Nuestros Ranchos Site

The Villaseñor surname was used by members of the Ruiz de Chávez family and their descendants during the XVIIth century. This had been done first by the children of Andrés Ruiz de Chávez and María de Ábrego y Castilleja, these were all born in the first half of that century. One of the children of this couple was in fact named "Juan de Villaseñor", just like the Villaseñor's lineage founder. 

The origin of the use of "Villaseñor" seemed at first to be through Andrés Ruiz de Chávez ancestry, this being because of his mother Leonor's second surname which was "Corona", some genealogists interpreted this surname as being one of the variations used by the children of Juan de Villaseñor II and his wife Catalina Corona, their children used interchangeably the surnames "Villaseñor", "Cervantes" and "Corona", therefore it was thought that maybe she could've been a granddaughter of these two and thus some cited her as having been "Leonor de Chávez Corona de Villaseñor" despite in life only being

The book "Sagrada Mitra de Guadalajara Antiguo Obispado de la Nueva Galicia: Expedientes de la serie de matrimonios extractos siglos XVII-XVIII" by Maria de la Luz Montejano Hilton, which has been out

Dear colleagues,

I do not know whether any of you have already verified the following (if this has already been established, I apologise for not being aware of it, but I discovered two days ago that Pedro Fernández de Balduz and María Gabay are my ancestors): Pedro Fernández de Vaulús’s surname was in fact BALDUZ, a Navarrese surname which is not particularly widespread, but which still exists today. Indeed, the first mayor of Pamplona after the restoration of democracy in Spain was a BALDUZ.

I have also found the following information concerning Pedro’s parents, from which it can be inferred that:

• The paternal surname was BALDUZ and the maternal surname CIORDIA. The distinction between C/Z and S was significant, as the former had a different sound from the latter. This distinction disappeared in the American territories, since many of the immigrants came from Andalusia, where, for the most part, C/Z and S were not distinguished in pronunciation.
• Pedro Fernández de Balduz the Elder had

Hello, I am searching for the line of Felipe Arriaga who was married to Regina Cervantes - also listed as Sandoval - from Villanueva, Zacatecas.

Dear colleagues,

I would like to share my latest historical study: "Los primeros pobladores de Santa María de los Lagos: una aproximación histórica a través de sus listados más antiguos" (The First Settlers of Santa María de los Lagos: A Historical Approach Through Its Earliest Records).

Using a prosopographical framework based on 16th and early 17th-century primary sources, including original registers, Cabildo memorials, and early censuses, this paper traces the rapid transformation of Santa María de los Lagos from a frontier defense outpost during the Chichimeca War into a consolidated landowning elite.

The research highlights the central role of matrilineages and marriage networks in preserving territorial holdings, alongside a quantitative reconstruction of the settlement's U-shaped demographic trajectory during its first four decades.

Los primeros pobladores de Santa María de los Lagos : Erik Andrés Reynoso y Márquez : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Best

Recently I posted about the three women named Ana de Quesada who were living in Lagos during roughly the same period.

One of these women was Ana de Quesada, who married Miguel Hernández Rubio in 1632. A WikiTree listing proposes that this Ana de Quesada may possibly have been the daughter of Juan López de Lizalde and Ana de Quesada. I assume this identification was based on her using the name “Ana Mendoza” in her daughter's parish marriage record.

I later posted a reply to my own message with an update after finding a possible candidate for this Ana de Quesada.

A Lagos burial record states:

4 Jan 1628: "died Diego Hurtado, son of Pedro Hurtado, vecino del Fresnillo, husband of Ana de Quesada, daughter of the elder Alonso de Quesada."

It establishes that Alonso de Quesada and, probably, Juana Bautista Hernández de Arellano had a daughter named Ana de Quesada.

This record also establishes that she was widowed in 1628, approximately four years before the marriage of Ana de Quesada (also known

Estimados colegas:

El día de ayer retomé la investigación sobre un linaje que había dejado en el tintero tras el fallecimiento de mi querido tío Paco Castaños y Cañedo: los Morelos.

