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I do not know if this Isabel Mendoza that we have been looking for all these years but she does have many, if not all, of the puzzle pieces that we have been using as clues.

While looking for more information on Sancha Sanchez de Velasco's father, Sancho Velasco el comendador, I found a young lady related to the Velasco and Mendoza named Isabel Mendoza, daughter of Antonio Velasco Manrique, Sr. De Salinas del Rio Pisuerga and Maria Manuel Sarmiento.

Her father descends from Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, 2nd Sr. De Hita y Buitrago and Leonor Lasso de la Vega. Many , many years ago, Mr. Navarro, a genealogist that claimed to have seen a Mendoza family tree in the library in Salt Lake City said that she descended from this Diego Hurtado de Mendoza de Mendoza and Leonor Lasso de la Vega but I don't know if he provided every generation until Isabel Mendoza married to Toribio Hernandez Arellano. If he did provide the steps, I don't believe it was this line as this seems as new information to me, though I do recall some genealogists stating that they thought that she was related somehow to the viceroy. They didn't give how she was related. It has been so long that I saw Mr. Navarro's claims that I don't recall his steps. What I do remember was that the Isabel Mendoza that he claimed was the wife of Toribio Hernandez Arellano would have been born to soon so there had to be a mistake in his line.

This Isabel Mendoza that is the daughter of Antonio Velasco Manrique, Sr. De Salinas del Rio Pisuerga and Maria Manuel Sarmiento does fit the time frame and she was the half - sister of Luis de Velasco y Ruiz de Alarcon Ii Viceroy (Virrey) de la Nueva Espana. (born from her father's second marriage and much younger than her half brother)

Antonio Velasco Manrique, was the son of Pedro de Velasco y Carillo de Mendoza and this is where one line of the Mendoza comes from.

Another Mendoza ancestry comes from Maria Manuela Sarmiento. Antonio Sarmiento, Alcalde mayor de Burgos, and Maria Mendoza are the parents of Maria Manuela Sarmiento. This explains why Isabel Mendoza used Mendoza as a surname instead of Velasco as her maternal grandmother was Mendoza.

Isabel's maternal grandmother, Maria Mendoza, is the daughter of Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, I count of Monteagude and Isabel Zuniga y Avellaneda.

Pedro is the son of Pedro de Mendoza, Señor de Almazan, and Maria de Luna. Mr. Navarro had stated that Isabel descended from a Mendoza Luna line. Through the Mendoza and Luna lines, This sabel Mendoza is a distant cousin to Toribio Hernandez de Arellano.

Isabel de Zuniga is the daughter of Diego Lopez de Zuñiga, I Conde de Miranda, y Guzman and Aldonza Avellaneda D' Aza,

Diego Lopez de Zuñiga y Guzman is the son of Pedro Lopez de Zuñiga y Garcia de Leyva, I Conde de Ledesma. I already posted Pedro Lopez de Zuñiga y Garcia de Leyva's descendancy from Edward III, King of England to Nueva Galicia in a previous post. Pedro Lopez de Zuñiga, 1st Conde de Ledesma is a common ancestor to different lines that I have been working on from Nueva Galicia. He is not the first common ancestor, nor the one with the most descent, that I have found for many of my ancestors from Nueva Galicia. I am looking for all the common ancestors and plan on showing all the connections in my book.

On a side note: Antonio Sarmiento, alcalde de Burgos, has an interesting ancestry himself. He is a descendant of James the Conqueror, King of Aragon through one of his ancestral lines, and through another ancestral line is a descendant of a mulata named Beatriz de Zuñiga. Maria Manuela descends from Saint Fernando III.

R.A. Ricci

After discovering that I had found an "Isabel Mendoza" in the right time frame and matching many of the clues that genealogists have had in their search for the spouse of Toribio Hernandez, I searched through my decades of research for answers as to why I had not found her before, and for additional clues that I have to confirm or disprove that she is the actual Isabel Mendoza that I have been looking for.

I stated that the prime reason for not finding her previously was that she was said to be related to the Viceroy and that we genealogists had assumed that she was related to the first Viceroy because he was surnamed Mendoza instead of looking at her possible relationship to the second Viceroy. After looking at my research notes for many decades of research I find that I had looked at the possibility of our "Isabel Mendoza" being related to the second Viceroy instead of the first. The previous research into the second viceroys family member named Isabel had come up with the information that this family member had become a nun. Later research done at another time had also come up with another family member named Isabel Mendoza that had become a nun. On separate searches, these Isabel Mendozas had been identified as becoming nuns and been ruled out as being our "Isabel Mendoza".

