The Baca / Douglas Genealogy and Family History Blog

15 March 2012

Possible parents of Pedro Tafoya

Earlier today, a few of us on the New Mexico Genealogical Society's Facebook page were discussing the family of Pedro Tafoya (see yesterday's post on this blog.) One of the commentors on the Facebook page suggested that Pedro is the son of Lugarda Tafoya and Juan Sayoga. I looked at my genealogy database, and discovered that I wrote the following about this conjecture that was first thought of by Fray Angelico Chavez:


In Chavez's "Origins of New Mexico Families", he conjectures that Pedro Tafoya is the son of Lugarda Tafoya, a daughter of Antonio Tafoya Altamirando. It appears that the reason he believes this to be true is because Pedro has a daughter by the name of Maria Lugarda Tafoya. Possibly she is named after her grandmother.

He notes that three of Antonio's daughter were mentioned in 1732, one being the elder Lugarda Tafoya. At the time she was the widow of Juan "Gallego", (Chavez's emphasis) who Chavez believes to actually have the surname of Sayago. In another part of his book, Chavez once again notes that he believes Lugarda's husband to be Juan de Sayago, whose cousin married Lugarda's brother. Chavez also believes that Lugarda's children adopted her Tafoya surname after her husband's death.

In the 1750 Santa Fe Census, "Lugarda Tafoia" is shown in a household of 10 named individuals as well as 5 unnamed children. The named individuals includes one "Pedro", who I assume is a Tafoya. The entry reads as such:

"Lugarda Tafoia; Margarita Tafoia; Maria Tafoia; Pedro; Josseph; Miguel; Manuel Tafoia; Juana Maria; Juan Tafoia; Maria de Jesus;Maria; 5 children"

Is this the widowed Lugarda Tafoya with her children, which includes Pedro Tafoya? Does this list include grandchildren, siblings and/or cousins of Lugarda? These are questions that should be answered with further research.

Bibliography:

Chavez, Angelico. "Origins of New Mexico Families: A Genealogy of the Spanish Colonial Period" Revised Ed. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1992, pp. 191, 291-292.

Olmsted, Virginia Langham, compiler. "Spanish and Mexican Censuses of New Mexico: 1750 - 1830" Albuquerque: New Mexico Genealogical Society,1981, p. 9.

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