Como indicó Paco en sus obras, la cabeza de este linaje en Michoacán es Tomás de Santoyo, vecino de Celaya (también conocido como Tomás de Morelos), registrado como hijo de padres no conocidos, aunque posteriormente se ha argumentado que era hijo natural del regidor Hipólito de Santoyo y de la viuda Gertrudis Morelos (Morelia. Informaciones matrimoniales 1706). En su información matrimonial se consigna que su esposa, Teresa Ortiz de Pantoja, era hija de Francisco Ortiz de Pantoja y de Mariana Ramos de Rojas.

Gracias a las magníficas investigaciones de Héctor Félix Aizcorbe, que tuve el gusto de leer ayer en este foro, hoy sabemos que Francisco Ortiz de Pantoja era hijo del regidor Francisco Ortiz de Pantoja y de Juana García de León. Por su parte, los padres de Mariana Ramos de Rojas fueron Miguel Rico de

The Legal Significance of Three Pruebas Plenas in Hispanic Nobiliary Law: The Case of the Reinoso Lineage

In the legal tradition of the Crown of Castile and the wider Iberian Peninsula, demonstrating hidalguía (blood nobility) required navigating a complex system of evidence under the jurisdiction of the Salas de los Hijosdalgo within the Reales Chancillerías (Valladolid and Granada).

Within Spanish nobiliary law (Derecho Nobiliario), proof of status fell broadly into two categories:

1. Tres Actos Positivos (Presumptive Proof): In the absence of definitive judicial sentences, a family could establish noble status by presenting evidence of three consecutive generations exercising privileges exclusive to the noble estate, such as exemption from pechos (personal taxes), holding offices restricted to hidalgos, or serving in military campaigns. While legally valid, actos positivos represented administrative recognition rather than a definitive judicial ruling.
2. Prueba Plena (Full Judicial Proof): A

I want to share this finding. It's a story about Maria Carrillo Davila found in: Matrimonios 1690-1695, 1707, 1709 Page 566.
It is the marriage of Joseph Ramon and Josepha Cid Caldera. Marriage dispensation requested February 7, 1690, in Xerez, Zacatecas.
Dispensation for fourth-degree consanguinity.—
Joseph Román, resident of the City of Zacatecas, son of unknown parents, having been abandoned at the home of Don Joseph Román de Cabrera; with Josepha Sid, a 19-year-old Spaniard born and raised in the Villa de Xerez de la Frontera;
parents: Pedro Sid Caldera (Spaniard Josepha Sid; and Juana Rosales).
The prospective groom was informed of the kinship and asked that the matter be kept secret, given that Doña María Carrillo de Avila—who is said to have been his mother and is now deceased—had been a woman of high social standing and had been married to a prominent man who is still alive.
Declaration of Doña María de Arellano, a 50-year-old Spaniard and widow of Captain Don Pedro Carrillo Dávila:
S

Hello everyone,
Back in Galveston after Ike, attempting to do a little genealogical research. I have been inspecting carefully the marriage record of Juan de Padilla and Petronila de Siordia (Thanks, Connie for the copy). Although as Connie mentioned, the copy is not good, I was able to digitally enhance it, and I am convinced that neither 'Davila' (suggested by Daniel) nor 'Delgadillo' (suggested by Connie) appear in the document after "Juan de Padilla". Instead, in my opinion it reads 'herro' or 'horro' -Note that at the time the letter 'h' was written more like a "S", thus in not uncommon to find transcriptions of surnames as 'Hinojosa' as 'Sinojosa'. I tried several searches for Herro (a Basque surname) in the "Catalogo de Pasajeros de Indias" en PARES, given that Juan is identified as 'Natural de Xerez' (Thus, Jerez de la Frontera, Spain). No matches. I entered 'Horro', and I found numerous records, all of them as far I could tell, linked to the racial descriptions of black

A month ago I found and requested the IGI record for the marriage of Juan de Padilla Sorro to Petrona de Siordia (misspelled Giordia in the IGI record), hoping to find additional information on this couple. The marriage took place in El Sagrario, Aguascalientes on 14 February 1616 (Batch M604761 Source Call 0299421). After an anxious wait today I received the reply that this record could not be found. I do not have access to that film at the local center to search it myself. Has anyone been able to locate this record? I would certainly appreciate a copy of the image or a transcript of the entire text.

