Hi Danny,

El Potrero de los Lopez, still exists, so you might be able to find out who founded it and that might help you narrow down possible parents, but locating the parents of hijos naturales can be difficult without a dispensa or an extremely unique name which Nicolas Lopez definitely isn't. I believe el Potrero de los Lopez is in Calvillo or somewhere near San Jose de Gracia, so you might want to look there.

As far as Melchora de Ornelas, just based on name and timeframe, she sounds like she could be the child of Melchora Perez de Frias and Jose de Ornelas, although I'm not aware of a child with that name but I'm also not familiar with all their children.

Chris
From: Danny Alonso
To: research@nuestrosranchos.org
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2017 6:22 PM
Subject: [Nuestros Ranchos] Melchora de Ornelas and Nicolas Lopez

Hello Nuestros Ranchos Forum

I was hoping someone might be able to help me find the possible parents of Melchora de Ornelas and Nicolas Lopez who had a natural born child around 1717, probably in Aguascalientes. Melchora de Ornelas would've been born probably between 1690 - 1700 and Nicolas Lopez would've probably been born around the same time in a place called el Puesto del Potrero de los Lopez. The only information I have comes from their daughter's informacion matrimonial in 1740 where it says she's 23 years old and describes her as:

Maria Theresa Lopez, española, originaria del Puesto del Potrero de los Lopez, jurisdicción de la villa de Aguascalientes y vecina de esta feligresía en el Puesto del Mesquite de cinco años a este parte, hija natural de Nicolas Lopez, ya difunto, y de Melchora de Ornelas...

That's the only information I know. If anyone knows of a Melchora de Ornelas in the same time frame of 1700 or earlier or a Nicolas Lopez also born around the same time please let me know. Also, if someone knows of a Lopez family from el Puesto del Potrero de los Lopez please let me know.

Danny C. Alonso