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Category: Genealogy

Nombrando La Muerte

Nombrando La Muerte

As a consequence of the so-called Spanish Flu, in November and December of 1918, La Revista de Taos recorded the names of those who had died in villages throughout Taos County, including Arroyo Hondo, Arroyo Seco, Cañón, Chamisal, Taos, Ranchos, Talpa, Rio Pueblo, Llano de San Juan, Llano Largo/Santa Barbara, Córdovas, Picuris, Peñasco, Valle, Trampas, Questa, and Cerro.

HIPÓLITO ESPINOSA – And the Old Spanish Trail

HIPÓLITO ESPINOSA – And the Old Spanish Trail

Imagine that this is how it must have looked when, in the Fall of 1842, 19 New Mexican families gathered along the Chama River in the grassy fields below Abiquiu. They would be the first colonist settlers to set forth on the Camino de California or the California Road – later to become known as The Old Spanish Trail. CAYETANO HIPÓLITO DE JESUS ESPINOSA, our great, great, grandfather, had recruited family and friends from El Rito and the surrounding region with the offer of free land in California, and he would help lead them to their new promised land. This is his story of how this all came to be.

Community Cuentistas – Mapping the Storytellers in Juan B. Rael’s ‘Cuentos Españoles de Colorado y Nuevo Mexico’

Community Cuentistas – Mapping the Storytellers in Juan B. Rael’s ‘Cuentos Españoles de Colorado y Nuevo Mexico’

One of the core lessons I learned from my grandmother was that the best storytellers are those that have mastered the ability to lean in and to listen. In this, I think of the work of now renowned linguist and folklorist, Juan Bautista Rael. As a native son of the region, he had no doubt been raised on stories, however, in the summer of 1930, he returned home, freshly minted with a Master’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley….

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Dancing Her-Story

Dancing Her-Story

In this post, we reveal how there are many ways to tell a story. In this instance, we share how a memory that is passed from generation to generation is taken up by the writer, who inspires the choreographer. Each telling building upon the last, developed to sustain the power of memory and history.

The Hunt for Nicolás

The Hunt for Nicolás

New Mexicans with Colonial ancestry can be traced to the early settlers who traveled from the “old world”, as well as those of Native American and Mestizo roots. Origins of New Mexico Families by fray Angelico Chávez as well as In El Camino Real De Tierra Adentro – Five Waves of Settlersby J.A. Esquibel, C. Preston, and D. Preston outline these settlers and settlement timelines. Three of the five main waves of settlements during the Colonial period, the Juan de Oñate settlement…

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Los Argüellos – Connecting Migrations and Memories

Los Argüellos – Connecting Migrations and Memories

My interest about my family history began as a young child during our annual visits to my grandfather Jose Tiburcio Argüello and Antonia (Tonita) Cordova Argüello’s farm in Llano de San Juan Nepomuceno, now known as Llano, New Mexico. During our visits to my grand-parents farm my grandfather always reminded me of how our ancestors were the ones who settled all the villages in the surrounding area many years ago. In 1946 after my father Clarence Argüello completed his military…

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Reflections of Africa in New Mexico

Reflections of Africa in New Mexico

Every village has a remarkable story and Las Trampas, named for the River of Traps that flows through it, is no different. This village in northern New Mexico was settled in 1751 and holds the legacy of the remarkable families that gathered ground, tilled it and through the centuries made community. These families had come from Santa Fe, but at least one of their progenitors had himself carried an older origin story, one that reflected a journey of thousands of…

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Recovering Ancestral DNA in Abiquiú

Recovering Ancestral DNA in Abiquiú

As a genetic genealogist, much of my work is done behind a computer screen or amidst a stack of books. In the Fall of 2018, I was invited by Isabel W. Trujillo, the Pueblo de Abiquiú Library and Cultural Center Director, to assist her in conducting work related to a group of Abiquiú community members with long standing genealogical and historical ties to the Pueblo of Abiquiú who also identify as genízaro or genízaro descendants.