So there are two Isabel Mendoza (Velasco) in the family alive at the same time that are in the time frame that fit the clues that we have on the Isabel Mendoza married to Toribio Hernandez Arellano (aka Toribio Hernandez de Santillana). The issue is that previous research had discarded both of these from being our "Isabel Mendoza" because they had entered a religious order. The mistake that genealogists have made is in identifying both of these Isabel Mendozas as entering into the same religious order. Only one of them became a nun and the other one is most likely the Isabel Mendoza married to Toribio Hernandez Arellano.

When I write "the mistake that genealogists have made in identifying both of these Isabel Mendoza as entering a religious order" I am speaking of my mistake in accepting that each one entered the religious order without checking for similarities in the stories and failing to recognize that only one of them had become a nun. I am assuming that other genealogists have made the same mistake and discarded both of these Isabel Mendozas as being our "Isabel Mendoza" like I had.

The similarities of the two Isabel Mendozas is what causes the misidentification as to both of them becoming nuns. They are both Isabel Mendoza Velasco (aka Isabel Velasco Mendoza). They are both close in age. One is the aunt of the other. The aunt is the Isabel Mendoza Velasco that is the half sister to the Viceroy. The niece is the Franciscan nun.

Toribio Hernandez Arellano and Isabel Hurtado de Mendoza had two daughters named Isabel. I found this unusual. But in real life I have also encountered families with two siblings with the same name. I have also found it in a few other cases in my ancestral tree but they either had same first name and different middle name or different first names and same middle names. But the case of Toribio and Isabel's daughter s the two of them used different surnames I never understood why anyone would name two of their children with the same name. Until now that is.

For Toribio Hernandez Arrellano the name Isabel was very important as his father passed away when he was young and he was raised by a single mom. Naming a daughter after her would have been very important to him.

For Isabel Hurtado de Mendoza, the half sister if the Viceroy, the name Isabel had maybe even more significance. Isabel is the Spanish equivalent of Elizabeth. Edward III and Elizabeth of Suffolk named their daughter Eliabeth. This daughter was married to Sancho Martinez de Leiva (Iron Arm/el Braso de de Hierro). Once this Elizabeth lived in Spain she came to be known as Isabel. A grandson named Pedro de Zuniga, Conde de Ledesma y Plasencia, married Isabel Guzman. They had a granddaughter named Isabel de Zuniga y Avellaneda. This Isabel was the great grandmother of Isabel Hurtado de Mendoza, s half sister to the viceroy that fits all the clues that we have for the wife of Toribio Hernandez Arellano. Every Isabel in this family tree was looked up to by this family and they would want to share that name with their descendants. So one daughter was named after the father's side of the family and the other daughter was named after the mother's side of the family.

Isabel Mendoza is a second cousin to Mariana Mendoza who is the mother-in-law of Balthazar Temino de Banuelos. Mariana Mendoza's father, Luis Marin is closer in age to Isabel's half brother the Viceroy. Luis Marin is identified as a close friend of her half brother, the Viceroy. Luis Marin is said to be a musician and the life of the party.

34. Isabel de Zuniga y Avellaneda
+ Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, I count of Monteagude

35. Maria Hurtado de Mendoza,
+ Antonio Sarmiento, Alcalde mayor de Burgos

36. Maria Manuela Sarmiento
+ Antonio Velasco Manrique, Sr. De Salinas del Rio Pisuerga

37. Isabel Hurtado de Mendoza (Velasco)
+ ? Toribio Hernandez de Arellano (de Santillana)

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34. Isabel de Zuniga y Avellaneda
+ Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, I count of Monteagude

35. Juan Hurtado de Mendoza, 5th Sr. De Moron
+ Luisa Velasquez de Cuellar y Velasco

36. Maria Mendoza
+ Luis Marin

37. Mariana Mendoza
+ Cap.Juan Zaldivar

38. Maria Zaldivar Mendoza
+ Balthazar Temino de Banuelos

If this Isabel Mendoza is the Isabel Mendoza married to Toribio Hernandez Arellano, we can look to a mistake made by myself and many other genealogists for not finding her sooner. When we read that she was related the the Viceroy we assumed that it was the first Viceroy Mendoza instead of the second Viceroy Velasco. Though she is related to the first Viceroy, it is not a close relationship like the second Viceroy.

I shouldn't be speaking for other genealogists, but I was guilty of looking only at the first Viceroy's closest relatives for a relationship to an Isabel Mendoza.

Martin Casillas was also said to be related to the Viceroy. I have only looked at the first Viceroy for clues to his ancestry, It's time to look at the second Viceroys family for clues to Martin Casillas "el Alarife"'s ancestry. Anyone looking for Martin Casillas connection should remember that the name of Martin Casillas's father is Pedro Casillas.

Genealogy Research