Ongi Etorri, Bienvenu, Bienvenido and Welcome!

This website is dedicated to the brave immigrants from the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain who left their homeland in search of prosperity due to the lack of sufficient resources to support the large families living in the many small mountain villages and hamlets. As suggested by the title, this website's goal is to provide a link for anyone looking for their ancestors who originally came from this region. In addition to the immigrants, this website seeks to present their parents and children and, in many cases, it displays multiple generations of various families. Most of the individuals are included because they fit into the 3 main areas of focus described below but there are some immigrants who are included because of their interesting stories.

1. Southern California Basque Immigrants: This was the original project focus started by Marianna Etcheverria and Mitch Gariador in 1979-80 in studying Basque surnames in Southern California for the University of Nevada, Reno. This database contains the original information found 40 years ago and is continually building upon the Basque, French & Spanish immigrants and their families that have contributed to a strong cultural presence in this area. This rich history goes back to the Gold rush in California and has continued for over 150 years.

2. Gariador/Satterfield family history: This separate website containing our family history has been merged into the Bridge to the Pyrenees website as there were so many individuals who were found in both databases. Our families come from both the French and Spanish sides of the Basque country as well as some individuals who have interesting links to American history.

3. Diaspora from the valley of the Aldudes: This valley in France which today contains the villages of Banca, Les Aldudes and Urepel in a beautiful valley surrounded by France and Spain. This area has been the source of many of the immigrants to Southern California, as well as other areas of the United States, South America and all over the world. The records of these villages have been compiled going back 400 years and can provide an in depth source of ancestry for many families. An ongoing goal is to discover new immigrants from this region in all parts of the world and connect them back their ancestral family and home in this valley.

This database currently contains almost 23,500 individual and almost 7,000 family records but we know there are still many more people to add who fit into our areas of focus. It is a work in progress, and we are always interested in connecting to descendants of the individuals and families in this project. We are looking for additional information and to answer any questions that you might have. Please contact us if you would like to submit additional information or want us add your family. To do so, please use the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page.

Tales from the Past.... An Oral History Project

We are happy to be able to present a number of interviews have been conducted by Jeanette Bidart, Marianna Etcheverria and Mitch Gariador over the past few years to capture the stories of various immigrants and/or their descendants. Those interviews are being edited to be available through this website. They will be listed on the Tales from the Past page of this website as well as within each individual record of those interviewed.

We have available for viewing those individuals listed on the right column of this web page. Going forward we will continue to edit and post interviews that have already been completed and we are going to be contacting willing individuals who would like to tell their story or that of their family in order to continue capturing the priceless history of this incredible community.

Enjoy, Mitch Gariador m.gariador@gmail.com