Chris Pineda wrote:

cite="">

I too have come across instances in the 1500s and
1600s where some siblings took on the surname of their
father and others, their mother's. I have heard some
of the following explanations to account for this:

1)Perhaps their mother's line was more distinguished,
particularly if she was the daughter or grandaughter
of someone famous;

2)Perhaps their father had committed some crime and
some of his children did not want to be associated
with his name;

3)Perhaps the father's line/surname was associated as
being Sephardic and some children wished to disguise
this fact, particularly when the Inquisition came to
Mexico.

I'm wondering about this possibility. It is my understanding that to be
full Spanish was better than Mestizo. so maybe if the mother was
thought to be more full blooded spanish they chose to use that name
because the genealogy would show this to be true, whereas maybe with
the father the lines were more complicated or maybe he was even a "Hijo
Natural."



I really don't know about this since I haven't any examples in my own
genealogy of the name being the surname of the mother instead of the
father.



joseph

cite="">

Or perhaps it really was not that big a deal back then
to take on one parent's name over the other. I imagine
for most of the Spanish conquistadores and immigrants,
coming to the New World must have been a fluid time in
terms of identity--it was a rare chance to remake
themselves.

Chris Pineda   

--- Arturo Ramos <arturo.ramos2@...> wrote:

  

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

      

		
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