Esperanza,

When I first got interested in genealogy and stumbled across Danny
Villarreal's web site, I remember reading that most of the people with
the Villarreal surname had the same roots.  I really found that a
little hard to believe at that time.  Now that we have been digging up
information in old books and ancient manuscripts, etc. we've come up
with many more individuals from the XVI-XVII centuries with the same
surname, which indicates the existance of several lineages, as it is
reflected in the widespread presence of Villarreales all over Mexico.

As to the origin of our oldest (documented) ancestor for the northeast
Mexico Villarreals, it is recorded that Diego de Villarreal entered
the state of Nuevo León, from Zacatecas, with then governor Martín de
Zavala, in 1626.  In spite of some information to the contrary
available on the internet, I don't know of any documented primary
source that records Diego de Villarreal parents and/or his family
origins.  We have several leads but nothing conclusive yet.

That record you found on the AGN index is worth looking into to see if
it has any biographical info that could provide another piece of this
big puzzle.  Thanks for the tip!

Saludos
Victor Villarreal

p.d. Just one more thing some of you might be interested to know: so
far in the Villarreal DNA surname project there are at least two or
three distinct genetic lineages.  We need participants from other
regions of Mexico, like western, central and southern Mexico.

--- In ranchos@yahoogroups.com, latina1955@a... wrote:
>
> Hi Victor,
>  
> I remembered our email conversation awhile ago regarding Danny
Villarreal's  
> web site.  I bet you already have this information, but I found this
in the  
> archivo general de la nacion - it appears that this family was
firmly in place  
> before the other Villarreales ventured out to Nuevo Leon. Did you ever  
> mention from what part of Mexico your Villarreal side is from?
>  
> Esperanza
>  
>  
>     313664  No. Grupo 100  Grupo Documental Reales Cédulas  Fecha 
NOVIEMBRE 
> 12 DE 1550  Volumen 1  Expediente 31 BIS  Fojas 48  Descripción  
> ALGUACILES. NOMBRAMIENTO DE TENIENTE DE ALGUACIL  MAYOR, DE ANTONIO DE  
> VILLARREAL.
>