Historical facts from records

["Erlinda Castanon-Long" <longsjourney@...>]

I'm working on baptism and marriage records for my Gutierrez and 
Alvares del Castillo families who lived in Tamazula Jalisco from 
1760's to my grandmothers departer to the states in 1923.  I found 
them in Chilchota Michoacan  before that going back to about 1620 or 
so including the maternal lines Morfin, Valencia and Lievana. In 
this town I've found 3 different lines of Gutierrez.  Gutierrez de 
Raya, Gutierrez de Robles and just plain Gutierrez, my line with 
intermarriages with the other two Gutierrez families.  My line of 
Gutierrez are Mestiso with the other two being Espanol.

I'm finding in the records facts that I hadn't seen before and was 
wondering if others have encountered them in other states too.  I'm 
find exclavos Espanoles, that was something I had not encountered 
before.  How would a Spaniard end up a slave?  Another finding is 
how many babies were baptised at home by a regular person when they 
were afraid the baby was going to die or in danger and then later 
recorded by the church. Another thing I found was home marriages, 
usually the home of the bride or groom. One more custom which the 
group helped me understand was the females taking their mothers 
surname while the males took the father surname.  I've even found 
records where the females use their grandmothers surname making 
finding families a real challenge. I've also noticed in the records 
that the person writing the record frequently has his mother, sister 
or himself as the witness or patrino. They were usually not from the 
town simply appearing with their families in the records for long 
periods of time.  Were they emloyees of the church or the city?

Sometimes doing records brings as many questions as answers.  I have 
found that many of the people from this area of Michoacan including 
the towns of Tangancicuaro and Tlasasalca moved to Jalisco.  Im my 
Gutierrez families case they went to the Periban area by 1780 then 
on to Ranchos de los Palos Altos, on to Atoyac then Ciudad 
Gusman/Zapotlan El Grande and then on to Zapotiltic and Tamazula by 
1792 where the first marriage record appears .  Following their 
journey has been very hard with so much moving in such a short time 
period. Unfortunately finding Mestisos, Mulatos and Indio's is much 
harder than following Espanol families so I think I've gone as far 
back as I can on the Gutierrez line.... so on to finding the Espanol 
Morfin and Valencia lines.. I think genealogy is addictive and the 
journey never ending.....
I'm looking forward to hearing your shares on what you've found in 
records that was unusual or informative.
Linda in Everett