History of the Genealogy of our Family

In the USA

Due to Marlene Aiello, great-granddaughter of Francisco in the line of Charlotte and Alfred Perry, we were able to elaborate of the astonishing work done so far on the genealogy of our family. And all of this research was started from one event in her life, that would have stayed insignificant, as she describes in the book that she drafted about the American side of the family.

"One day, I was reading the local morning paper. I came accross an article of a lady named Rita Aniotzbehere, who was visiting the Monterey Peninsula. While visiting, she had her purse stolen. The thief was in a great part responsible for this entire family tree. Had he not stolen the purse, the article would not have appeared in our local paper and I nor Paul Ansberry would have seen the article which lead to our meeting and this family tree."

And so there began the research through the yearbooks, the cemeteries, the collections of souvenirs, and little bits of information. Marlene continues:

"Paul came to visit me, with family pictures and information. He mentioned the name Francisco Aniotzbehere, being his father's uncle. I knew then we were relatives. Paul gave me all the information he had of Juan Gordo Aniotzbehere, his grandfather.

I had written a woman in charge of burial records in King City. She supplied me with burials records. She also was an instrument in my finding other family members. About three months after, I had written her and she responded to me that while standing on a street corner in King City she noticed a young woman who seemed in need of information. She went up to this woman and asked if she could be of some assistance. The young woman told her she was looking for the local cemetery for an Aniotzbehere relative. Now at this point I will say that was quite a chance meeting. The lady from the records department meeting a young women looking for the same information I was. She gave the young woman my name and address and told her I also was looking for records. The young woman wrote me and and it turned out she was the great granddaughter of Juan Flacco Aniotzbehere.

I had found still an other relative. I had now families from all over the United States in my files. "

She was able to reconstruct the family tree for all of the Aniotzbehere/Ansberry family members descended from these three brothers.

In France

It is because of Pierre Delavaud that we have all of the history about our family Aniotzbehere in France. It was in the rediscovery of a letter written by Paul Ansberry in the 50's to a certain Jean-Pierre de Sare that he decides to do some research finally to satisfy Paul's curiosity. Meanwhile with research and more research, he learned a passion for the family and so did his wife and they buried themselves in the work.

It is thus dated back to the end of the seventeenth century alive in town halls, churches, cemeteries, and the National Archives and other departments is Marine and Rochefort. Paul amassed and enormous amount of information about the family itself but also the ancient ranches, most notably Indianorenborda and Beherchea, the two houses where many generations have found success.

Here is an extract of a letter that Paul wrote in which he tells the story of the branch leading from Michel Aniotzbehere, our direct ancestor.

"She was born in Sare in 1899 (he speaks here about Josephine, one of Michel's daughters who became his mother-in-law) her last name was Aniotzbehere and zlways lived there since. She was married in 1928 and her last name became Mrs. Suhit. She remembered very well Mrs. Elvira Parker who came to see her one week in Sare in 1929. Josephine knew of her by her first name, Elvira. She knew the Basque language very well according to Mrs. Suhit. She confirmed that she was her cousin. The father of Elvira and the father of Mrs. Suhit (Michel) were brothers. This information allowed me to find that we were related."

Pierre wanted then to discover all of the Aniotzbehere family members in France, or at least the descendants because I only knew of three men carrying that name today. He sent genealogical tree for each of the cousins that he found. This is how I discovered my ancestors. It became a great interest and I put myself into it to research the branch in California because I wanted to know what became of my far away relatives in the United States (at that time we did not know that there were others doing research about Aniotzbehere's in the states). It is then that I wrote to several members of our family, of whom it was Paul Ansberry who told me of his discovery of our family in America and permitted me to contact Marlene who was able to send me a precise copy of her book on the Aniotzbehere family in America. Then, in writing to several churches, town halls, and genealogical centers, in brief, anywhere that might have information. I was able to recover a number of important documents about births, deaths and marriages. I also received several letters from strangers that knew different members of the family. They were able to tell me some anecdotes, like this letter for example that was sent to me by an employee of the Registry office in the San Joaquin valley.

"Your letter to the City Hall in Stockton, California, was forwaded to my office as I am the Registrar of Vital Statistics for the County of San Joaquin. As such I keep all of the records of births, deaths and marriages in our county. But I did not have to go to my records as I knew Frank Aniotzbehere all through high school (grades 9 to 12) and for all of the years until his ultimely death in 1965. [....] It was a sad day for many of us in Stockton when Frank married Rita, because many many many of us shared Frank's love for this Beautiful girl with the smoothest olive complexion, biggest brown eyes and blessed by the Good Lord with things in the right places, including her smile. Your relative Frank was one Hell of an Athlete. In high school, he was awarded the Menzies Award for the athlete that best represented all those skills that are supposed to be associated with an athlete. At both basketball and baseball he was an outstanding player. He was smart enough to stay out of football.[...]"

A trip to California gave me the chance to meet Paul Ansberry in Salinas and his daughter Karen in Santa Barbara, an unforgettable reunion.

Then in 1997 I had the idea to create a web site relating to our history and to get the participation of all the Aniotzbeheres in the world.

I hope you enjoy reading this and please feel free to contact me to give pieces of information, or stories that somehow were not included on these pages.

Laster Arte !

See You !