Silvas family descendant Abel Silvas lives in Pacific Beach. He has been researching his family background for the past five years and recently completed a paper about Eugenia Silvas, whose former property lies adjacent to the McCoy house foundation in Old Town. Mr. Silvas's paper, "A Brief History of the Silvas Family and the Problem of Maria," is on file in the San Diego Historical Society Archives, Balboa Park.

Q. When did you first learn about your family background and the Silvas heritage?

A. When I was a little boy. My father told me stories and I knew my heritage while growing up. Both my Mom and Dad told me...my Mom would tell stories she remembered when they were married...places my Dad would take my Mom...

Q. What kind of stories did your Dad tell you?

A. He told us that we were mission Indians, and he was proud of it. Every time we'd take a drive, he'd point to all these points of interest and explain the stories and the history of it, according to the family...from Baja to Los Angeles. We'd take long trips.

Q. How far did you go?

A. Ensenada. As far north as I can remember would be Los Angeles. Most of my memories are basically San Diego County. I do remember Los Angeles, visiting my uncles or my aunts. The missions, Santa Barbara is the farthest north mission I remember going to.

Q. What about San Luis Rey?

A. Especially San Luis Rey. In fact, San Luis Rey Mission...I remember when I was a little kid and we were sitting in church and I saw a penny on the floor. And I picked the penny up. Put it in my pocket. And I felt guilty and told my brother Robert. I said, "Robert, I found this penny on the floor." My brother said, "You better report it to the priest." After mass I went and saw the priest. I said, "Here, I found this on the floor." And he said, "Well thank you." And he gave it to me. He said, "You can have it."

Q. How long ago did you start collecting photographs and genealogical material? A. Recently. I've been studying for ten years, the family history, and it wasn't until recently, I'd say five years ago, until I found it was important to keep this, to collect these. But I guess you could say all the way back to ten years ago, I started collecting. But I didn't get real serious until recently, like five years ago.

Q. What photos do you have?

A. I just have photos of a few people, of my family, my great-grandpa, great-great grandpa, great-uncles, but I know that some of my aunts and uncles out there have other photographs.

Q. Where did you get the ones you have?

A. I got some of it from, most of it from my Dad. Some of it from my great-aunt Pauline who passed on a few years ago. And then a couple from my cousin.

Q. Which cousin?

A. Armando. My Dad's twin brother's son.

Q. Did Pauline live in San Diego?

A. Yes, but mostly she lived in San Bernardino. Her father was Jose Manuel Silvas. Named after his great-great-great-great-grandpa: Jose Manuel Silvas. Manuel Silvas married a Gilbert. And the Gilbert married a Crosswaite. The Silvas-Gilbert married a Crosswaite. Those are my first cousins down in Rosarito. The Crosswaites and Silvas married Machado. The Machado-Crosswaites are our family, cousins in Rosarito, past Rosarito in a place called "El Descanso."

Q. Crosswaite is mentioned in Old Town.

A. Is that right? Oh yeah, Bill Crosswaite. He was a referee for the Silvas divorce...1855-4? 1854?

Q. The divorce between Nicasio...?

A. Nicasio and Maria Machado. They say it was a divorce, it wasn't a divorce. Because in her will she said, "To my husband."

Q. What are some of the photographs you have collected and how do they tie in with your family history?

A. The Silvas Street sign is one of the main stories I remember. My Dad passed away four months ago. On the way to the cemetery we drove down Silvas Street. It's in Chula Vista along the Otay River. And that's where I grew up. So that's the story I mostly heard. And that used to be old 101 Highway. From the border to Los Angeles that was the only road. My Dad would tell me stories, he would go with my uncle Abel herding cows between the dairy in San Ysidro and the ranch in Del Mar. So when they started building the city and all these road grids...they forgot...this is like a block long...it's one block long, and it was nameless, and my Dad, in the 70s, asked it to be named after the Silvas family. So they did.

Q. He went to the Road Department?

A. Engineering Department, yes. Planning Department, or whatever...whoever handled that.

Q. What distance did you live from there?

A. A few miles. Actually I was born and raised about three blocks away from there.

Q. Near what cross streets?

A. Main and Broadway.

Q. Who are we starting with now, Domingo?

A. Yes. This is Domingo Silvas. The date of the picture has to be around 1915, 1916, because I have a picture of him...I don't have it, my uncle does...a picture of him with my grandma, Clara Silvas. They were married 1915 or 1916.

Q. Domingo and Clara?

A. Domingo and Clara.

Q. How many kids did they have? A. They had ten. Let me count. Domingo Junior. He was "Jose Manuel." He was born in 1918. Jimmy Librado. He was born in 1919. Benny, born in 1920. John, born in 1921. My aunt Clara, born in 1922. My uncle Frank, born in 1923. And my Dad and uncle Albert, (twins) born in 1924. And my Aunt May born in 1925. And my uncle David, I think it was 1927 or 28. Ten kids.

