Repeating name patterns.

[Pacorro73@...]

Dear Ranchos Group:

Hello everyone.  In response to Joseph's quite valid question, or rather comment, of course I've seen both men and women use either part or all of their mother's surname, which could have also been her mother's surname.  This was far more common for women to do, by far, but there are cases where I've seen men do this also.

I just found a Juan Camarena in Ayo el Chico, Jalisco, whose father was Antonio Rodríguez and his mother was Antonia Camarena.  Juan Camarena was married to Josepha Joaquina Tello de Orozco (aka Josefa Joaquina de Orozco) under the name "Juan Rodríguez," but proceeded to call himself Juan Camarena everytime he baptized a child.  By the time of his grandchildren, he was always refered to as Juan Camarena.  This complicated things because for the longest time I was looking for a Juan Camarena.  Boy was I surprised to find out he was really a Rodríguez!!  Who really knows why Juan decided to use his mother's name, but it might be some psychological trauma or some father son conflict, but what do I know.  I only know that I know nothing, as Socrates said.

Another example, a married couple, Dr. Gerónimo de Orozco, Governor of Nueva Galicia and President of the Real Audiencia, and his wife Beatriz Tello de Sandoval, were my ancestors, parents of my "rebisabuelo" Francisco Tello de Orozco, born ca 1558.  In fact, he would also go by the name "Francisco Tello," obviously opting to use his mother's surname.  I have never seen him mentioned as Francisco de Orozco.  Francisco's descendants would keep carrying and passing on the surname Tello de Orozco.

Here's a female example.  Francisco Gutiérrez Rubio and Ana González Florida were married about 1576, in Santa María de los Lagos (present day Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco).  They had a daughter who went by the name of Ana González Florida, namesake of her mother.  The second Ana married Juan González de Hermosillo (md. ca. 1614, in Jalostotitlán).  They had a daughter known as Ana González Florida, namesake of her mother and grandmother, who married Joseph González de Ruvalcaba (md. ca 1647).  Three generations of women who went by the same name.  I myself descend from the second Ana González Florida (and thus the first also, by default) married to Juan González de Hermosillo.

Here's another case and point.  In the following list all the men used Ascencio de León or Ascencio, whereas all the women used their mother's surname, Liébana.

Juan ASCENCIO DE LEÓN   b: 1603 in Tangancícuaro, Michoacán
Gerónima de LIÉBANA            b: 1620 in Tangancícuaro, Michoacán

1.  Josepha de LIÉBANA  b: ca 1638 in Tangancícuaro, Michoacán
2.  Anna de LIÉBANA          b: 16 July 1640 in Chilchota, Michoacán    
3.  Pedro ASCENCIO-BLANCARTE    b: 17 June 1642 in Chilchota, Michoacán
4.  Juan ASCENCIO DE LEÓN   b: ca 1646 in Tangancícuaro, Michoacán
5.  Nicolasa de LIÉBANA b: ca 1650 in Tangancícuaro, Michoacán
6.  Gerónima de LIÉBANA b: ca 1653 in Tangancícuaro, Michoacán
7.  Catalina de LIÉBANA         b: ca 1656 in Tangancícuaro, Michoacán
8.  Antonia de LIÉBANA          b: ca 1659 in Tangancícuaro, Michoacán

Notice that #6, Gerónima de Liébana was the namesake of her mother, Gerónima de Liébana.

By the way the surname, Liébana, is a toponymic one.  Toponymic surnames refer to some place, geographic entity or feature, city, town, or region.  In this case, La Liébana a region in the Province of Cantabria, directly north of Palencia and which surrounds the present day town of Potes, in Cantabria, where this family came from originally.

Other toponymic surnames include, León, Avila, Palencia, Madrid, Sevilla, Badajoz, Oñate, Ayala, Orozco, Trujillo, Zamora, Burgos, Códoba, Garnica, Soria, etc, which are towns and cities in Spain.  Others include Peña (a massive boulder), Río/Ríos (river/rivers), Barranca/Barranco (cliff), Vega (flat lowland), Sierra (mountain range), Huerta (field), etc, etc.  But I digress.

Here's yet another example, of my own direct male line, the source of my last name, which was once Hernández Gamiño:

Domingo HERNÁNDEZ GAMIÑO    b: 1595 in Trujillo, Cáceres, Extremadura, España
Juana GÓMEZ DE ESPEJO              b: ca 1601 in Celaya, Guanajuato

