Beyond Origins of New Mexico Families

A good amount of genealogical information regarding New Mexico Spanish colonial genealogy is now available on the Internet. Some of this information comes from submissions of family lineages and genealogies to on-line databases by numerous people doing genealogical research regarding their ancestors. With this form of easily accessible information comes the problem of common errors in Spanish Colonial New Mexico genealogy that continue to be passed on over and over again. The most important part of genealogical research is verifying information with primary sources or scholarly secondary sources of exact citations of primary sources. This critical aspect is often overlooked, and unsuspecting people who search out their colonial roots can all too easily follow the missteps of previous researchers without knowing that they have collected and passed on erroneous information.

There are a number of common errors in Spanish colonial New Mexico genealogy that continue to persist, even after corrections have been published and made available on-line. Three of these are addressed in this article and more will be added later. If you are aware of a common error, please consider sharing it on this web site as a way to guide others. Some of the common errors have been addressed in journal articles, but those new to New Mexico genealogical research may not be aware of these articles and most likely have limited access to the journals. Some of the common errors have been addressed on this web site and can be consulted in the various volumes of ‘Beyond Origins of New Mexico Families.’ The three great common errors relate to the Márquez family (ONMF: 69-70), the Baca-Ortiz (ONMF: 9-10) family, and the López Holguín-Abendaño family (ONMF: 1 & 81).

Note: If you have come across common errors in Spanish colonial New Mexico genealogy, please share the information by submitting it to the 'Beyond ONMF' web site so that others will not follow the same path.

Part I: Márquez-Mendoza

Writing n 1954, Fray Angélico Chávez wrote the following in regard to the unidentified wife of Gerónimo Márquez, a soldier in the army of don Juan de Oñate:

The source of this information cited by Chávez was Archivo General de la Nacion (AGN), Mexico, Audiencia, legajo 72, Title 1489. In actuality the source from the AGN, Mexico, Audiencia is legajo 72, Title 148-148a, and consists of two documents with twelve pages. A photostat of this document is available at the University of New Mexico’s Zimmerman Library in the Southwest Reading Room. Undoubtedly, these documents had been consulted by individuals over the decades since the publication of Chávez’s Origins of New Mexico Families searching for clues to clear up the noted ambiguity. No progress was made until 1996 when Patricia Black Esterley of the New Mexico Genealogical Society passed on a photocopy of the two documents to myself in another attempt to clear the question at hand. Immediately there were a couple of seemingly difficult obstacles encountered with the documents: 1) the name of Gerónimo Márquez does not appear anywhere in the two documents, and 2) the person dictating the documents could not be easily identified.

A diligent approach to reading the two documents revealed that the author of both documents was Doctor don Santiago del Riego, the husband of doña Ana de Mendoza, daughter of don Juan de Zaldívar y Oñate and doña Marina de Mendoza. The documents are addressed to the king of Spain from Riego, and provide information describing his merits and those of his wife, doña Ana. Riego's name is difficult to decipher, but is written three times, once on the cover of the first document and then at the end of each of the two documents.

The first document is dated February 24, 1597, Mexico City. Riego declared that he had served in the Real Audiencia of Nueva España for thirty-three years. Furthermore, he mentioned he had nine children by his wife, doña Ana de Mendoza, whom he described as "hija y nieta de los Primeros y mas principales conquistadores desta nueva spana." It is apparently this statement that Chávez referred to when he wrote that doña Ana de Mendoza "was a daughter and granddaughter of leading Conquistadores of New Spain." The document is addressed to His Majesty from "El D^r Santiago del Riego."

The second document contains two entries written to the king by don Santiago del Riego. The first entry is dated October 14, 1598, Mexico City, and contains the information from which Fray Angélico Chávez extracted material for his suggestive comments about the wife of Gerónimo Márquez. Riego declared he had been married with doña Ana de Mendoza for twenty-five years, and in addition to serving in the Real Audiencia de Nueva España and Nueva Galicia, he had been serving in the Real Audiencia de las Indias for the past nine years. Both of his wife’s parents had died, leaving three minor daughters, each of who entered convents. This is the source of the reference made by Chávez that doña Ana de Mendoza "had three sisters who were nuns." The next references by Chávez to doña Ana’s uncle (tio), don Fernando de Oñate, and her first cousin (primo hermano), don Francisco de Zaldívar, came from the following statement found in the second entry made by don Santiago del Riego: "…como lo hizo don Fr^do de Oñate su tio con quatro mil p^s y Fran^co de zaldivar su primo hermano con tres mil… ."