Q. So that's Domingo.

A. Domingo's mother was a Yorba, whose great-great grandfather was one of the forefathers here, from Catalonia, Spain. She was Juaneno. Domingo's father was Jose Maria Silvas. Jose Maria Silvas was a professional musician. He knew all the early songs of early California. Before he died, he taught them to Ramon Yorba, by ear, the old early songs. That was in the late 1800s before he died. And then he married a Yorba and Jose Maria's father was Jose Francisco. (Franco they called him in Mission times.) He married a Lopez who was Gabrielino. And Frank's father was Juan Jose Silvas and his father was Manuel Silvas and his father was Miguel Silvas. So that's Domingo's side. That's my grandfather's side. My Dad said he was the best blacksmith. And my Aunt Clara said he was the best blacksmith in Southern California. There would be a waiting list for months, waiting for him to work. So he would travel a lot.

Q. There's your Dad with the cowboy hat. He is one of Domingo's kids. And he has a twin brother. And your uncle, his twin brother, is still alive?

A. Yes. Albert. And here's a picture of them when they were kids. They're seven years old. See how he's standing right there? I've got a picture of my daughter Ariel standing just like that.

Here's our family. This was taken in 1979 or 80. Maggie lives in Ramona, Robert lives in Chula Vista, I live in Pacific Beach, my older brother Paul lives in Lake Tahoe, Yolanda and my brother Mike live in San Bernardino and in Encinitas, my brother Lawrence lives in Santa Monica, my sister Irene lives in Alpine.

Here's my daughter, Ariel. She is pointing to Eugenia Silvas's adobe structure. She was born on February 2, 1990...

Here's the Silvas family. This is, I believe in 1908, September 1908. This is the 50th wedding anniversary of my great-great grandparents. Here they are. There's Librado. Jose Librado Silvas who died in 1910 and he was born, on his tombstone it says 1831. Census records and other records show 1836, 37, or 38. One might even show 1840. They were married in 1858. He married Maria Ramona Armenta who is a native from Baja. She was born in Rosarito. That's her right there. (to the right of Librado) This is their son, Benito Silvas. He had a restaurant in Old Town with the Osunas, Francisco Osuna. That was in 1917. My Dad says he started the first taxi service in San Diego. He did have a horse and mule trading post in Del Mar and he was also a school trustee of Del Mar school. Benito. Benito married Mary Jesus de Castro. Her father Santiago Castro came to California from Baja in the 1870s. It was found where he was naturalized in California and he was one of the founders of the Del Mar school and she was a student there. That's her over to the right. On the left is Domingo's wife, Clara.

Q. How about the next picture?

A. This could be Eugenia Silvas. The one right up on the top. The man holding the guitar is Benito and the man holding the violin is Librado, over on the left.

Q. Benito is your...

A. Great-grandfather.

Q. And then Librado is Benito's father?

A. Right.

Q. Now we're going to go to...?

A. Librado Junior. This was taken May 7, 1893. This was taken in downtown San Diego. He was going to send this picture to a girl. This is Librado Junior who lived on Rancho San Dieguito.

Here's Jose Manuel Silvas. Taken in 1898. This too was taken downtown. He was living in Del Mar Ranch.

Q. Librado ties in because he was...?

A. Benito's brother. Francisco was also Benito's brother.

Q. What other sources of background material do you now have?

A. Right now I've been working on researching the Silvas adobe in Rancho San Dieguito. The first adobe that was built in Rancho San Dieguito. It was built by Librado Silvas in 1831 or before. About the same time as Eugenia's adobe was built. The Osunas took over and Leandro Osuna lived in it. He committed suicide in that adobe. The Californios had their headquarters in that adobe before they went to the battle of San Pasqual. It's now Rancho Santa Fe.

Q. The next one?

A. Actually there should be an adobe at San Luis Rey because the family lived in San Luis Rey. But the next one for sure is San Juan Capistrano. The Jose Maria Silvas adobe. It's spelled wrong on the house, it says, "S-I-L-V-I-S" That's on Los Rios historical street. Somebody's still living in there. Then the next one up that I'd like to find is the Silvas adobe that was next to the Yorba adobe off the Santa Ana River. And then the next one up, there should be one in Mission San Gabriel. We had mission lands there. Then there should be a ranch house up in Mesa Grande. Then San Pasqual and San Vicente. And there should be some in Baja.

Q. Have you left anything in the San Diego Historical Society that is of your research?

A. "A Brief History of the Silvas family and the Problem of Maria," as told by Abel Silvas to Jeff Needam. It was February 1996, that should be on record.

Q. And how can people get that and read it?

A. Look in the historical society and ask for the bios on the Silvas family.

Q. I want to thank you very much for the time you spent.

A. Well, you're quite welcome.