Hello, everyone!

I have a question concerning ancestor Ana de Quesada (born c. 1615, died before 22 November 1660), who married Miguel Hernández Rubio.

WikiTree suggests that her parents may have been Juan López de Lizalde and Ana de Quesada. Is there any evidence supporting this possible identification beyond her approximate date of birth and the fact that she is referred to as “Ana de Mendoza” in the marriage record of her daughter, María Rubio?

I'm trying to sort this out because we appear to have three ancestors named Ana de Quesada, all from Lagos and all living within approximately the same time period. It is becoming a bit confusing!

The three women are:

• Ana de Quesada, married c. 1634 to Miguel Hernández Rubio
• Ana de Quesada, whose first proven child was born in 1649 (Pedro b. 4 Nov 1649, padrinos: Pedro Gómez Portugal y Isabel Ortiz). This Ana de Quesada is possibly about ten years younger than the other two Anas or perhaps this was her second marriage; she married Gaspar Gómez de

Hello all!

I'm trying to untangle the relationship between three individuals: Joaquín Gómez, Gertrudis Gómez, and Antonio Gómez. WikiTree currently presents them as siblings—the children of an Unknown Gómez. The proposed relationships appear to be based primarily upon two dispensas from 1798 and 1780.

Gertrudis Gómez appears in both dispensas.

The first dispensa, dated November 1798, concerns the marriage of José Mariano Ysas and María Francisca Gómez. It gives the following relationships:

Gertrudis Gómez, hermana de Antonio Gómez
José Ysas, primo hermano de Gregorio Gómez
Andrés Ysas, primo segundo de Vicente Gómez
Pretenso José Mariano Ysas, primo tercero de María Francisca Gómez

The Gertrudis Gómez mentioned here is identified as the Gertrudis Gómez who married Ignacio de Isassi sometime before the 8 May 1710 baptism of their first documented child, Juan Antonio de Isassi.

Her purported brother, Antonio Gómez, is identified as Antonio Gómez, son of Gaspar Gómez and Magdalena de Gutiérrez AKA

Hola a todos, me llamo Miguel y soy originario de Aguascalientes. Adjunto el árbol genealógico de mi tatarabuelo. Como verán, él tiene vínculos con varias familias de Los Altos, aunque desciende principalmente de las familias Hernández-Gamiño y Ascensio de León. Él nació en Pénjamo, al igual que sus padres, pero sus cuatro abuelos eran de la zona de Arandas-Ayotlán. Irónicamente, aunque yo soy de Aguascalientes, esta rama de mi árbol genealógico llegó a través de la ruta Arandas-Pénjamo-Angamacutiro (donde nació mi papá).

Hello everyone, my name is Miguel and I am originally from Aguascalientes. I am attaching my great-great-grandfather's family tree. As you will see, he has ties to several families from Los Altos, although he descends primarily from the Hernández-Gamiño and Ascensio de León families. He was born in Pénjamo, as were his parents, but all four of his grandparents were from the Arandas-Ayotlán area. Ironically, even though I am from Aguascalientes, this branch of my family

Estimado Erik,

Hace algunos años publicaste un post sobre Hernán Flores y su ascendencia (o posible ascendencia). En alguna parte de tu publicación mencionas al linaje Flórez-Osorio y a los vizcondes de Quintanilla de Flórez.

