Hello forum.
There is a very interesting document, a suit filed by Nicolas Ruiz against his father Br. Jose Ruiz in 1672.
This is a very long document plenty of dozens of declarations of witnesses, some of them closely related to Jose and Nicolas Ruiz.
1.- Jose Corona de Anaya and Jose Ruiz are first cousins (see image 362/795).
Many of the witnesses give Jose ruiz's mother's name: Isabel Lopez de Fuenllana.
The names of Jose Corona de Anaya's parents are given in this document, they are Garcia Alvarez Corona and Juana Lupiana.
This is my guess, the mothers of the two of them are sisters, the daughters of Alonso de Lupiana and Catalina Lopez de Fuenllana. This couple is mentioned in this other thread, Catalina is one of the sisters of Diego de Fuenllana and Beatriz Lopez de Fuenllana.
2.- Gregorio de Bejar, resident of Tinguindin, 47 years, 6 months and 18 days old, says his father and Jose Ruiz are 2nd. cousins (see image 296/795).
This Gregorio de Bejar is the grandson of Gregorio de Bejar and Juana de Sandoval. According to Guillermo Padilla Origel "Arbol genealogico de los Bejar de Tinguindin", Juana de Sandoval is the daughter of Gonzalo de Sandoval and Isabel Perez.
The said relationship is true if Juana de Sandoval (Gregorio de Bejar's grandmother) and Isabel Lopez de Fuenllana (Jose Ruiz´s mother) are first cousins.
The names of the parents of Juana de Sandoval are Gonzalo de Sandoval and Isabel Perez according to Guillermo Padilla Origel.
Gonzalo de Sandoval died before 1585 and Isabel Perez was the owner of some houses in Zamora (see Gregorio Torres Quintero / Genaro Hernandez Corona "Tesis Pedagogicas", p. 158).
One more of the sisters of Diego de Fuenllana and Catalina Lopez de Fuenllana (proposed Isabel Lopez de Fuenllana's mother) is "Isabel del Castillo mujer de (Jeronimo) Orozco".
This is my guess, could Isabel (Perez), the widow of Gonzalo de Sandoval and Isabel (del Castillo), the wife of Jeronimo de Orozco, be the same person?. If it is this way, the mother of Juana de Sandoval (Isabel Perez/del Castillo) and the mother of Isabel Lopez de Fuenllana (Catalina Lopez de Fuenllana) are sisters.
Any help proviing/disproving the aforementioned relationships is greatly appreciated.
Clarification on Juana de Sandoval
Juana de Sandoval is the grandmother of Gregorio de Bejar (b. 1625), the witness in the Ruizes case. She also is the mother of Gregorio de Bejar (b. ab. 1597), this last Gregorio de Bejar is the husband of Ana Maria de Liebana.
Rubén Hernandez
Juana Perez de Najera, sister of Isabel Perez de Najera
Hello Ruben,
I was looking at the documents you are referring to late last month. I'll add my two cents. Isabel Perez de Najera had a confirmed sister - Juana Perez de Najera. There are two documents that prove that, one is the document describing the dote given to Franciso Manzo Perez when he married Damiana Ortiz de Luna y Avina. Franciso Manzo's parents were Melchor Manzo Corona and Juana Perez de Najera - the first Spanish couple to settle in the area of present-day Cotija. There's also a dispensa that talks about Juana and Isabel being sisters:
Dispena Matrimonial entre Diego de Oseguera y Vasquez cc Juana de Loera Manzanero (Tinguindin, Michoacan - June 3, 1655)
Essentially, we find out that Diego is the great-grandson of Juana Perez de Najera (wife of Melchor Manzo Corona), while the deceased husband of Juana de Loera, Gregorio de Robledo/Bejar was the great-grandson of Isabel Perez de Najera (wife of Gonzalo de Sandoval)
Now we need to add some time context as to when Juana and Isabel were having children. I know that Melchor and Juana baptized a child in Mexico City in 1540:
Melchor Manzo Perez - (Mexico City, Mexico - October 1540
The aforementioned Francisco Manzo Perez was born around 1559 in Morelia, Michoacan as he stated to the Spanish Inquisition:
Proceso contra Francisco Manzo por blasphemia (Santiago Acahuato, Michoacan March 13, 1619)
Unfortuantely, I haven't been able to find any documents that give an idea as to when Gonzalo de Sandoval and Isabel Perez Najera had their children. We can only assume around the same time as Melchor Manzo Corona and Juana Perez Najera.
