I have been researching many surnames in the areas of Villa Hidalgo and Paso de Sotos (in Jalisco) and in Juiquinaqui and Cieneguilla (across the border in Aguascalientes). Ancestral surnames are LUEVANOS, SERNA, RUBALCABA, MARTINEZ, YANEZ, GOMES. The parish records for Villa Hidalgo seem to start in 1812. Before that, we have to go to Cieneguilla or Teocaltiche. Has anyone found a history written about Cieneguilla or Villa Hidlago? A description of the area? I am trying to construct a family history.

Couples living around 1800 in Villa Hidalgo, Paso de Sotos, and Cieneguilla include:

Estanislao Luevano and Maria Salome Gomes

their son, Jose Pablo Luevano, born 1816 in Villa Hidalgo.

Leocadia Serna and Romana Diaz

their daughter, Manuela Serna, born 1828 in Villa Hidalgo.

Jose Maria Martinez and Paula Lopez

their son, Jose Timoteo Martinez, born 1826 in Villa Hidalgo.

Juan Manual robalcaba and Maria Franceska Yanez.

their daughter, Maria Fermina Rubalcaba, born 1832 in Villa Hidalgo.

Thanks for suggestions.

John Schmal
(JohnnyPJ@aol.com)

Thanks for the message, Rick. cineguilla is just slightly southeast of Calvillo and is in the next municipio (which I believe is the municipio of Aguascalientes). I've been thinking of checking the Calvillo church registers for some of my deadends. Fortunately, the Cieneguilla church registers go all the way back to 1716.

Have you ever found out the meaning of the surname ROBALCABA / RUVALCAVA / RUBALCABA? I heard that it is a Basque surname. It would also be interesting to find out when the earliest Robalcaba's came to the area. I have one family Robalcaba family traced back to 1722 and plan to go back farther.

Are the Calvillo church records circa 1750 to 1800 indexed? Thanks

John

Hi John,
I'm not sure where Cieneguilla and Villa Hidalgo are, but I've been doing some research in the town of Calvillo, Aguascalientes and the names Serna, Luevano, Rubalcava and Martinez appear VERY frequently in church records there. They are probably the 4 most repeated names. Thought you'd be interested...

good luck,
Ric Torres

Hello Rick & John .. You'll find that the Calvillo records are pretty good. They are indexed far better than some of the other areas. I have been researching Calvillo, Aquacalientes, Teocaltiche and Totatiche Jalisco, and Purepero Michoacan. I have been Dbasing all the records from Purepero and have bits and pieces of Calvillo, Totatiche and Teocaltiche done.

But I do have extensive listings. Confirmations Listings 1798-1886 from Calvillo, Several Baptism and Marriage indexes etc..... Send me what names your looking for and estimated time frame and I'll see what I can come up with for you... The surnames above are includes all of the towns above except for Purepero... That's another listing....

Let me know what you need..

Hi John,

No, I'm not sure of the origins of Rubalcava, although I would not be surprised to hear that it is a Basque name. Obviously there was a very strong migration of Spaniards and other Europeans to that central/Bajio part of Mexico (as well as other parts). As far as settlement patterns go, I have not confirmed this but my hunch (based on prelim research) is that the earliest settlers of the region came up from Mexico City, through what is now Jalisco and set up the first outpost in a place called Nochistlan (Zacatecas). They named the settlement Guadalajara, but had to retreat/abandon it due to conflicts with the indigenous people. So the settlement of Guadalajara was moved south to its present location in Jalisco. Nochistlan still exists however (they didn't completely abandon it) and I believe it may be a good source of local data pre-1700. It is in Zacatecas, just across the border from Calvillo.

Calvillo's records are good, but not great. I think the LDS Church has done a fair job of indexing it, although there are holes in the archives. I think they date back only to the 1750s, but i'm not certain.

Do you have any sense of the immigration records into Mexico? I haven't gone that far back in my own family history (i'm still working circa 1780), but i wonder how the Spanish provincial government tracked immigration flows into Mexico. Are there records for cargo ships, etc? Did the ships arrive at one port in particular? Was there a documentation process for immigrants? Any thoughts on this would be helpful.

many thanks,
Ric

Hi,
While I can't comment on the origin of the Robalcaba surname nor give you the names of the first to hit Mexico, I will offer the two earliest Robalcabas I've found in the area. I've done quite a bit of research in the Aguascalientes area & have found many ancestors in nearby Teocaltiche.

I've extracted all Spanish baptismals, marriages & burials from the first parish books available in Aguas. (from LDS microfilm #0299421, 1616-1660) and would be happy to look up names if you needed. I am also in the process of extracting baptismals and marriages from the next two films (#0299422 and #0299823, respectively).