1.  Domingo HERNÁNDEZ GAMIÑO    b: ca 1621 in León, Guanajuato
2.  Isabel GÓMEZ DE ESPEJO  b: ca 1624 in León, Guanajuato
3.  Nicolás GAMIÑO  b: ca 1626 in León, Guanajuato
4.  Cristóbal HERNÁNDEZ GAMIÑO  b: ca 1628 in León, Guanajuato
5.  Blas HERNÁNDEZ GAMIÑO   b: ca 1630 in León, Guanajuato
6.  Margarita de ESPEJO b: ca 1632 in León, Guanajuato
7.  Juana GÓMEZ DE ESPEJO   b: ca 1634 in León, Guanajuato
8.  Anna GÓMEZ DE ESPEJO    b: ca 1636 in León, Guanajuato
9.  Juan HERNÁNDEZ DE ESPEJO    b: ca 1639 in León, Guanajuato
10. Diego GÓMEZ GAMIÑO  (aka Diego Gómez de Espejo) b: ca 1641 in León, Guanajuato
11. María GÓMEZ DE ESPEJO   b: ca 1643 in León, Guanajuato
12. Tomás HERNÁNDEZ GAMIÑO  b: ca 1646 in León, Guanajuato

Joseph, you even asked me this about this once upon a time; asking me why they all used different names, some of them Hernández Gamiño, Gamiño, Gómez de Espejo, Espejo, Gómez Gamiño, or Hernández de Espejo.  The answer: Because each individual felt like it.  It's that simple.  Back in those days you were free to choose which of your ancestral names you would call yourself.  In this family most of the men chose Hernández, except #10, Diego who used Gómez de Espejo or Gómez Gamiño.  His descendants became Gómez, and not Hernández.  All the women used either de Espejo or Gómez de Espejo, which in itself is a combination of their maternal grandfather's surname, Domínguez de Espejo, and their grandmother's surname, Gómez Maldonado.  The Gómez de Espejo continued to be used among the women for several generations to come.  #3 Nicolás Gamiño, had some sons called just Gamiño and others Hernández.

Even more recently, is the case of the three María de Velasco's.  # 4 above, my direct ancestor, Cristóbal Hernández Gamiño married in 1653, María de Velasco.  Cristóbal and María de Velasco had a daughter who called herself María de Velasco, namesake of her mother.  She in turn married Joseph Tello de Orozco (md. ca. 1679), descendant of the above mentioned Francisco Tello de Orozco.  Joseph and María's daughter also called herself María de Velasco, thus namesake of her mother and grandmother, as well as María Tello de Orozco.  This third María de Velasco married Francisco Martín del Campo in Ayo el Chico, Jalisco, in 1718.

One of my ancestors, Juana Enríquez, was the daughter of Pedro Enríquez and Isabel de Calderón (Isabel de Islas y Calderón).  I located their marriage, 3 July 1667, in Nochistlán, Zacatecas, and noticed that it said the following:  "Ysabel Calderón, hija de Diego Delgadillo y Petrona de Yslas..."  What??  If Isabel was the daughter of a Delgadillo and an Islas, then where did Calderón come from?  I continued to research this family and learned that the parents of Diego Delgadillo were Juan Delgadillo and María de la Concepción de Islas, while the parents of Petrona de Yslas were Bernardino González de Islas and Mariana Catarina Moscoso de Sandoval (aka Mariana de Sandoval).  Well...still no Calderón, and no closer to figuring out where that surname came from.  It seemed to have just come from right out of the blue.  Until I found out that Juan Delgadillos parents were Diego Delgadillo and Isabel de Calderón (aka Isabel de Calderón Orozco).  The second Isabel de Calderón (the more recent one) had been the great-granddaughter and namesake of the first and older, Isabel de Calderón.  The surname had jumped across four generations.  

This is evidence that people, mostly females mind you, would often use their mother's, grandmother's, or even one of their great-grandmother's surnames and claim it as their own.  This would happen more often if they also had the same first name.  They would also do this if the surname in question was significant or prominent in some way.  This happened a lot with my Mendoza and Hurtado de Mendoza families, who are one in the same, as well as Hermosillo.

And I could go on and on and on and on....  But I think you get my point.

And as a late arrival from Avalon once said, "Better late than never"  I would like to comment that I am also my own cousin, several times in fact.  My closest kinship with myself is that of half-seventh cousin (1/2 7 C).  One of my closest common ancestors, in fact the closest, Pedro Vicente Maciel, had two wives.  My mother descends from his first wife, while my father descends from the second wife.  Thus the first generation were half-siblings, and so forth.  I am also my own 7thCousin, once removed (7 C 1 R), 1/2-7 C 1 R, 7 C 2 R, and so on.  I'm even my own cousin up to the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, and 22nd degree.  Even beyond that I think.  So don't be surprised to find out if you have the very same ancestors on several branches of your family.  This is especially true in Los Altos de Jalisco where the native Spanish population resisted blending with Indians, thus avoiding Mestizaje, and would only marry amongst themselves.  Family would continually marry within the same family, sometimes for several generations.  Proof of this is the great wealth of marriage Dispensations available from the Sagrada Mitra de Guadalajara.

Well I hope this helps all of you out there.  Good bye and God bless.

Respectfully, 
Steven Francisco Hernández López