For the past few months, I've been trying to break what it looks like an unbreakable wall. Actually, it's two of them. My ancestors, Jose Cervantes and Maria Dolores Carrasco, married in Zacoalco on 18 June 1788. Jose Cervantes' parents were "an unknown father" and Maria Gertrudis Cervantes. That's pretty much how far I'm getting in that line. I was hoping to find info on his wife, Maria Dolores Carrasco.

She was listed as a "mulata libre" "hija de padres no conocidos" on her marriage certificate. On her earlier documents, she is only listed as Maria Dolores, and out of nowhere, she started using the surname Carrasco. Oh, and according to her marriage certificate, she was born around 1765 in Los Pozos, a small village near Zacoalco. Well, I started looking for baptism records around that year, and was able to find this: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-18697-45402-41?cc=1874591&wc…

This is the baptism of a girl named Maria Dolores, "hija de padres no conocidos" baptized on 23 February 1766. All the info closely matches my ancestor, but I understand that I don't have complete proof that this is my Maria Dolores since there are no parents or surnames to compare. What caught my attention was the word "abogada" next to her name. At first I thought it was a surname but, that doesn't make any sense. Does "abogada" mean anything else besides lawyer? What's the meaning of that on this certificate?

Steve in NC