If anyone has more information on Juan Diaz de Leon Gonzalez married to Inés Domínguez deGarfias, please share as this is as far as I have found.

Juan Díaz de León González - b.1560 Villa de Ayamonte, Huelva, Andalucia, Reinos de Castilla
Birth: 1550

The Díaz de León Family History 

Compiled by

Alejandro Díaz de León Mejía

A family is not measured solely by the years it has existed, but by the character, faith and perseverance it passes from one generation to the next.

This family history record is dedicated to my daughters, Alyssa Marie Díaz de León Torres and Samantha Nichole Díaz de León Torres, with the hope that they will always know where they came from and take pride in the generations who came before them.

It is also dedicated to every generation of the Díaz de León family whose hard work, sacrifices, and perseverance made our lives possible. Their legacy continues through each of us.

I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to my Aunt María Ramos Díaz de León, whose passion for our family's history inspired me over the years to continue searching for our roots. Her encouragement played an important role in this journey and I am grateful for her dedication to preserving our family's history.

For several years I searched not simply for names and dates, but for the stories behind them. Who were these people? Where did they live? What hardships did they endure? Why did they leave Spain? How did they help build communities in New Spain (Mexico)? What legacy did they leave for future generations?

The answers were not found in a single document or family tree. They emerged gradually through historical records, church registers, land records, wills, family documents, oral history, and the patient work of comparing one source against another.

This family history record represents the beginning not the conclusion of that journey. 

Its purpose is to preserve what I have learned and share it with our family. Genealogical research is constantly evolving as new records become available and existing information is verified or corrected. 

I would also like to thank my wife, Ivonne Torres Lagunas, for her love, patience, encouragement, and unwavering support throughout this project. She listened to countless family stories, celebrated each new discovery with me, and supported the many hours I spent researching our family's history. Her encouragement made this journey possible, and I am deeply grateful for everything she has done.

I hope future generations will continue this work by adding new discoveries while preserving the integrity of those who came before us.

Research Sources

This summary is based on information gathered from a variety of sources, including:

FamilySearch.org, Ancestry.com, Nuestros Ranchos, Historical church records, Civil registration records, Wills and probate records, Historical publications, Cemetery records, Census Records, Newspaper archives, Information shared by family members, Other online Genealogy resources.

Whenever possible, I have compared information from multiple sources before including it in this summary.

Our Earliest Known Ancestors

Based on the research currently available, the earliest documented ancestor in our direct Díaz de León paternal line is Juan Díaz de León González.

Estimated Birth: 1550 - 1555

Birthplace: Ayamonte, Huelva, Andalusia, Spain

Spouse: Inés Domínguez de Garfias

Ayamonte is located in the province of Huelva in Andalusia, Spain, on the border with Portugal. During the sixteenth century it was an active fishing, trading, and maritime community connected to the expanding Spanish Empire.

Based on the research currently available, Ayamonte is the earliest documented location associated with our Díaz de León family line.

Migration to New Spain (Mexico)

By the early seventeenth century, members of the Díaz de León family were living in New Spain (Mexico). One of the strongest pieces of evidence is a reported transcription of the testament of Juan Díaz de León ("El Viejo"), who also identified himself as a native of Ayamonte while living in New Spain (Mexico).

The reported transcriptions of his legal declarations from 1636 and 1655 provide valuable information about our family's early history.

According to those documents:

Juan identified himself as a native of Ayamonte.

He identified his parents as Juan Díaz de León Gonzalez and Inés Domínguez de Garfias.

He noted his wife was Francisca de Ortega.

He also named several of his children including our direct ancestor (Juan Díaz de León Ortega) "el Mozo". So, we have Juan his father, his name was Juan (el Viejo) and his son was also named Juan (el Mozo).

He described property accumulated during his marriage to Francisca de Ortega.

These documents provide one of the strongest known links between our family's Spanish origins and its establishment in New Spain (Mexico).

Pinos, Zacatecas

Pinos appears more frequently than any other location in the records I reviewed.

Birth records, marriage records, and family histories consistently connect multiple generations of the Díaz de León family to Pinos and the surrounding communities.

Pinos became one of the earliest communities where I could consistently follow our family's history from one generation to the next.

Several other families frequently appear alongside the Díaz de León family in this region, including the Gonzalez, Carrillo, Sotomayor, Dávila, Leos, Gil de La Mancha and Ibarra.

These repeated connections indicate that many of these families became closely linked through marriage over several generations.

Pinos represents one of the most important locations in our family's history in northern New Spain (Mexico).

La Montesa, Zacatecas

As I continued researching our family name, another location repeatedly appeared in both family records and historical accounts—La Montesa.

While Pinos helped establish our family's presence in northern New Spain, La Montesa became one of the communities most closely associated with later generations of the Díaz de León family.

Several family histories describe members of the Díaz de León family as being connected to La Montesa through ranching, agriculture, and later land ownership.

