Linda:

I got some persepective on this issue from Mssrs. de la Torre Berumen 
and Valdes Salazar while I was down in Mexico.

Apparently, soon after the Mexican independence, President Vicente 
Guerrero (who was mulatto) decreed that all Spaniards be expelled from 
Mexico.  In reality, many were exempted but certainly all of those who 
had been loyalists during the war of independence and those that had 
royal ties (since Mexico was now a republic) were expelled.

Those Spanish families that remained became weary of being labeled 
Spanish and particularly loyalists or royalists and thus those 
with "composed names" such as "Carlos y Godoy" or "Fernandez de Jara 
Quemada" quickly dropped parts of their names to mexicanize them.  I 
think it was somewhat arbitrary which parts they dropped.

On a similar note, I would appreciate hearing any perspectives people 
may have about how children chose whether to take on the mother's 
family name vs. the father's family name.  I have run across many 
instances, particularly in the 17th century where children of the same 
family took on different names, i.e. some siblings took on the father's 
name "Covarrubias" and other siblings in the same family took on the 
mother's name "De La O" so you have siblings with different last names.

--- In ranchos@yahoogroups.com, "Erlinda Castanon-Long" 
<longsjourney@y...> wrote:
>
> I'm hoping you can help me with double surnames.  Is there a 
> difference when they use De or Y? Such as Alvares del Castillo or 
> Ochoa y Garibay?  How long did they usually keep the double surname?  
> I haven't found a reason why some families ended up using the surname 
> they chose.. Villasenor y Jaso, some went Villasenor and others went 
> Jaso.. same family!
> 
> I have gone from records in Tamazula Jalisco to Chilchota Michoacan.  
> So many families from that part of Jalisco came from this area of 
> Michoacan in the later 1700's.  In doing marriage records from there 
> I'm finding it not unusual to have the actual marriage in the home of 
> a family member, was that normal for the mid 1750's?
> Linda in Everett
>