Some notes on my March 21st NMGS presentation

Meeting a Torres relative

Yesterday, I did a presentation for the New Mexico Genealogical Society titled "Maria Guadalupe Torres: One Woman's Life in 19th Century Socorro, New Mexico". The program was presented at the El Camino Real International Heritage Center, 35 miles south of Socorro, New Mexico. There were about 35 - 40 people who attended, many from Albuquerque. Interestingly enough, only one couple was there from Socorro.

One of the Socorro residents, Barbara, attended my presentation on the off-hand chance that she was related to my subject. Maria Guadalupe Torres sounded familiar to her. She was right. She is related to the subject of my presentation, and, of course, related to me. When we discussed our relationship, it ended up that she is my 1st cousin, twice removed. She is my grandmother's cousin. Her father Jose Epitacio Torres, Jr. was my great-grandmother Delfina (Torres) Zimmerly's brother.

When I showed her a list of Maria Guadalupe Torres' descendants, she noticed that her father was not listed. He should have been listed as a son of Maria Guadalupe's granddaughter, Maria Guadalupe (Padilla) Torres. Barbara mentioned that he was shown in a photo taken on my great-grandmother Delfina's wedding day. In that photo, Delfina's family are shown standing in front of her father's home. In photo her mother is holding a baby. The baby is identified as "Jose (Joe) Torres". Since I did not have him in my database, I decided to do a little more research. (Photo Link.)

It turns out that Jose Epitacio Torres, Jr. was most probably not in that photo. The was taken on my great-grandparent's wedding day, 22 April 1908. I went back to look at the 1920 United States Census record of my 2nd great-grandfather Jose Epitacio Torres' family. I already posted this record online (link). Joe E. Torres, Jr. is listed as being 7 years old in the record. He is not listed in the 1910 Census (link). This means that he was born circa 1913. He was born after the photo was taken. I'm not quite sure who is the baby in the photo. According to my information, Jose, Jr.'s next older sibling is another Maria Guadalupe Torres. She was born on 4 February 1906, which would made her nearly two years old when the photo was taken - definately not a baby.

One other thing - it appears that Jose Epitacio, Sr., and Maria Guadalupe (Padilla) Torres had another child - Felipe. He is listed in both the 1910 and 1920 censuses. It appears that he was born circa 1901.

I have updated my genealogy database to include both Jose, Jr. and Felipe Torres.


Clearing up the first name and surname confusion

* Maria Guadalupe Torres

In reading this post, you may have noticed that there are three women named Maria Guadalupe Torres. In fact, Barbara thought I was doing a presentation on her grandmother. However, what the speech was about is actually her 2nd great-grandmother.

1.) Maria Guadalupe Torres was born on 17 February 1812 in Los Garcias, a plaza of Belen, New Mexico. Her parents were Santiago Torres and Maria Barbara Ortiz. Guadalupe's husband was Francisco Antonio Garcia on 23 February 1825 in Socorro, New Mexico. He was the son of Francisco Xavier Garcia Jurado and Maria Josefa Sanchez. One of their children was Juana Maria Garcia, one of my third great-grandmothers. After her first husband's death, Maria Guadalupe Torres married her second husband Pedro Antonio Baca, the son of Juan Dionosio Baca and Maria Rita Pino. Guadalupe and Pedro were married on 24 October 1834 in Socorro, New Mexico. In all, Guadalupe had 11 children from her two husbands.

2.) Maria Guadalupe Padilla was born in April 1869. She was the daughter of the aforementioned Juana Maria Garcia and her husband Felipe Padilla. Maria Guadalupe Padilla married Jose Epitacio Torres on 25 April 1889 in Socorro, New Mexico. Jose Epitacio Torres was the son of Jose Valentin Torres and Maria Josefa Ortiz. In marrying Jose Epitacio Torres, Maria Guadalupe Padilla became Maria Guadalupe Torres.

3.) Maria Guadalupe Torres was born on 4 February 1906, the daughter of the aforementioned Jose Epitacio Torres and Maria Gudalupe Padilla.

* Two Separate Torres Families

One of the problems that I've come across in my research is that there are many surnames that show up again and again in my family. One of those surnames is Torres. I would like to clarify the confusion on two of those Torres families.

1.) As I mentioned above, Maria Guadalupe Torres (# 1 ) was the daughter of Santiago Torres and Maria Barbara Ortiz. Santiago was the son of Juaquin Torres and Isabel Chaves, who were born circa 1740 and 1754, respectively. I do not know who Juaquin's parents were. Some researchers have assigned certain people as his parents, but I have not found enough documention to make a conclusion. However, he is probably related to the Torres families who founded Belen, since he himself was a resident of Belen and commissioner of one of Belen's plazas.

2.) Jose Epitacio Torres (husband of Maria Guadalupe Padilla , # 3 above) is a descendant of Cristobal Torres. Cristobal was Epitacio's 4th great-grandfather. The lineage is shown below:

Direct Descendants of Cristobal Torres
1 Cristobal Torres b: Bet. 1665 - 1666 in New Mexico
.. +Angela de Leyva
.. 2 Diego de Torres b: Abt. 1692 d: Bef. 1758
...... +Maria Martin Serrano de Salazar m: Abt. 1712 d: Aft. September 1741
....... 3 Nicolas Torres b: 06 December 1731 in San Juan, New Mexico
........... +Francisca Padilla b: 08 December 1742 in Isleta, NM m: 07 February 1762 in Isleta, NM
............ 4 Agustin Torres b: Bet. 1776 - 1777 in Isleta, NM
................ +Maria Felipa Josefa Bonifacia Baca b: 01 May 1787 in Belen, NM m: Aft. 05 August 1806 d: 20 April 1838 in Socorro, NM
................. 5 Simon Torres b: Abt. 1815
..................... +Maria Monica Abeyta b: 16 May 1817 in Socorro, NM m: 27 March 1835 in Socorro, NM
...................... 6 Jose Valentin Torres b: 23 February 1836 in La Joya, NM
.......................... +Maria Josefa Ortiz b: 30 March 1837 in Santa Fe, NM
........................... 7 Jose Epitacio Torres b: 23 May 1858


Diego de Torres and his son Nicolas were founders of Belen. Nicolas' son Agustin was one of the first re-settlers of Socorro.

Middle Names

One of the questions that I got at the presentation on Saturday is "why do you use everyone's middle names when talking about them?" My answer, because every woman in New Mexico was a Maria, and every man was a Juan or Jose. They usually went by their middle names instead. Therefore, my grandmother Maria Pabilita (Zimmerly) Baca went by Pablita, not Maria.

Links

Here are a few links that refer to the families mentioned above:

* Crespin Torres and His Aunt Guadalupe - this discusses how Maria Guadalupe Torres raised my 2nd great-grandfather Crespin Torres. That's another story that I discussed in my presentation.

* Researching Another Baca Family for This Month's Presentation - this discusses Maria Guadalupe Torres' family with her husband Pedro Antonio Baca

* Valentino and Jose Epitacio Torres Household Census Records

* Wedding of Estevan Zimmerly and Delfina Torres

* Jose Epitacio Torres posts on my blog - this list of blog posts was produced by searching for the name "epitacio" on my blog. Enjoy!