One historical account that I found states that members of the Díaz de León family, who had previously worked and leased grazing lands on the Rincón Gallardo estates, began purchasing land in La Montesa around the 1840s. This transition marked an important milestone in the family's history.

Although I continue to research the original land records, multiple sources consistently identify La Montesa as one of the most important communities associated with our family.

The González family Line

One of the most important and valuable sources I found was tracing the González-Hermosillo family back to Juan de Hermosillo born 1495 in Hermosilla, Castilla-Leon.

Juan de Hermosillo’s family line eventually marries into our Díaz de León family through the marriage of Filiberta González Ortega and José Rodrigo Díaz de León Ibarra (my great, great-grandparents). 

According to this history, the González-Hermosillo family lived and worked on several haciendas associated with the Rincón Gallardo estates before gradually acquiring land of their own.

Filiberta Gonzalez Ortega was the great, grand-daughter of Maria Juana Diaz de Leon Carillo who married Vicente Gonzalez. Over several generations, the González-Hermosillo family intermarried with the Carrillo, Díaz de León, and Dávila families.

This information was especially important because it helped explain how the Díaz de León and González-Hermosillo family blood lines came together.

Family Migration

Based on my research, our family's migration can currently be summarized as follows:

Ayamonte, Huelva, Spain to New Spain (present-day Mexico) to San Luis Potosí to

Pinos, Zacatecas to La Montesa / Villa García, Zacatecas to Aguascalientes to

El Paso, Texas.

The Diaz de Leon Family Line

Juan Díaz de León González 

b. 1550 Villa de Ayamonte, Huelva, Andalusia, Reinos de Castilla 

Married Inés Domínguez deGarfias.

Juan Díaz de León Domínguez-Grafias (el Viejo) 

b. 1580 Ayamonte, Huelva, Andalucia, Reinos del Castilla, España 

Married María Francisca de Ortega.

Juan Díaz de León Ortega "el Mozo" 

b. 1621 Pinos, Zacatecas, Mexico

Married Jacinta de Sotomayor Islas.

Jacinto Díaz de León Sotomayor 

b. 1655 Aguascalientes, Reino de Nueva Galicia 

Married María Sebastiana Gil de la Mancha.

Andrés Díaz de León y Gil 

b.1686 

Married Dionicia Gutiérrez Durón y de Alvarado.

Andres Díaz de León y Durón 

b. Pinos, Zacatecas, Mexico b. 1728 

Married María Estefanía Gertrudis Carrillo Díaz de León.

Joseph Aquilino Diaz de Leon Carillo 

b. 1748 Pinos, Zacatecas 

Married Anna María Lopez Ruelas.

Jose Hilario Diaz de Leon López 

b. 1784 Pinos, Zacatecas 

Married Maria del Refugio Delgadillo Alvarez.

Jose de la Rosa Díaz de León Delgadillo 

b. 1820 

Married María Maxima Leos Campos.

Agustin Díaz de León Leos 

b. 1843 Pinos, Zacatecas 

Married María San Juan Ibarra.

Jose Rodrigo Diaz de Leon Ibarra 

b. 1869 Pinos, Zacatecas 

Married María Filibérta Gonzalez Ortega.

Donaciano Diaz de Leon Gonzalez 

b. 1894 Montesa, Villa García, Zacatecas 

Married María Romo.

Ismael Diaz de Leon Romo 

b. 1926 El Paso, Texas 

Married Sara Fernandez

Refugio Alejandro Diaz de Leon Fernandez 

b. 1950 Aguascalientes, Mexico 

Married Enriqueta Mejia.

Alejandro Diaz de Leon Mejia 

b. 1971 El Paso, Texas 

Married Ivonne Torres Lagunas

Questions I Hope Someone Will Answer:

Although this summary documents everything I have been able to learn so far, there are still several questions I hope someone in our family will eventually answer.

Who were the parents of Juan Díaz de León?

When did the first member of our family leave Spain for New Spain?

Are there additional Díaz de León records in Ayamonte that have not yet been digitized?

Can the family's land purchases in La Montesa be documented through original property records? Are there photographs, letters, family Bibles, or documents still held by relatives that should be preserved?

I hope someone reading this summary years from now will be able to answer one or more of these questions.

If they do, I hope they add those discoveries to this document so our family's history continues to grow.

My Thoughts on Family History

When I first started researching our family's history, I expected to learn a little more about my grandparents and perhaps discover another generation or two.

Instead, I found a family history that stretches back nearly five centuries.

One of the biggest lessons I learned during this project is that family history is never finished. Every year, additional records are digitized. New documents become available. Old assumptions are corrected. For that reason, I don't consider this family history record to be complete.

This family history record represents my research as it exists today. I hope future generations continue building on it, preserving our family name and sharing new discoveries with those who come after them.

Thank you for taking the time to read it. I hope you enjoyed learning about our family as much as I enjoyed discovering it.

Our story is still being written.