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Research, like life, takes us through unexpected paths in our journey. I had previously stated that I believed the following erroneous statement on a previous post:
http://www.nuestrosranchos.org/node/17766?page=1
"I want to address how Tello de Alfonsez Castilla's daughter that I descend from, Maria Tellez de Castilla, who has been called illegitimate by many genealogists because a prominent genealogist once referred to a certain document as proof of her illegitimacy. That document instead should have been given as proof of her legitimacy because it talks about her half sister being illegitimate, that they are half sisters and the way it is written, strongly implies that Maria Tellez de Castiila is legitimate. Maria Tellez de Castilla's Is most likely Juana de Lara's daughter.
I know that many people will dispute this because of the often repeated comment that she died childless, but the document clearly treats Maria de Tellez de Castilla as a legitimate daughter while stressing the illegitimacy of the half sister. If this document is The evidence for determining legitimacy than she must be considered legitimate. "
I continued researching looking for evidence to back up the theory that Maria Tellez de Castilla was the legitimate daughter of Juana Nunez de Lara. I was wrong. But it was a good thing that I went thirough this whole process of trying to prove this erroneous statement. It was in my search for this evidence that I found a record that clearly states that Maria tellez de Castilla is not her daughter. That sounds like bad news after putting in so many hours of work looking to prove the opposite. But at the bottom of the record, in very Small lettering, I found the threads that pointed me in the direction of finding the ancestry of Pedro Ledesma, and to a descent from King Edward III of England.
R.A.Ricci
Maria Tellez de Castilla is legitimate
Latest research as of May 27, 2016
Research reveals that again the source used for claiming that Maria teller de Castilla is not Juana de Lara's daughter is the letter that if anyone botherered to read actually implies that she is a legitimate daughter. It is her half sister that is identified as being illegitimate in the letter.
The reason that the letter implies that she is legitimate is because the Catholic Church recognized her as being legitimate. Further research reveals that her father had appealed to the Catholic Church, and they responded by giving her legitimate status.
Even though she was deemed legitimate, I doubt that she is Juana de Lara's daughter because if she was the daughter of his wife I don't think he would have needed to ask the church to deem her legitimate.
R.A.Ricci
Juana Nunez de Lara, señora
Holy cow this sounds interesting!
Holy Cow, Edward III
Dear Alex,
Holy Cow is how I feel. Edward III does not compare to the other branch that Pedro descends from. It was actually someone else, arguably the greatest knight who ever lived, who had an even greater impact on English history that I had originally thought I had descended from but the previous link had been proven false, this knight is an ancestor to Pedro Ledesma.
What is also important was the thread that brought me back to this branch that opened the door to more research lines. Researching these new lines brought me to someone that I already descend from through another line, but had dead ended in the 1400s. but this time when I researched from a different angle since I was coming from different people, I found the ancestors to what had been a deadend. This ancestor actually makes many people of Nueva Galicia a descendant of Edward III, even if they don't descend from Pedro Ledesma. Someone may have already discovered this but to me this is new information.
R.A.Ricci
Holy Cow, Edward III
This is absolutely amazing information you are providing. Im still working my way to my first ancestors in the new world and here you are hopping the pond diving deep into time! How have your research techniques changed? Are you still looking at church documents? Thank you!
Edward III
Dear Alex,
The research is done differently. The baptismal records started in the 1500s so to go farther back you need to look at other type of church records, business records, legal records, books. The study of genealogy was done even back then. What we have going for us is that many of our ancestors practiced endogamy even before coming over to this side of the pond. They kept track of how they were related and much information comes from inheritance disputes where relationships have to be documented. Being able to list your parents and grandparents was important. The issues come up with people's names and surnames being different then today's practices. Look at my post on the Ochoa ancestry from a few weeks ago and you will see how surnames changed sometimes from one generation to the next.