Isabel del Castillo (daughter of Juan de Baeza and Isabel Perez) is rougly around the same generation as the children of the two Perez de Najera sisters. We know this from the testimony given by Fray Diego de Fuenllana brother of Isabel del Castillo:
Proceso contra Fray Diego de Fuenllana por solicitud (Mexico City, Mexico - November 14, 1582)
Fray Diego lists his siblings
I therefore think that if Isabel Perez (wife of Gonzalo de Sandoval) was the same person as Isabel del Castillo (wife of Geronimo de Orozco) then two things don't line up:
1. Isabel Perez (Gonzalo de Sandoval's wife) was having children at the same time as Juan de Baeza and Isabel Perez. Gonzalo and Juan de Baeza were definitely contemporaries and both conquistadors.
2. There's no mention of Juana Perez in Fray Diego de Fuenllana's testimony, thus we can assume that Juan de Baeza and his wife never had a child named Juana and thus Juana Perez Najera was not a sister of Isabel del Castillo (wife of Geronimo de Orozco).
Daniel Serna Valencia
Thank you, Daniel!
Like many times you have done before, you jump in with lots of very helpful information.
Regarding the two aspects not lining up:
(I apologize in advance for the following comments, if any of them is wrong or quite inaccurate)
1. The children of Juan de Baeza and Isabel Perez were born ab. 1540-1560. Gregorio de Bejar (Juana de Sandoval's son) was born ab. 1597 (Gregorio de Bejar's declaration in pre-marriage information of Jeronimo Rodriguez Morfin and Isabel de Orozco). My guess is that Juana de Sandoval was born ab. 1565-1575.
2. Fray Diego de Fuenllana doesn't list any deceased sibling (if there were any). Juana Perez de Najera died before 1585, most probably, she was dead by 1583.
On a note apart, I am confused by the conquistador Gonzalo de Sandoval, he died in 1528. Is there another conquistador also named Gonzalo de Sandoval?
Again, many thanks for the information you are sharing.
Ruben Hernandez
Did Isabel Perez de Najera re-marry?
All good points Ruben. Your points made me think of one other possibility. Since Gonzalo de Sandoval (By the way, I know of only one Gonzalo de Sandoval who was a conquistador, died early on, and had children with Isabel Perez) died relatively early on... I wonder if Isabel Perez re-married after Gonzalo's death to Juan de Baeza? I hope we run into some document that helps to clear up the possible relation between these families.
Daniel Serna Valencia
Conquistador Gonzalo de Sandoval, Gregorio de Bejar's g-father?
Am I missing something, Daniel?
Conquistador Gonzalo de Sandoval died in 1528, if Juana de Sandoval (the mother of Gregorio de Bejar b. ab. 1597) is the conquistador's daughter, she would be 70 at the time Gregorio de Bejar was born.
Ruben Hernandez
Re: Conquistador Gonzalo de Sandoval, Gregorio de Bejar's g-fath
If Gonzalo de Sandoval died in 1530 (at the latest per what's documented in various books about him), let's say Juana Perez de Sandoval was born at the latest - 1530. Her child Gregorio de Bejar y Sandoval (cc Maria de Liebana) wasn't born until 159x. Juana was indeed close to her 70s as you say when she supposedly had Gregorio (cc Maria de Liebana). I agree that it sounds very unlikely. Ultimately, I go back to my assertion that we need more documentation to help clear this up or at least verify some of the dates we've been given. I'm going to see if there's anything in PARES that might help clear some of this up.
Re: Conquistador Gonzalo de Sandoval, Gregorio de Bejar's g-fath
On more than one occasion my research has found that people sometimes skipped a generation when constructing a family tree. So a father sometimes turned out to be a grandfather, or even great grandfather. Finding documentation of Gonzalo’s children is not an easy task as he had children with many different “companions”.
Rick A. Ricci