Yes, today is Groundhog Day, but did you know it is also the 158th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo? Of course you did! It is just more fun to have a Groundhog Day party. I understand.
Having had an ancestor who was wounded in the Mexican War (Thomas Gooch had his finger shot off in the battle of Buena Vista according to his pension record), I am particularly interested in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war and enlarged the western frontier of the United states. The Library of Congress website has an excellent guide to the treaty, which gave us the land which became Texas, California, Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona and New Mexico, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. One little treaty is all that came between me and Mexican citizenship, as a matter of fact, having had ancestors who settled in 6 out of 8 of those states–some as early as 1847–the year before the treaty was signed.
On Granny's Trail 