A mis padres, Juan Moreno Soza y Maria Petra Yanez de Soza
Memoria, Dr. James E. Officer, 1924-1996
This volume might have been written sooner had Jim persisted and prevailed. His feeling was that a history of a family with roots to the Spanish Colonial, Mexican and Territorial periods, should and ought to be written for the benefit of future generations.
Jim was keenly interested in the Soza family's San Pedro River homestead activities, and urged recording it's history before the principals were gone and the information was lost.
Two earlier volumes by this writer, HISPANIC HOMESTEADERS IN ARIZONA 1870-1908 and MEXICAN HOMESTEADERS IN THE SAN PEDRO RIVER VALLEY, were inspired and encouraged by Jim.
On another occasion, Jim suggested a trip to Jecori, Sonora to visit the 1746 birthplace of ancestor Alferez José Maria Sosa. It would have been an opportunity to see the land first hand and to get a sense of that historic area, from whence the family came.
Belatedly and sadly, the trip never materialized.