Descendants of Toribio Garcia Jurado

Andres Armijo, the author of "Por Constancia /So that it may be validated: Family History in the Rio Abajo", informed me recently that he is related to me. I already knew that we were related by marriage - his great uncle married my great aunt, and therefore we have mutual cousins. I also figured that we were related to each other in other ways. After all, we are both of New Mexico stock and we both come from the Rio Abajo. But even though I read his book, I didn't realize that he had information that showed that we are 7th cousins.

In his book, Andres indicated that he is the descended of Joseph Enrique Chaves, a soldier from Belen who enlisted in Isleta Pueblo in 1808. Joseph Enrique Chaves was the son of Santiago Chaves and Maria de la luz Garcia. Maria de la luz Garcia was the daughter of Toribio Garcia Jurado and Antonia Teresa Gutierrez. Based on my extrapolation of the information that he presented, Andres is the 6th great-grandson of Toribio and Antonia (see pages 102-104 of his book.) I, too, am the 6th great-grandson of Toribio and Antonia - three times - and their 7th great-grandson once.  That makes Andres and me 7th cousins and 7th cousins, once removed.

Andres' ancestors probably stayed in Belen for a few generations at least. My ancestors were the original (re) settlers of Socorro in 1815.

In my two articles in the September 2011 and March 2012 New Mexico Genealogist - "The Early Settlers of the Socorro Land Grant: An 1818 List (Parts I and II)", I mention two specific ancestors of mine who are the children of Toribio Garcia Jurado and Antonia Teresa Gutierrez. Francisco Xavier Garcia Jurado, married three times, was one of the instrumental founders of Socorro. In 1817 and 1818, he petitioned the governor to get title of the Socorro Land Grant for the settlers. He was listed in an 1818 list of Socorro residents who contributed goods to a military campaign against the Navajos. (Part I - page 117.) I am descended from Francisco Xavier's second wife Maria Josefa Sanchez, who was dead by 1816.  (New Mexico Roots, Volume 4, page 616.)

Francisco Xavier's sister Maria Trinidad Garcia Jurado arrived Socorro by 1818 with her husband Feliciano Montoya. Feliciano Montoya was listed on the 1818 list, which confirms that he was living in Socorro at the time. (Part II - page 12.)

Descendants of Francisco Xavier Garcia Jurado include my second great-grandmother Maria Guadalupe Padilla, who married my 2nd great-grandfather Jose Epitacio Torres. They were the parents of Delfina Torres, who married Estevan Zimmerly - my great-grandparents - my maternal grandmother's parents. Another descendant is Jose Crespin Torres, my 2nd great grandfather on my father's side, who married Maria Andrea Trujillo.

Descendants of Maria Trinidad Garcia Jurado include Maria Pabla Torres who married Samuel Zimmerly, who were the parents of the aforementioned Estevan Zimmerly (which means that Maria Pabla Torres and Maria Guadalupe Padilla were 3rd cousins, and their children - the married couple Estevan and Delfina were fourth cousins.) Also, my 3rd great-grandfather, Jose Valentine Torres, the father of the aforementioned Jose Epitacio Torres, was a great-grandson of Maria Trinidad. This means that Jose Epitacio Torres and his wife were 2nd cousins, once removed. Also Josefa Abeyta, Jose Epitacio Torres' first wife, was also a great-granddaughter of Maria Trinidad Garcia Jurado, which made this couple also second cousins. Luckily, I'm not descended from her, too.

If you wish to get proof of these relationships, please contact me.

The Garcia Jurado family is one of my favorite families, partially because I'm descended from them many times and also because they are just interesting people. I mean, just look at Ramon Garcia Jurado (Toribio's famther), Ramon's daughter Petronila Garcia Jurado (not mentioned here, but I wrote about her in the June 2014 New Mexico Genealogist) and his grandson Francisco Xavier Garcia Jurado. All of these people had colorful lives. You can read about them in articles that I've written and through books such as Origins of New Mexico Families (by Fray Angelico Chavez), The Spanish Recolonization of New Mexico (Esquibel and Colligan), and "Spanish Colonial Lives" (Tigges and Salazar.)