En la primera mitad del siglo XVII vivió en celaya Diego Flórez de Robles Osorio, nacido en Valdepeñas alrededor de 1600, hijo de Francisco Flórez-Osorio y de doña Francisca de Cuéllar. No he podido encontrar información más allá de su lugar de nacimiento (bastante retirado de Quintanilla de Flórez) y los nombres de sus padres. He querido suponer que está relacionado con los ancestros del primer vizconde, pero no lo he podido probar. Parece ser que el primer señor de Quintanilla de Flórez fue el primero en apellidarse Flórez-Osorio, como hijo de Francisco Flórez García de Ríjoles y de doña Ana Osorio, señora de Cobrana Dentro de tus investigaciones ¿te has topado con algunos Flórez-Osorio que pudiesen haber marchado a Valdepeñas?

Diego es ancestro de muchas personas

Dear Community Members,

Anyone who has researched family history on platforms like FamilySearch, Ancestry, MyHeritage, or Geni understands the double-edged sword: while they provide access to digitized records, they have also spread widespread and massive errors, mislinked namesakes, and unverified user trees. Accepting automated "hints" without consulting primary records has led many to build ancestral lines on shaky ground, to say the least.

To provide a refined, reliable alternative grounded in authentic archival sources, I have established two key resources through Genuspedia.com:

1. Genuspedia.com: Exclusive Primary Source Archives

For years, I have dedicated myself to transcribing, indexing, and analyzing original 16th to 18th-century manuscripts, including notary protocols, nobility proofs, inquisitorial files, and prenuptial investigations, from the historical repositories of Spain, New Galicia, New Spain, Guatemala, the Viceroyalty of Perú, USA, Portugal and the Bishopric of

I’d really appreciate serious researchers’ thoughts on this Sebastián Pérez question.

Having reviewed the reconstructed family trees, baptism and marriage dates, and the various dispensas, it has become increasingly apparent to me that Sebastián Pérez, husband of Isabel de Ávalos, and Sebastián Pérez, husband of Leanor Ruvalcaba, were likely the same individual.

A father-and-son relationship has been proposed for these two men, but the chronology makes that relationship difficult to accept. Based on the estimated birth dates of Sebastián Pérez's sisters, Ana Pérez and María Burgueño, both of whom appear to have been born before 1600 (having children born as early as 1615), the Sebastián Pérez who married Isabel de Ávalos would have been too young to have been the father of all three siblings if the two Sebastiáns were separate generations.

A more plausible explanation is that there was only one Sebastián Pérez. He first married Isabel de Ávalos and, following her death, subsequently

Greetings to all.

Trying to fully understand and find what Diaz de Leon branch I come from.

When I cleaned up several generations on the Esparaza tree on Family Search to reflect the accurate relationships I was very careful to include the correct mother’s maiden name on each record which was especially important on generations with the same name, like Lope Ruiz Esparza Espinosa and Lope Ruíz de Esparza Diaz. However, the same Family Search user who had deleted the couple relationship mentioned on my previous post changed a number of the names, including some, but not all of the wives by adding long extensions like these: 

Lic. Lope Ruíz De Esparza Espinoza Sr. De Esparza de Galar y Zariquiegui 
Lic. Pedro Ruíz De Esparza Caparroso Sr. De Esparza de Galar y Zariquiegui - Lope Ruiz Esparza Espinosa’s son Martin Ruíz De Esparza Huici Sr. De Esparza de Galar y Zariquiegui - Lope Ruiz Esparza Espinosa’s father 
María de Larrasoaña Sra. Del Palacio de Zariquiegui – One of Martin Ruíz De Esparza Huici’s wives (Not Lope’s mother)

This extended version of the name was obviously taken

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Following the recent synthesis on researchers who have shaped colonial lineage historiography (A Compendium of Essential Genealogists and Historical Researchers of New Spain), and based on the interesting comments of our colleague Héctor Félix Aizcorbe, it is time we turn our attention to the physical and digital toolkit: the canonical reference works, published genealogical collections, and regional monographs that serve as our daily analytical baseline.

Whether investigating 16th-century lineages or 17th-century notary protocols, certain works remain indispensable.

I invite all members to reply with their most relied-upon books, using the suggested layout below.

