Close Relations on my Family Tree

Sometimes, I forget how few families arrived in Socorro in its early years. According to a letter sent in 1817 to the Governor of New Mexico by Javier Garcia and Anselmo Tafoya, there were 70 families that settled the Socorro area in 1815 or 1816. Although a few other families arrived a few years later, including the Santiago Torres family, there were still not many families around. And many of these families were already related either by blood or by marriage.

In my presentation to the Historical Society of New Mexico Conference this may, I indicated that my fourth great-grandmother Maria Guadalupe Torres married two men who were distant cousins. Guadalupe’s 1st husband Francisco Antonio Garcia Jurado was the half 2nd cousin, once removed of her 2nd husband Pedro Antonio Baca. These two cousins were related through Ramon Garcia Jurado, separately through his two wives.

Francisco Antonio Garcia Jurado is my fourth great-grandfather. Pedro Antonio Baca is not my ancestor.

What I had not realized, though, until I read a blog post written by my cousin Maurine Pool, was that Guadalupe’s brother Anastacio Torres married the niece of Guadalupe’s 1st husband Francisco Antonio Garcia Jurado. It wasn’t that I didn’t have that information in my database - after all Francisco Antonio’s niece was my 3rd great-grandmother - but I did not make the connection until I read the blog post.

As I said, many of these families were closely related either by blood or by marriage. No wonder I have so many instances of pedigree collapse in my ancestry.

Sources:

Robert J. C. Baca, “The Torres, Garcia and Baca Families and the Defense of the Socorro Land Grant”, unpublished paper presented at the 2012 Historical Society of New Mexico Annual Conference, May 5, 2012.

Maurine Pool, “Crespin’s Line”, Torres Family Genealogy and History Blog, , retrieved May 28, 2012.