the children.

The reason I am on it at all is the daughter who left: MARY SEPTIMA TAYLOR, born at Bideford on 17 September 1884, who married an Argentine and died at Cape Town on 15 November 1935. Her husband is my line, and she is the reason a Devon family turns up in a South American archive.

If any of that is your branch I will send it all over in whatever form is useful — I have it as transcriptions with citations rather than as a tree, so it should be easy to check rather than just believe.

What I am short of, if you happen to have it: anything on the BRAYLEY side before Mary Ann Helena, and anything on what became of the Taylor children who stayed in Devon after 1939.

No obligation at all — I am glad to send the material either way.

With thanks,
David Defranceski

Chaser — the consular matrícula and the 1940 passport file

To: Archivo Histórico de Cancillería, Buenos Aires
Address: archivo@cancilleria.gob.ar — ALREADY VERIFIED and used on 9 September 2026, from the Cancillería's own contact page.
Subject: Reiteración de consulta — matrícula consular y expediente de pasaporte de PABLO ARMANDO LERENA (consulta del 9 de septiembre de 2026)
Written in: Spanish
Why: Sent 9 September 2026 and unanswered after five weeks. This remains the single most likely document anywhere to name Juan Carlos and María Lerena, because the papers he produced in 1940 to prove his nationality may be the only surviving statement of his parentage.

Estimados señores:

Me permito reiterar, con todo respeto, una consulta genealógica que les dirigí el 9 de septiembre de 2026 y a la que aún no he recibido respuesta. Entiendo perfectamente que el Archivo atiende muchas solicitudes y que los plazos son los que son; si la mía está en trámite, les ruego que consideren este mensaje únicamente como una señal de que sigo interesado.

El caso, en resumen: busco la MATRÍCULA CONSULAR y el EXPEDIENTE DE PASAPORTE de

PABLO ARMANDO LERENA, nacido el 22 de febrero de 1882,
pasaporte argentino expedido en CIUDAD DEL CABO en 1940,
fallecido allí en 1950.

Lo que más me importa es una sola cosa: QUÉ DOCUMENTOS PRESENTÓ PARA ACREDITAR SU NACIONALIDAD, y si esos documentos NOMBRAN A SUS PADRES.

El motivo es que no he podido hallar su partida de nacimiento por ningún otro camino. He revisado el registro de bautismos de la catedral de Rosario acta por acta para 1881, 1882 y 1883 — era la única parroquia de la ciudad hasta 1888 —, el registro civil uruguayo, los índices argentinos y españoles, y el censo nacional de 1895, en el que no figura. En Santa Fe no existía registro civil provincial en 1882. De modo que los papeles que él mismo presentó en 1940 podrían ser la única constancia que sobrevive de su filiación.

Quedo a su entera disposición para cualquier aclaración, y desde luego dispuesto a abonar los gastos de reproducción que correspondan.

Con mi agradecimiento por su tiempo,

David Defranceski
david.defranceski@gmail.com

Chaser — army enrolment and service papers

To: Archivo General del Ejército, Buenos Aires
Address: age@ejercito.mil.ar — ALREADY VERIFIED and used on 8 September 2026, from argentina.gob.ar.
Subject: Reiteración de consulta — legajo de PABLO ARMANDO LERENA, clase 1882, enrolado en Ciudad del Cabo, 1908
Written in: Spanish
Why: Sent 8 September 2026 and unanswered after five weeks. The enrolment card is the one document on earth that names Juan Carlos and María Lerena; any service file behind it would be the second.

Estimados señores:

Me permito reiterar una consulta genealógica que les dirigí el 8 de septiembre de 2026 y a la que todavía no he recibido respuesta. Si ya está en trámite, les ruego disculpen la insistencia y tomen este mensaje sólo como constancia de mi interés.

Busco cualquier legajo o documentación de servicio correspondiente a

    PABLO ARMANDO LERENA, CLASE 1882,
    ficha de enrolamiento de la Oficina enroladora de CIUDAD DEL CABO (Sudáfrica),
    Serie E 3555, Sección I 3322,
    Cajón 985 de las fichas de enrolamiento.

Su ficha consigna como padres a JUAN CARLOS LERENA y a MARÍA LERENA, y como lugar de nacimiento ROSARIO DE SANTA FE.

Lo que me interesa, concretamente, es si existe detrás de esa ficha ALGÚN EXPEDIENTE que amplíe esos datos — y en particular si en él consta la partida de nacimiento que debió presentar, o cualquier dato adicional sobre sus padres.

Explico el motivo: esos dos nombres aparecen en esa ficha y, hasta donde he podido comprobar, EN NINGÚN OTRO DOCUMENTO CONOCIDO. He buscado en los registros parroquiales de Rosario acta por acta, en el registro civil uruguayo, en los índices argentinos y españoles y en el censo de 1895. La ficha es, por ahora, la única constancia de su filiación.

Quedo a su disposición y dispuesto a abonar los gastos que correspondan.

Con mi agradecimiento,

David Defranceski
david.defranceski@gmail.com

Follow-up — the will and inventory, not the death notice

To: Western Cape Archives and Records Service, Cape Town
Address: archives.clientservices@westerncape.gov.za — ALREADY VERIFIED and used on 10 September 2026.
Subject: Estate MOOC 6/9/17017 — follow-up request for the will and inventory
Written in: English
Why: The original request asked for the death notice. That turned up in David's own files on 16 September and gives both parents as NOT KNOWN. What is still worth having from the estate file is different: the will of 6 February 1942 and the inventory.

Dear Sir or Madam,

I wrote to you on 10 September 2026 about estate file MOOC 6/9/17017 (PABLO ARMANDO LERENA, died Cape Town 1950). I am writing to narrow that request rather than to repeat it, because part of it has since been answered from another source.

I no longer need the DEATH NOTICE. A photograph of it turned up in our own family papers; it records both parents as "not known", and the informant was not a relative.

What I would still very much like, if they survive in the file, are:

1. The WILL, dated 6 February 1942; and
2. The INVENTORY of the estate.

My interest in them is genealogical rather than financial. The deceased was born in Argentina in 1882 and his parentage is not recorded anywhere I have been able to find — the death notice itself says as much. A will often names relatives that no official form asks for, and an inventory sometimes lists papers, photographs or documents brought from abroad. Either could carry a name I cannot otherwise reach.

I would be grateful if you could tell me the procedure and the cost of copies, and I am happy to pay the usual fees.

With thanks for your time,

David Defranceski
david.defranceski@gmail.com

Why three of them are chasers. The Cancillería and the Ejército were written to on 9 and 8 September and have not answered in five weeks; the Western Cape letter was answered in part, from David’s own files rather than by the archive, so what it asks for now is different — the will of 6 February 1942 and the inventory, not the death notice.

Every letter’s full text is kept in requests/ in the repository, with the address it went to and how that address was verified — never guessed. Sources →