For example:

1)Retoños de España en la Nueva Galicia (10 Volumes) Author: Dr. Mariano González-Leal, Knight of the Royal Brotherhood of Infanzones de Illescas, Knight of the Noble Chapter of the Order of our Lady of Mercy (Orden de la Merced), Hidalgo de España, and a long etc. Scope & Significance: An

Hello everyone,

I don't remember having seen before a post by ramon sanchez, made onTue, 2022-09-27, and a comment by Alex Mercado re the Vazquez del Mercado family, so I want to give a partial answer to their concerns.

For what I have studied, there are at least two branches of Vázquez de Mercado: One descending from Ginés, nephew of Bernardino Vázquez de Tapia, and  another one descending from doña Ana Vázquez de Mercado y Tapia (daughter of Pedro (II) Carrillo de Ávila and doña Sancha de Belmar -who, mistakenly, many people make a daughter of Bernardino Vázquez de Tapia, the conqueror), herself a great-granddaughter of Bernardino Vázquez de Tapia, married to Mateo de Río de Losa, many of whose descendants, male and female, bore the surname Vázquez de Mercado or, simply, Mercado. I know for sure some of doña Ana's descendants, and I have the feeling that some of the Vázquez de Mercado from Fresnillo are descendants of doña Ana, but I haven't been able to establish the exact connection

Decided to start a new thread on this: 

in an earlier post, Daniel Méndez Camino said: 

"Sebastián Pérez de Ornelas, my tenth great-grandfather, married Leonor González de Ruvalcaba, daughter of Juan González de Ruvalcaba and Leonor Franco de Paredes. I don't know if this Ornelas is related to the same family that settled in Los Altos, but I've only seen a few people with the surname Pérez de Ornelas; I don't know its origin."

My ancestor, Juan Pérez, AKA Juan de Santoyo, born about (or before) 1624 (probably in Lagos), had a probable relative named Gerónima de Ornelas. 

Listed in Juan's household in the 1669 Padron de Santa María de los Lagos is Gerónima de Ornelas, Viuda, living with Juan's widow, Antonia de Villegas, AKA Antonia de Mendoza, and their children (all of Juan and Antonia's known and suspected children assumed surnames of Santoyo, Pérez, Villegas and/or Mendoza).

I have no idea how Gerónima de Ornelas is related to Juan Pérez (AKA Juan de Santoyo). Sister? Mother? Daughter

The study of genealogy within the historical framework of New Spain and modern Mexico represents a critical, specialized branch of Latin American historiography. Far from being a mere collection of ancestral lists, colonial Mexican genealogy serves as an essential lens through which scholars examine social stratification, economic structures, land distribution, and the transmission of political power from the early viceregal era through the nineteenth century. The research produced in this domain relies heavily on rigorous archival paleography, the critical analysis of notary protocols (protocolos notariales), ecclesiastical records, and inquisitorial proceedings, bridging family history with broader socio-economic and demographic realities.

To synthesize a truly comprehensive overview of this field, this compendium integrates a cross-model AI consensus, drawing upon comparative evaluations from Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT to evaluate figures based on archival discoveries, published

Hello friends,

I hope everyone is doing well. I’m reaching out to the community because I’m working on a historical‑genealogical project that intersects both Los Altos de Jalisco research and American Revolutionary War lineage documentation.

Over the past year, I’ve been in active communication with both the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) and the SAR (Sons of the American Revolution) regarding my ancestor:

Don Salvador Manuel Muñoz de la Barba

(Vecino español of Jalostotitlán, Resident of Rancho La Ciénega, Comisario de la Acordada, Documented in 18th‑century parish and notarial records)

As many of you know, Spain supported the American Revolution through the Royal Donativo of 1780, ordered by King Carlos III, requiring heads of household, titled Spaniards, landowners, and Crown officials to contribute funds (typically dos pesos in rural Nueva Galicia).

Recently, the National SAR Lead Genealogist, Travis Franklin, reviewed my ancestor’s dossier. His official response clarified