CAPITÁN FRANCISCO TAVERA

I’ve found another Tierras y Aguas folder that’s filled with easter eggs, this one with families from early Lagos de Moreno: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSDL-63GW-X?view=explo…

Dated 28 Sep 1674, it’s regarding a dispute between Juana Tavera (widow of Jacinto de Lariz) and Capitan Andres Ramirez de Cueva. To establish their claims, the two had to present land titles and other documentation, so we’re treated to the history of the lands in question, and to the names of all of the people who owned them since the arrival of the Spaniards. There are documents dating back to the founding of Lagos de Moreno - including a copy of the original charter given to Hernando Martel, dated 15 Jan 1563 (image 509). There are also titles that passed through cabildos in 1568 & 1569, which included Lorenzo Alvarez, Luis Lopez, Alonso Macias, Juan Becerra, Toribio Hernandez, and other early notables. Following are some relationships revealed throughout these documents - of interest to me, are those regarding the descendants of Capitan Francisco Tavera. But first, the plaintiffs and their claims:

Andres Ramirez de Cueva inherited his sitio from his parents, Sebastian Ramirez cc Ana de Cueva Herrera y Sandoval, who in turn, purchased it from Madre Luisa de San Juan, religiosa del Convento de la Limpia Concepcion in Mexico City, who inherited it from her parents, Antonio de Mena y Delgadillo cc Beatriz de Herrera; Antonio de Mena was son of Capn. Hernando de Mena cc Maria Delgadillo, who was daughter of Francisco de Mata cc Isabel de Vellosillo, who were early pobladores of Lagos and the original owners of the sitio, and who bequeathed it to their son, Padre Pedro de Mena clerigo, who bequeathed it to his nephew, Antonio de Mena. There’s also talk of another piece of land that passed through the hands of Nicolas de Esquivel and brothers Casimiro y Diego Lopez de Lara, though I only skimmed through that part.

Juana Tavera - Her sitio was donated to her, half, by her maternal grandfather, Capitan Francisco Tavera, and the other half, by the heirs of his widow, Luisa de Nava. And everything I thought I knew about Juana Tavera, I’ve gotten wrong: at the time in question, she was the widow of Jacinto de Lariz, but we learn that she was first married to Miguel Hernandez Ñagas. As for her parents, they were Agustin Izquierdo and Ana Godinez Tavera; 
Ana Godinez Tavera - and this is another one that a lot of us have gotten wrong - was the daughter of Capitan Francisco Tavera. Her mother is not named, but she isn’t the daughter of Luisa de Nava, who Francisco Tavera married in 1600, since Ana was born about a decade earlier. According to a declaration made by her father in 1613 (image 565), he had promised Ana a dowry when she married Agustin Izquierdo some 3 years previous, placing their marriage around 1610. After Izquierdo’s death, she married Francisco Sanchez Moreno on 27 Sep 1620, and is likely the same Ana Tavera who married Juan de Vega on 13 Apr 1633: Juan de Vega appeared as a copadrino with Ana’s daughter, Juana Tavera, shortly after that marriage, and I think he and Ana might have been the parents of Catalina de Oran y Vega, who married Joseph Macias Valades y Alvarez, which would reconcile the kinship proposed in the Felix Acosta/Maria Landeros dispensa, which has Catalina de Oran (who is mistakenly called Catalina Macias) as the sister of Juana Tavera:

Catalina (sic Macias)-1-Juana Tavera
Ursula Macias-2-Maria de Lariz
Felix de Acosta-3-Juana Gonz de Lariz
-     -     -     -     -4-Maria Landeros
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9392-6RSK-M1?i=93&wc=3J4W-G…

Another dispensa linked to this family group is that of Francisco Medellin cc Fabiana Gonz de Rubalcava, which reveals that Juana Tavera was sister of Maria Izquierdo y Tavera de la Vega, who married Diego Diaz Varela:

Juana Tavera-1-Maria Izquierdo Tavera
Antonio Hernandez-2-Ana Diaz Varela
Mariana de Alba-3-Fabiana Gonz de Rubalcava
Francisco Medellin-4
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9392-6K94-6K?i=279&wc=12512…

CAPITAN FRANCISCO TAVERA
As for Capitan Francisco Tavera, we are treated to a partial transcription of his testamento (image 576) - unfortunately, it’s only the cabeza and the clause in which he talks about the land in question, so we don’t get to know the names of his other children, nor who their mother (or mothers) are - but we do learn where he was born, and who his parents were: he was a native of the “pueblo de Muñoz, tierras de Salamanca,” and his parents were Antonio Tavera and Isabel Lopez Godino.

When presented as a witness on 15 Aug 1622 for the ordination of Diego de Ortiz Saavedra, Francisco Tavera declared that he had married the postulant’s maternal grandmother, Luisa de Nava, the year before Diego was born (he was baptized 12 Aug 1601, so they married mid-1600). Luisa de Nava was the widow of Francisco Muñoz. This is verified by the above mentioned donation of half-a-sitio, made on 15 Aug 1622 (image 566) by their 3 sons-in-law, Diego de Ortiz Saavedra, Juan de Isasi, and Marcos de Villalva, on behalf of their wives, Catalina, Sebastiana, and Ines Muñoz, respectively, as daughters and heirs of Luisa de Nava, who by that time, was deceased.

NICOLAS RAMIREZ
My interest in Francisco Tavera stems from the fact that I descend from Nicolas Ramirez cc Polonia de Torres, who is said to be his son. Does anyone know how this relationship was established? I’ve never seen any primary source documents to support it. And while some of Nicolas Ramirez’s children used the Tavera surname, I’ve never seen him given that surname in any primary source document - for all we know, it came from their mother. So I still have this relationship as “tentative.”

My only issue with this proposed relationship is the timeline: when presented as a witness by Padre Tomas Ruiz on 18 Jun 1592, Francisco Tavera declared that he was 40 years-old “poco mas o menos,” placing his birth around 1552:  https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSD2-WSGG-X?i=822&cat=…

When presented as a witness on 15 Aug 1622 by Diego Ortiz Saavedra, he stated that he was “more than 70 years-old”, placing his birth before 1552: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9392-DV9M-P9?i=99&wc=SSKC-L…

Lagos de Moreno was founded on 31 Mar 1563, so these estimates would have made him 11 years-old when it was founded, which is doable (he could’ve been a page), but in all likelyhood, he was underestimating his age.

In turn, his supposed son, Nicolas Ramirez, was said to be among the founders of Aguascalientes (22 Oct 1575); this can be confirmed by titles of lands granted to him at that time. One would assume that, to be eligible to receive land grants, one would have to be at least 20-25 years old (age of majority was 25), placing Ramirez’s birth before 1555 - not long after his supposed father was supposedly born. But, as mentioned, the ages given in these documents were typically estimates, with a margin of 10 years and even more, in some cases.

I hope you all find this information useful, and I hope others can expound on it.

Saludos!
Manny Díez Hermosillo