I am hoping someone that is still active on here has a copy of the 700 page manuscript by Guadalupe Diaz De Leon on the genealogical history of the Diaz De Leon family. I joined this community after coming across a post discussing the existence of it and (I believe) Felipe Reyes said he had scanned all 700 pages and had it digitally.
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:
(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 that we are extremely close to qualifying Don Salvador as a Patriot Ancestor. However, SAR requires one specific document:
that includes Don Salvador Muñoz de la Barba by name.
SAR emphasized that while the circumstantial evidence is strong — Salvador’s elite status, landholding, civic office, and presence in the correct jurisdiction during the Donativo period — they cannot accept circumstantial evidence alone. Their exact words:
“The SAR requires that a Patriot ancestor qualifying under the Donativo be specifically named on an existing, documented Donativo list as having paid the contribution. Circumstantial evidence, however compelling, is not sufficient.”
They further stated:
“Until an indexed Donativo list for this region is located that includes Don Salvador Manuel Muñoz de la Barba by name as a contributor, there is no confirmed qualifying service to submit.”
And finally, their guidance to me:
“I would encourage Mr. Franco to continue his archival research with the goal of locating the actual Donativo collection records for the Alcaldía Mayor de Lagos, possibly held in Mexican state archives or the Archivo General de la Nación. If that document is located, the application would be on solid footing.”
This is why I’m turning to this community.
Any Donativo list, roster, or donor record from:
If anyone here has:
I would be deeply grateful for your guidance.
I’m happy to share the full SAR correspondence and all supporting documents if needed.
Thank you all — this community has always been a powerhouse for Los Altos research, and I’m hopeful someone may have encountered Donativo materials from this region.
Warm regards,
Mario Franco
Researching: Franco • Muñoz • Barba • Álvarez Tostado • Lomelín • Pérez Maldonado • Saavedra • Segoviano
I stumbled upon another case where it seems likely two individuals are in actuality the same man...
There appear to be two men named Basilio de Valdés, both born around the same time. However, the available records strongly suggest that they were the same individual.
Pedro de Valdés and Leonor Tejada married on 2 January 1637 in Teocaltiche. Their known children include:
Basilio de Valdés and Catarina de Anda Altamirano have one known child, Magdalena Valdés, who married José Carrillo of Teocaltiche.
A Basilio de Valdés also appears later as the husband of Inés Pérez de Ruvalcaba.
Inés was born in 1661 and married her first husband, Juan Gutiérrez, in 1676. She subsequently married Basilio de Valdés, apparently around 1686, after she is widowed.
They had at least six known children:
At the baptism of their youngest son, Basilio, in 1698, the record states:
“Fue su padrino José Carrillo, español y vecino de Teocaltiche.”
This José Carrillo is the same José Carrillo who married Magdalena de Valdés, daughter of Basilio de Valdés and Catarina de Anda Altamirano.
Basilio de Valdés (b. c. 1657)
├── 1st wife: Catarina de Anda Altamirano
│ └── Magdalena de Valdés (b. 1676)
│ └── married José Carrillo
│
└── 2nd wife: Inés Pérez de Ruvalcaba (b. 1661)
└── Basilio de Valdés (b. 1698)
└── padrino: José Carrillo
In my view, the 1698 baptismal record is particularly important because it provides a concrete connection between José Carrillo and the two family groups.
Then, after the death of José Carrillo, Magdalena Valdés marries a second time on 18 Aug 1707 in Santa María de los Lagos, to Juan Pérez de Ornelas, the younger half-brother of her step-mother, Inés Pérez de Ruvalcaba.
Yes — this additional marriage makes the case substantially stronger. The 1707 marriage creates another direct connection between the two family groups: Magdalena, daughter of Basilio and Catarina, later marries Juan Pérez de Ornelas, who is the half-brother of Inés Pérez de Ruvalcaba, Basilio's second wife.
Taken together, the matching ages, chronology, locations, marriages and repeated family connections make it highly likely that the two Basilio de Valdés were the same man. The evidence points to one Basilio who married first Catarina de Anda Altamirano and later Inés Pérez de Ruvalcaba, with the two families remaining closely connected throughout the following decades.
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 married Leanor Ruvalcaba. This interpretation seems to fit the available facts and chronology considerably better.
It also makes more sense for the Sebastián Pérez who married Leanor Ruvalcaba to have been born closer to 1600 rather than in 1635. The 1635 birth date appears frequently online, but I have not been able to locate a primary record supporting it. More importantly, the dispensa associated with Leanor Ruvalcaba's later marriage to Juan Pérez de Ornelas provides chronological and familial context that seems difficult to reconcile with a Sebastián Pérez born as late as 1635.
Under this "single-person" interpretation, Sebastián Pérez does not die a relatively young man who is barely forty. Rather, he appears to have lived a long life, marrying twice and having families with both women. His marriage to Leanor Ruvalcaba would therefore have occurred later in his life, which is entirely plausible given the chronological evidence.
