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.
>

Joseph,

I have already sent him an email telling him about Rosalinda's
interest in some documents from the Archivo General de la Nación.  I
will ask him next time if it is OK to have his contact information in
one of the private sections of the group.

Regarding your other question about service rates, he explained that
he usually finds out what type of document is requested before quoting
a price.  As you can understand it is not the same transcribing a XVI
century manuscript than a XVII century.  Other thing to consider is
the document's lenght.  All this applies where you know the exact
reference to the document you want, that is, the index numbers from
the AGN search engine.  If someone has just a vague idea about a
person, place or event and wants to find what information is available
that is whole different project.

And finally, in regard to Marge's question, I sent my payment by
"Dinero Express" of Banco Azteca, a service like Western Union. 
Although it is possible that there might be other ways.

Un Saludo Cordial
Victor Villarreal


--- In ranchos@yahoogroups.com, Joseph Puentes <makas@n...> wrote:
>
> yes lets get his name to the group so if other care to use him (well 
> Victor maybe you can ask him first). . .maybe ask if your rate would 
> also apply to other group members? thanks joseph
> 
> lareina2@i... wrote:
> 
> > Victor--
> >  
> > That's great news, since I found a couple of documents that look 
> > interesting.  I'm still searching, but could you email me his name
and 
> > what steps I need to take to pay him for his services (since I'm in 
> > California)?
> >
> > Thanks,
> >  
> > Rosalinda
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: "v.h.villarreal"
> > Sent: Oct 14, 2005 10:24 PM
> > To: ranchos@yahoogroups.com
> > Subject: [ranchos] Re: Archivo General de la Nacion
> >
> > Rosalinda,
> >
> > If you or anyone else ever needs to research a document at AGN, I met
> > a gentleman (via another genealogy forum) that resides in Mexico City
> > and can provide that kind of services for a very reasonable fee.
> >
> > I recently asked him to get me a transcription of a couple of
> > documents from the 1740s and I was very satisfied with his
> > paleographic work.  He also got and sent me via email an scanned image
> > of a section from a 1594 "Testamento".
> >
> > Victor
> >

Rosalinda,

If you or anyone else ever needs to research a document at AGN, I met
a gentleman (via another genealogy forum) that resides in Mexico City
and can provide that kind of services for a very reasonable fee.

I recently asked him to get me a transcription of a couple of
documents from the 1740s and I was very satisfied with his
paleographic work.  He also got and sent me via email an scanned image
of a section from a 1594 "Testamento".

Victor

-----------------------------------------------

Hi all--
 
Here's the main page for the Archivo:
 
http://www.agn.gob.mx/inicio.php?cu=in
 
I found under "instrumentos de consulta" some search  pages. 
 
http://www.agn.gob.mx/inicio.php?cu=ic&sc=ic
 
If you click Argenta III, then Argento II, you can then enter a search
name/word, and you can select under the pull-down menu Groupo
Documental "999 Todos los groupos documentos," which is the last
choice.  Then  you can search all of the categories.
 
It appears they offer services as well, but I just located this site,
so I'm still poking around.
 
Rosalinda