There is no reference to Gerónimo Márquez in either entry of the second document. Rather, the entries relate to the foundation of the Convent of San Lorenzo in Mexico City established through doñations made by doña Ana de Mendoza, her husband, and her relatives. Doña Ana and her husband provided 44,000 pesos for the founding of the convent. Her uncle, don Fernando de Oñate, gave 4,000 pesos, while her first cousin, Francisco de Zaldívar, contributed 3,000 pesos, with an additional 4,000 pesos given by another uncle, Cristóbal de Oñate.

The information above confirms that doña Ana de Mendoza was not the wife of Gerónimo Márquez. The question of the identity of Márquez’s wife remains unanswered. However, some clues as to her identity may lay in a brief reference found in Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá’s epic account of the Oñate’s colonization of New Mexico (Historia de la Nueva Mexico, 1610). Pérez de Villagra wrote, "The next post in order he gave/ To Captain Marcelo de Espinosa,/ With Gerónimo Márquez and Juan Díaz,/ Pedro Hernández and Francisco Márquez,/ These four all brothers… " (Canto XXVI).

Did Pérez de Villagrá intend to state that these four men were siblings, or that they were related by marriage as brothers-in-law? Although it is probable that all four men were siblings using different family surnames it could have been that Gerónimo Márquez and Francisco Márquez were brothers and Juan Diaz and Pedro Hernandez were brothers-in-law of Gerónimo and Francisco. Alternatively, these four men could have been four of the five sons that Gerónimo Márquez brought with him to New Mexico, although Fray Angélico Chávez identified these sons as Francsico Márquez, Juan Márquez, Pedro Márquez, Hernando Márquez and Diego Márquez. Additional research is needed to clarify the relationship between Gerónimo Márquez, Francisco Márquez, Juan Díaz and Pedro Hernández.

A transcription of the document that refers to doña Ana de Mendoza, her sisters and famous uncles was published in Nuestra Raices (Journal of the Genealogical Society of Hispanic America), Vol. 8, No. 4, Winter 1996, 147-48.

Part II: Baca-Ortiz

The second most common error in Spanish Colonial New Mexico genealogy relates to the Baca-Ortiz family and the purported relationship with the family of don Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and doña Beatriz de Estrada.

Cristóbal Baca (son of Juan Vaca) and his wife Ana Ortiz (daughter of Francisco Pacheco) came to New Mexico in 1600 with their four children: Juana de Zamora, Isabel de Bohorquez, María de Villanueva, and Antonio Baca. The various surnames used by the children of this family provide valuable clues to the ancestry of the Baca-Ortiz family. We are likely to find that the immediate antecedents of this family bore the surnames of Zamora, Bohorquez and Villanueva, in addition to Baca, Ortiz and Pacheco.

Erroneous genealogical information was published many years ago that indicated that the father of Ana Ortiz was don Francisco Pacheco de Cordova y Bocanegra, himself a son of don Nuño de Cháves Pacheco de Córdova y Bocanegra and and doña Marina Vásquez de Coronado de Coronado y Estrada. This information has found its way into books, articles and genealogical databases, and is an unsubstantiated genealogical conclusion.

Don Francisco Pacheco de Cordoba y Bocanegra was born circa 1573. Isabel de Bohórquez, daughter of Cristóbal Baca and Ana Ortiz was born circa 1586, and Juana de Zamora, another daughter of Baca and Ortiz was baptized in Mexico City on June 7, 1592. Juana's padrinos were Pero Páez and María de las Ribas. Don Francisco would have been about age 13 in 1586 and age 19 in 1592, much too young to be a grandfather in both cases.

Part III: López Holguín-Abendaño

Another common error has persisted regarding the López Holguín-Abendaño family as a result of confusion between similar names and important information that was overlooked for several decades.

Fray Angélico Chávez overlooked the information he had extracted from the early records of the colonization of New Mexico that identified two daughters of Juan López Holguín (ONMF: 81) and Catalina de Villanueva as María Ortiz and Ana Ortiz. Chávez drew this conclusion regarding Simon de Abendaño:

His wife appears to have been a daughter of Cristóbal Baca (Vaca) and Ana Ortiz who came with her parents in the same group of the year 1600, where she is listed as María de Villanueva. (ONMF: 1)

In a footnote regarding the Baca family, Chávez wrote the following:

Chávez confuses María Ortiz with María de Villanueva, and in his section on the López Holguín family (ONMF: 81), Chávez failed to mention the daughters of Juan López Holguín. He wrote:

Researcher: José Antonio Esquibel