I'm not sure if I should post this in Genealogy Research or History, Culture and General Discussion:
I finally found my African roots. Reading the records I have traced my mulato ancestors to the Reyes Family out of Sombrerete - specifically "Real de Sombrerete, Zacatecas, Mexico". This branch of my family seems to have intermarried with the Salas, C/S/Zervantes and Hernandes families from Pinos, Zacatecas and Mezquital, Durango.
Does anyone know anything about Africans in Zacatecas in the 1700s and early 1800s?
African ancestry reflected in matrimonial information.
In the Obispado de Michoacan records, there are various examples where you can see that the scribes actually listed where in Africa the bride/groom were traffic'd from. For example:
Matrimonial Information for Diego Martin (Slave of D. Jose de Alcocer) and Maria de la Cruz - San Miguel el Grande (August 18, 1673)
In this case, they list the groom as "de nascion Angola".
An even earlier example here:
Matrimonial Information for Juan Serna (Slave of Alonso de Sierra) y Maria - Silao, GTO (April 1, 1634)
The groom was also listed as originating from Angola.
However, it's worth pointing out that the slaves were probably traded/sold in Angola, but may have come from a different African point of origin. Once on Mexican shores, the scribes probably just noted they came from Angola, not bothering to find out what true African nation they were enslaved from originally.
African ancestry reflected in matrimonial information.
How interesting! Its worth to mention that some towns/cities had better documentation than others, the early one from Nombre de Dios is really poor in this regard.
Thanks for sharing.
Mulatos were many a times Mestizos
Just a side note regarding the word "Mulato" is that many priests used Mulato for Mestizo, I've seen this in Zacatecas/Durango, I'm not sure what is the explanation other than they simply misused the term, thus keep in mind that that could also be a possibility.
The earlier records of Nombre de Dios Durango, practically borderline with Zacatecas, mentions quite a few Africans, I'm pretty sure the mining plays a role in it.
Genuine Africans or mulatos?
What you say makes sense because there are way too many mulatos in my tree, for me to be only 3% African. I found an actual "mulato esclavo" on my father's side in Guanajuato which explains that.
I also have early family in Nombre de Dios. My oldest record so far is for a marriage between Juan Romero and Catalina (no last name given) in 1682. Neither have race listed in their marriage but 2 of the 3 children I've found are coiotes, the 3rd, my 8t GGM Ana Romero does not have a race listed but her son Pedro Romero (father unknown) is listed as Indio in his wedding.
Are the people you found listed as African or Black? I've yet to see a fully black person in any record, mine or anyone elses.
Genuine Africans or mulatos?
What you say makes sense because there are way too many mulatos in my tree, for me to be only 3% African. I found an actual "mulato esclavo" on my father's side in Guanajuato which explains that.
I also have early family in Nombre de Dios. My oldest record so far is for a marriage between Juan Romero and Catalina (no last name given) in 1682. Neither have race listed in their marriage but 2 of the 3 children I've found are coiotes, the 3rd, my 8t GGM Ana Romero does not have a race listed but her son Pedro Romero (father unknown) is listed as Indio in his wedding.
Are the people you found listed as African or Black? I've yet to see a fully black person in any record, mine or anyone elses.
Genuine Africans or mulatos?
Yeah, I've never seen anyone listed as African either, It always reads "Negro" or "Mulato" and the fact that very few records go back to the 1500's can explain why there is no much information from where exactly they traffic the African people, unfortunately.
The oldest film in FS from Nombre de Dios is really "sketchy", mix with marriages and burials and hardly has any information besides the basics, probably the one you where you found your ancestor record. I keep going back to it from time to time, now a least has a better digital images than before.
My ancestors from there the Quiralte family, were listed as coiotes, mulatos, indios, and españoles, all of this in the same couple/kids family. that's when I realized this terms weren't accurate, they were as far as I can tell meztisos, later they "gained" the "español" term when they moved to Nochistlán, its amusing how politicized those terms were.
Reyes Family - mulatos from
I'm curious about this as well. My ancestors come from Sombrerete