In my view, treating the two Sebastiáns as the same man who married first Isabel de Ávalos and later Leanor Ruvalcaba provides a much more coherent explanation of the reconstructed genealogy, the estimated birth dates of the children and siblings, and the evidence contained in the dispensas than the proposed father-and-son relationship.
Born: circa 1600-1605?
Died: c1675
1st wife: Isabel de Ávalos
Children:
María Burgueño, b. c1630 m. 1649
***Last known contemporary mention of Isabel de Ávalos:
4 June 1649 — Sebastián Pérez and Isabel de Ávalos were padrinos at the baptism of Felipe de Espinoza.
2nd wife: Leanor de Ruvalcaba
Born: c1639
Died: 1697
Children:
Hello Everyone,
My name is Norma (Username: Normrivmat), and I am very grateful to be accepted into the Nuestros Ranchos community. My research focuses heavily on the border regions of eastern Aguascalientes and southeastern Zacatecas, specifically around Real de Asientos, Ojo Caliente, and Bimbaletes.
My Fully Documented Lineage:
What I Am Searching For & Why:
My primary brick wall is finding the parentage of my great-great-grandfather, Genaro Rosales (b. ~1846). His 1906 civil death certificate unfortunately omitted his parents' names, and his 1895 son's marriage investigation only names him as a surviving parent, not going back another generation.
I am actively searching for Genaro Rosales’s own marriage record to Dionisia Vázquez (likely between 1865–1876) or his baptism record around 1846.
The Reason for Precision:
There is a strong family oral tradition suggesting our Rosales branch is related to the family of Saint Román Adame Rosales (b. 1859, Teocaltiche, Jalisco). Some online public family trees assert that Genaro was a sibling to the Saint's mother, Manuela Rosales, meaning his parents would be Martín Rosales and Juana Antonia Gutiérrez. However, I want to keep my tree strictly verified and do not want to merge these lines without primary source verification.
If anyone has indexed or browsed the parish books for Asientos, Pinos, Ojo Caliente, or neighboring areas from the 1840s–1870s and has run across this Rosales-Vázquez branch, I would be incredibly grateful for any guidance, microfilm roll suggestions, or record lookups.
Thank you all for your time and for welcoming me to the group!
Best regards,
Norma Rivera-Matheson
While doing research for my upcoming book on the Marquisate of Pánuco, title of my ancestors, I stumbled upon an interesting primary-source entry in the Viceregal Correspondence (Correspondencia de Virreyes, Mexico, 1778) detailing the 1777 "Cargo de Lanzas" for New Spain.
For context, the Cargo de Lanzas (or Servicio de Lanzas) was a direct tax on titled nobility. It originated as an old medieval duty where nobles had to supply armed knights (lances) to the Crown during wartime. In 1631, King Philip IV monetized this military obligation into an annual tax, requiring titled families to pay a set fee to the Real Hacienda to legally maintain their status. By 1773, nobles in the Americas could either pay the annual fee or permanently redeem the tax with a single lump-sum payment.
What makes this specific 1777 record interesting is seeing the roster of New Spain’s top and wealthiest mining magnates and aristocratic estates listed side-by-side settling their accounts with the Royal Treasury (although the Count of Regla and the Marquis of San Clemente are missing, probably because they made the lump-sum payment):
It’s an interesting bit of history of fiscal administration and a look at who made up the elite of late 18th-century New Spain nobility.
Best regards,
Erik Andrés Reynoso y Márquez.
I would like to share this, for the sake of keeping the memory of the ancestors alive.
The empress Charlotte of Belgium had the kindness to appoint my fifth great-grandmother, María Rojas de López Portillo (wife of Jesús López Portillo y Serrano, state councilor to Emperor Maximilian and his imperial prefect, Governor of Jalisco), as one of her four ladies-in-waiting, alongside the following ladies:
The notice was published in "El Diario del Imperio" No. 380 on April 6, 1866, two years after Doña Carlota was crowned Empress of Mexico.
The empress proposed several reforms and outlined various plans to improve the region she governed and the lives of those within it. The titles of ladies-in-waiting were not merely honorary; they also carried out various duties as representatives of the empress.
On June 25, 1866, she wrote the following letter to my fifth great-grandmother:
"My dear Mrs. de López Portillo,
I have received your three interesting letters and the attached statements, sincerely thanking you for the news you provide and your diligence in carrying out my instructions, as well as the kind wishes you offer for my birthday.
I have had all the proposals for improvements transcribed and forwarded to the ministries so they may report on the outcome, and I have just received Mr. Lacunza's response, which I enclose herewith.
As for the schools, I see from the Guadalajara information that the city council is redirecting public instruction funds toward other purposes; I believe it would be very helpful if you could convince your husband to have the taxes collected on their behalf applied directly to them, according to the aforementioned table.
Please accept the assurance of the true esteem of
Yours affectionately."
Regardless of the opinions surrounding the empress, there is ample documentation of the good deeds she wished to implement for her ill-fated empire.