As for Robalcaba: I have found a Matheo de Robalcaba, a widowed Spaniard, son of Alonso de Rovalcaba & Beatris Lopes (who were from the town of Teocaltiche), who married his second wife Luisa de Avila (also widowed), daughter of Alonso Ximenez & Cathalina de Ayala, (who were from "los llanos de Silao") on the 14th of June 1622. Matheo's sister, Maria Gonzales, is listed as both a witness to the marriage, and both she and her husband, Pedro de Guerta, are listed as padrinos in Matheo's "velacion" which occurred 22 Nov. 1623. Maria's surname suggests that one of her grandmothers may have been named Gonzales. This is all the data I have on him at this point.
This info. comes from the IGI (LDS) Film #0299421, p. 187 (Aguascalientes marriages).

I also found a baptism of a little Spanish girl named Sebastiana on 19 July 1639 in Teocaltiche. She was the daughter of Joan de Robalcaba and Mari Lopez. Her padrinos were Francisco de Alderete & dona Elvira de Padilla of Teocaltiche. This info from IGI (LDS) Film # 0634015, p.3 (Teocaltiche baptisms). This Lopez may tie in to Matheo Robalcaba's mother's lines.

Hope one day this may help. If I run across anything else, I'll keep you in mind.

Connie Garcia Dominguez
El Paso, TX

Thank you, Connie. You have certainly done a lot of work. The Robalcaba's of interest to me are the ancestors of Maria Fermina Rubalcaba, born July 8, 1832 in Villa Hidlago, Jalisco, daughter of Juan Manual Robalcaba and Maria Franceska Yanez. Juan and Maria Franceska were married Oct. 1, 1828. I'm not sure if the came from Teocaltiche or not.

Juan's father may have been Antioio Robalcaba, his mother a Manuela....as you probably know already, Villa Hidalgo is just slightly to the northwest of Teocaltiche, and Villa Hidalgo's parish registers start in 1816, which means some people from there may have gone to church in Teocaltiche before that year. I know that some went to church in Cieneguilla, across the border in Aguascalientes.

Also of interest are the ancestors of Rita Quitaria Rovalcava, born Jan. 22, 1729 in Aguascalientes. Parents were Juan de Rovalcava and Sebastiana Lopez, who were married in Aguascalientes on Feb. 15, 1722. The marriage doc. did not list their parents. I am going to start checking the baptism registers circa 1700 for their baptism records.

I teach a class at the local LDS library about Hispanic Research Methods and a young gal named Nancy Robalcaba showed up the other day.

I have only briefly checked the Teocaltiche baptism registeries, but will have to look more thoroughly because some of the Villa Hidalgo people I have may go back there.
I have a Manuela Serna who was born 12/26/1828 in Villa Hidlago, daughter of Leocadia Serna and Ramona Diaz, and I suspect her parents may have come from the Teocaltiche area. Also have a Jose Timoteo Martinez, born Feb. 7, 1826, son of Jose Maria Martinez and Paula Lopez and grandson of Cayetano Martinez and Luciano Lopez....these may be from Teocaltiche too.

I admire your fortitude in such a task.

Thanks again.

John

Antonio Martinez,born 1854 in Aquacalientes, Mexico.He is my grandfather, I am trying to find out his parents first names were,and what town in Aquacalientes he was born in.
His first marriage was with a women of the name of Serapia, don't know her last name before she married him.He later on married my grandmother whose name was Raphaela Montez and had five daughters from him.Raphaela was born in Zacatecas, Mexico. They married in San Gabriel,Calif around 1912.If you could possibly help me find some information,I would be so thankful.
Olivia Rita Moreno

This info is from the book "Aguascalientes: Guia para visitar la Ciudad y el Estado," by Alejandro Topete del Valle, 1973. I paraphrased & translated:

…the ancient Hacienda San José de Cieneguilla [St. Joseph of the Marshes], worth visiting for its splendid dwelling of colonial architecture, typical of rural construction during the 18th century……The beginnings of this hacienda date to the 1500's and the colonization by the Spaniards of this area of Nueva Galicia. The site was known as the Estancia de Guentitlán, near the Indian pueblo of Xiconaque. It passed through various hands, and finally was sold to the Jesuits in 1637. Part of this vast hacienda was sold in 1654, the new portion was known as Las Milpillas [the cornfields]. La Cieneguilla remained in Jesuit hands until 1767, when the Jesuits were expelled from Mexico…

I'm researching CALVILLO, URSUA, PONCE in Aguascalientes, c. 1700's.

Gloria

Actually all those names are is Calvillo, I'm not sure about the Luebana??

Robalcalva and Lopes sound familiar.. hmmm... Let me check the records I have... since they are confirmation records they give you a good insight as to who you will find in the town... I believe I have Carrion but from Purepero Michoacan.... Some of the records are sparse for the time frame I am looking but so far it sounds pretty good.... Pimentel and Carrion Around 1784.

Let me flip through the pages for you... I don't have all of Calvillo Dbased yet... I've been remapping Purepero and it seems like it is taking forever...

I hope to have a website up soon.... but give me a few days and I'll get back to you.