The Miera family and their connection to my family

I would like to say that I am descended from Bernardo Miera y Pacheco, but, alas, I am not. According to Fray Angelico Chavez, Miera:

· was a captain of the Calvary of Cantabria, and a native of Valle de Carriedo of the Mountains of Burgos in Spain;

· was the son of Don Luis de Miera who served under the Conde de Auilar in the Army of Philip V. His mother Isabel Ana Pacheco was the daughter of Don Antonio Pacheco, who was the Governor of Navarra and Colonel of the “Terzio” of Lombardy. Don Pacheco died in the battle of Mantua;

· arrived in New Mexico in the mid 1700s, and was the Alcalde Mayor (mayor) of Galisteo and Pecos in 1756;

· tried to recast, and failed, to recast old ordnance pieces in Santa Fe;

· carved the wooden statue of St. Philip the Apostle on the high altar of San Felipe Pueblo; and,

· accompanied Fathers Dominguez and Veléz Escalante as guard commander and explorer on their tour of exploration, from which he created a detail map of New Mexico in 1779. This is probably his most important and lasting accomplishment.[i]

Yvonne T. is a descendant of Bernardo Miera y Pacheco. She sent me an email recently detailing her family tree. Although I don’t want to show detailed information about her family due to privacy concerns, I will say that her 2nd great-grandparents are Mauricio Miera and Placida Montoya. Bernardo was Mauricio’s 2nd great grandfather. Coincidentally, Maurcio and Placida Miera are also the ancestors of some of my cousins.

As readers of my blog know, Samuel Zimmerly, a Civil War soldier, was my second great grandfather. He and his wife Maria Paubla Torres had six children. (Click on this link.)One of their children was Estevan Zimmerly, my great grandfather. Another child was Teresa Zimmerly, who married Estanislado Miera, a son of Mauricio Miera. Estanislado Miera and Teresa Zimmerly had at least four children, who had a number of descendants themselves which are my distant cousins.

Yvonne T. is descended from another child of Maurcio and Placida Miera: Guadalupe Miera, who married Salomon Chavez. Yvonne has provided me with further information about her family.
I’ve created an ahnentafel table for Estanislado Miera showing nine generations of this family. Click on this link to see it.

[i] Fray Angélico Chavez, Origins of New Mexico Families: A Genealogy of the Spanish Colonial Period, Revised Edition (Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico, 1992), 299-230.