One more memory of this appointment remains. In the entryway of the home of my uncle, Guillermo Tovar de Teresa (now the Museo Soumaya Casa Guillermo Tovar de Teresa), there was a porcelain Virgin of Guadalupe sent by the emperors to María Rojas and Jesús López Portillo to mark the happy occasion. That figure of the Virgin still sits in the exact same spot for anyone who wishes to visit the museum.
Warm regards,
Erik Andrés Reynoso y Márquez.
Greetings, does anybody here know who were the parents of Captain Tomás Ortiz de Ayala? He was "Justicia mayor de los valles de Tlazazalca y Guaniqueo" and founder of the Ortiz de Ayala family one of the most important families in mexican history.
I've been researching the Ortiz de Ayala lineage for a long time and this is one of the few questions that I still have left. I haven't found any mentions of Tomas's parents anywhere, but I have some clues as to who his parents might have been:
1. One of his children, Agustín, used "López de Ayala" as his last name instead of Ortiz or Ayala as most of his siblings did.
2. He had a son named Juan Pedro who perhaps was his second born male son, this one had a son named Pedro and his grandson had the same name too, these didn't use the "Ortiz" surname only the "Ayala" so they would be referred to in documents as "Pedro de Ayala/Allala".
Another clue is the two names of the just mentioned "Juan Pedro", I had read here about a family that resided in the XVI century in Zacatecas and Colima which were the "Ortiz de San Pedro" and "López de Ayala" (which if we combine the easiest to write parts of each's last name it would give us Ortiz de Ayala), I thought particularly about Pedro Ortiz de San Pedro son of Juan Ortiz de San Pedro and Catalina López de Ayala (who perhaps was a daughter of Pedro López de Ayala and Teresa de Recalde), if we assume that Tomás was a child of Pedro Ortiz (due to Tomás probably being born around the c. 1570s-1580s since he had his first recorded daughter in 1595), it would make sense that he would name his first born son like himself "Tomás" and the second one like his grandfather "Juan" and his father "Pedro" giving us Juan Pedro, unfortunately for what I read, only a daughter of Pedro Ortiz de San Pedro's marriage with a woman named "Maria Esquivel" is known, Cecilia Ortiz, but I find these two to be very likely candidates for his parentage, but still, who knows. If anyone has any useful information feel free to share, thanks!
Here are the links to the mentions of the Ortiz de San Pedro and López de Ayala in this forum:
https://www.nuestrosranchos.org/es/node/24476
https://www.nuestrosranchos.org/node/24368
Here's the mention of the parents of Catalina López de Ayala's possible sister:
https://nuestrosranchos.org/node/23654
While doing text searches on FamilySearch, I discovered an interesting collection of documents concerning the relationship between Sebastián Pérez, Lázaro Ramos, and Juana Sánchez:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9392-XW95-88 (images 140–178)
The documents span the years 1709–1711 and center on the marriage of Lázaro Ramos and Juana Sánchez and the couple's relationship with Sebastián Pérez. Lázaro claimed to be the maternal half-brother of Sebastián Pérez—who was Juana's uncle by marriage as well as the father of her two children, Mateo and Magdalena.
I have read both the transcriptions and the original documents, but AI transcriptions are sloppy and the early 18th-century handwritten Spanish is challenging for me. I am struggling to fully understand the testimony.
The evidence presented in these testimonies is mostly hearsay and seems to be ambiguous.
Has anyone else studied this particular group of records? More specifically, does the testimony ultimately support the conclusion that Sebastián Pérez and Lázaro Ramos were in fact maternal half-brothers? My own reading leaves me thinking they probably were not, or am I missing something?
For those unfamiliar with the individuals involved, here are the principal figures mentioned in the proceedings. Nearly all were current or former residents of the Hacienda de San José de la Mololoa.
For context, I am not descended from either Sebastián Pérez or Lázaro Ramos. Our line descends from the elder Sebastián Pérez and Leonor de Robalcava through their other children. My interest is simply in understanding the truth behind these allegations after spending so much time reading through all the documents two and a half times.
Thank you,
Travis
Greetings, I've been looking for info and relationship with the Villaseñor of "Leonor Chávez Corona/Corona de Villaseñor" wife of Diego Ruiz de Cortés and mother of Andrés Ruiz de Chávez (founder of the Ruiz de Chávez lineage), Juan Ortiz Cortés (ancestor of Miguel Hidalgo and Morelos) and many others. Her grandchildren and later descendants regularly used the last name "Villaseñor" and "Corona" without having any other possible descent from those families other than through her. The use of Corona and Villaseñor together was first seen with the marriage of Juan de Villaseñor Cervantes (first male son of Juan de Villaseñor Orozco) and Catalina Corona. They had children in the decade of 1560s/1570s meaning that in order for Leonor to be a descendant of this marriage she'd have to be at best a granddaughter of these two (since she began to have children by c. 1600) but I have no knowledge of any children of theirs marrying someone with the last name "Chávez". If someone knows anything that could be useful for this research feel free to share. Regards.