Hello all,

I am doing research for my wife's family (and of course for my kids as well). My lineage is German on top of German, with a little German thrown in. However, my wife's parents hail from Aguascalientes (on her father's side) and Pecos, New Mexico (on her mother's side) - as it turns out however, there are many connections to Aguascalientes, Zacatecas and Jalisco from the population of northern New Mexico, which is going to make this research even more interesting.

My wife's grandfather (Joaquin Azua) migrated to Gallup, New Mexico with his wife (Domatila Guerra) and three young children in 1925 from Rincon de Romos, Aguascalientes. Joaquin was perportedly orphened when he was young and actually raised without knowledge of his parents - this from word of mouth within the Azua family. However, based on some rudimentary information: place of birth and birth year (which was not correct), I was able to find Joaquins baptism record by poring through scanned images on the LDS website for the Church at San Jose de Gracia - lots of work. I did eventually find his baptism record, and then his parents, paternal and maternal grandparents and padrinos. From that point I utilized the LDS records, transcribed and scanned, to build a tree for this side of the family.

Surnames on Joaquin's side are: Azua, Asua, de Asua, Delgadillo, Munoz, Ramires, Dias, Gutierrez, Pacheco, Herrera, Rodriquez, Lobato, Ramirez. Surnames on Domatila's side are: Guerra, Gonzalez, Soto, Moreno, Macias, Rios, Garcia, Martinez.

As it turns out, many of the family members from my wife's mother's side (Pecos, New Mexico) have roots in this same area of Mexico as well. For those of you who are not aware, northern New Mexico was settled by the influx of descendants of conquistadors - most have heritage connected directly back to Spanish lands grant, many were members of the 1598 Juan de Oñate campaign, and many others were members of the Don Diego de Vargas settlement after the Puebo Indian revolts. Several of these surnames can be traced back to Aguascalientes, Zacatecas and Jalisco from the 14th and 15th centuries - I look forward to trying to make these connections more concrete, perhaps connect to the Francisco Coronado exploration.

Surnames from these Northern New Mexico settlements include: Vigil, Montes Vigil, Perez de Bustillo, Hurtado, Martin Barba, Garcia, Martin Serrano (Hernan Martin Serrano), Tellez Giron, de Zamora.

Thanks for allowing us to join the site, and we look forward to an interesting interaction.

Jerry Stofleth, Paula Azua